[News] The extraordinary Palestinians of Jenin will not surrender

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeastmonitor.com
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230626-the-extraordinary-palestinians-of-jenin-will-not-surrender/>
The extraordinary Palestinians of Jenin will not surrender
Dr Ramzy Baroud - June 26, 2023
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[image: image.png]

A large Israeli military force raided
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/19/sraeli-forces-helicopter-raid-jenin-west-bank-palestinians-killed>
the northern Palestinian town and refugee camp of Jenin on 19 June, from
multiple directions. Not only did the raid fail, though, but it also
backfired. Moreover, it also created a precedent in Israel's decades-long
war on the ever-rebellious Palestinian region.

Israel killed
<https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/palestinian-teen-dies-of-wounds-from-israeli-fire-in-jenin-death-toll-rises-to-7/2927618>
eight Palestinians and wounded 91 more, following hours of fighting
involving Israeli soldiers on the one hand, and unified Palestinian
resistance groups on the other. The Israelis only admitted
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-killed-as-heavy-clashes-erupt-during-idf-raid-in-jenin/>
to eight of its soldiers being wounded, with some Israeli media outlets
speaking of critical injuries among the invading troops and others claiming
only moderate wounds.

The reality on the ground, however, suggested that an extraordinary battle
had taken place. Locally produced videos showed
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBL1f1n1N6Y> Israeli military vehicles
blown up, engulfed in clouds of flames and smoke, among them the Panther
troop carrier — known as Nimr — a monstrous, well-fortified vehicle used in
moderate to heavy combat.

A total of seven vehicles, along with a military helicopter were blown up
or damaged in what was meant to be a routine Israeli raid on Jenin, the
like of which has often resulted in the killing of several so-called
"wanted" or "militant" Palestinians, a reference to fighters who resist the
Israeli military occupation.

The military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad — the main resistance forces
in Jenin, along with Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades — issued statements detailing
the courage of their fighters and celebrating the legacy of those who have
been killed in the fighting.

However, not all of the Palestinians killed were fighters. Israel targets
civilians as a matter of course, including children, women, medics and
journalists. One of the Jenin victims was a 15-year-old boy named Ahmed
Saqr. Another was a 14-year-old girl named Sadeel Ghassan Turkman.
Journalist Hazem Emad Nasser was wounded.

One of those killed was Amjad Aref Abu Jaas, the father of a Palestinian
youth, Wasim, who was killed
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/death-toll-from-israeli-assault-on-jenin-rises-to-six-as-palestinian-man-succumbs-to-his-wounds/>
by the Israeli army during a previous invasion of Jenin on 25 January. The
fact that a father and son were both killed by Israel a few months apart is
indicative of the occupation state's relationship with Jenin. Israel sees
Jenin as the beating heart of Palestinian resistance — armed or otherwise —
in the occupied West Bank. Hence, it has been Israel's main target for
decades, simply to downgrade — it can never crush — the intensity of the
resistance there.

Israel knows that crushing Palestinian resistance in Jenin is not possible.
Although the far-right ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing
government are constantly making such a demand, the Israeli military
understands the difficulty — in fact, the impossibility — of such a task.

The Jenin refugee camp was established
<https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/west-bank/jenin-camp> in 1953 by the
UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
The inhabitants of the camp are refugees who were expelled by Zionist
militias and terrorist gangs during the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of
historic Palestine in 1947-48.

The camp has grown in terms of size and population over the years; poverty
and neglect have remained its main features. The history of the camp and
its inhabitants has been the main driver behind their ongoing resistance to
Israeli occupation.

In my 2003 book *Searching Jenin*
<https://www.amazon.it/Searching-Jenin-Eyewitness-Accounts-Invasion/dp/1885942346>,
I detailed the accounts of many of the camp's residents as they described
the legendary battle and the subsequent massacre of April 2002. The pride
and toughness of the residents of Jenin struck me, although I am quite
familiar with the tenacity of the resilience of Palestinians in general.
Despite the killing
<https://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/israel0502-05.htm> of dozens of
its inhabitants, the wounding of hundreds, the arrests of many and the
destruction of entire neighbourhoods, the Jenin residents insisted that the
resistance was not over and that the next generation would continue what
they had begun.

Writing about Jenin in recent months, I realise that many of the family and
clan names are repeated in the last names of the latest fighters and
martyrs, as well as those of journalists, medics and other civilian victims
of Israeli brutality. Somehow Jenin — in near complete isolation, ongoing
suppression and utter neglect — has been resurrected from the ashes of the
past.

I wonder if the young Israeli soldiers who invade Jenin today to kill a few
Palestinians every time they do so actually know anything about that
history; about where these refugees came from, and that, no matter how
violent and well-armed their bloody quests can be, Jenin will never
surrender. Do they know, in other words, that for Israel the battle for
Jenin is already lost?

Jenin terrifies Israel, because it is a representation of a much greater
fight undertaken by Palestinians in besieged Gaza and throughout the
occupied West Bank. They know that all Palestinians are watching the events
underway in Jenin, Nablus and its environs, Al-Khalil (Hebron), Jericho and
other occupied cities. When Jenin resists, Palestinian resistance rises up
in unison.

In April 2002, during Israel's invasion
<https://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/israel0502-05.htm> of major
Palestinian cities across the West Bank, the destruction of Jenin was meant
to be the tragic end to an equally tragic Palestinian story. The survivors
eventually trickled back into the camp, collected and buried the bodies,
often in mass graves, looked after the wounded, and slowly began rebuilding
their shattered lives.

All of Palestine was bleeding; Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Gaza were
reeling under the heavy weight of Israeli tanks, which left massive
destruction in their wake and a high death toll. Israel emerged bruised but
triumphant. The Palestinian Authority's police force was restructured
around Israeli priorities and with US training and funds. Palestine, it was
thought, was well and truly defeated.

But the words of those I interviewed two decades ago turned out to be true:
resistance was not over, and the next generation would soon continue what
had been begun.

Since then, many of the eyewitnesses to whom I spoke have died of old age,
broken hearts and Israeli bullets. Some are in prison. But others are still
alive to remind us that freedom is precious and that the desire for justice
can never be killed or defeated, no matter how great the enemy's firepower
is, or the sacrifices that are required, because it is innate and
God-given; and because Jenin knows its history too well. Its extraordinary
Palestinian residents will not surrender.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
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