[News] ‘Our freedom is close’: why these young Palestinian men choose armed resistance

[Anti-Imperialist News]

mondoweiss.net
<https://mondoweiss.net/2024/10/our-freedom-is-close-why-these-young-palestinian-men-choose-armed-resistance/?ml_recipient=136256203503175366&ml_link=136256198320064222&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2024-10-27&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines+RSS+Automation>
‘Our freedom is close’: why these young Palestinian men choose armed
resistance
Adam Horowitz
October 25, 2024
------------------------------
[image: 631A7834-1536x1024.jpg]

Last month, I met the commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds
Brigades — part of the broader Tulkarem Brigade
<https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/the-tulkarem-brigades-men-in-the-sun-resist-in-search-of-freedom/>
— in an alley in Tulkarem refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank.
Ghaith Radwan greeted me with a slight smile and confident eyes, which did
little to hide his evident caution. He and a number of resistance fighters
in Tulkarem refugee camp welcomed me and the group of journalists for a
brief interview to talk about the one-year anniversary of October 7. The
young fighter, with his rifle in his lap, told us about why he chose to
fight the Israeli army.

Ghaith, only 27 years old, told us about how he joined the ranks of the
resistance in Tulkarem refugee camp over the past year. He talked about
how, after October 7, his dream of traveling freely throughout Palestine
without checkpoints was no longer a faint hope.

“Everyone has the ambition to be free,” he said. “To walk around like in
any independent country without finding a PA checkpoint a few meters ahead
and an Israeli checkpoint after that, and beyond that, settlers attacking.”

“We are living inside a prison,” he explained.

Not long after we met, on Thursday, October 3, Ghaith was one among 20
Palestinians who were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a residential
building
<https://mondoweiss.net/2024/10/bodies-shredded-into-pieces-unprecedented-israeli-airstrike-in-west-bank-kills-20-including-entire-family/>
in the middle of the camp. In addition to Ghaith, Zahi Oufi, commander of
the Hamas-aligned Qassam Brigades in the camp, was also killed.

Along with the fighters, an entire family on the second floor of the
building was wiped out, including the mother, father, two children, and two
grandparents. Ghaith and his comrades had been sitting in a popular café on
the building’s ground floor when an Israeli fighter jet dropped a bomb on
top of the building, marking the first time since the Second Intifada that
such an aircraft had been deployed in the West Bank.

The stories of Ghaith and many of his comrades have been cut short over the
past several months ever since the Israeli army launched a large-scale
military operation in the northern West Bank called “Operation Summer
Camps,” which lasted several weeks
<https://mondoweiss.net/2024/08/the-new-status-quo-after-israels-assault-on-the-northern-west-bank/>
.
[image: Ghaith Shehadeh. a resistance fighter in the Tulkarem Brigade,
September 2024. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)]Ghaith Radwan, a resistance
fighter in the Tulkarem Brigade, September 2024. (Photo: Shatha
Hanaysha) *Fighting
an asymmetric war*

Since October 7, the tactics of Israeli forces in dealing with the West
Bank have changed. The Israeli army began using airstrikes with drones,
apache helicopters, and — for the first time on October 3— fighter jets.
According to the Moata Palestinian Center, the Israeli army has conducted
998 raids across the entire governorate of Tulkarem since October 7.
Additionally, 601 properties belonging to residents were destroyed,
including the total destruction of 125 homes.

During the interview, Ghaith told *Mondoweiss* that their fight with Israel
was unfair due to the vast imbalance of power.

“I face the occupation with a rifle and a few bullets, while they face me
with warplanes, bulldozers, military vehicles, and reconnaissance drones,”
he said. “It has never been a fair fight. The occupation army invades the
camp in full military gear, and all I have is this rifle.”

“I face the occupation with a rifle and a few bullets, while they face me
with warplanes, bulldozers, military vehicles, and reconnaissance drones.
It has never been a fair fight.”
Ghaith Radwan, Palestinian resistance fighter

Ghaith motioned towards the M-16 placed on his lap, one of many such
weapons that are bought on the black market in the West Bank, mostly from
Israel. He made sure to note that despite all of its military power,
Israeli forces could not reach the fighters except through airstrikes and
targeted attacks by drones. He told us that most resistance fighters in
Tulkarem refugee camp have been killed in this way rather than through
ground confrontations.

“In confrontations, the army is weaker than you might think,” said Tareq
al-Doush, 29, one of Ghaith’s companions and a local commander of the
Fatah-aligned al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the camp. He nodded in agreement
at Gaith’s assertion. “Most of our martyrs were killed by airstrikes, not
by bullets.”

“They are only stronger with their planes and their armored vehicles,”
Tareq said.

Ghaith continued telling us about how he joined the resistance in Tulkarem,
which had developed over the course of two years of rising armed resistance
in the northern West Bank. One of the most important milestones in those
years was the founding of the Tulkarem Brigade
<https://mondoweiss.net/2023/08/west-bank-dispatch-the-tulkarem-brigade-resists/>
in March 2022, an umbrella group of organizations that included Fatah,
Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

“The hardest thing I’ve experienced is the martyrdom of my brother, and
then my friends,” Ghaith said. “This made me continue on my path. But we
are not fighting for a martyr or for anyone else; we are fighting in search
of freedom. A foolish soldier who knows nothing about life comes and shuts
down our streets and controls our lives. Those who imprison us are
strangers to this land, and they should go back to their countries.”

In the early days of his involvement in the resistance, Ghaith says things
were easier. “There were no D9 bulldozers, and there wasn’t as much
destruction in the camp,” he said. After October 7, Israel’s raids
intensified in terms of fatality, duration, and scale of destruction. “Some
surrendered, while others continued along the path of resistance. And we
kept going.”

The recent raids were difficult for Ghaith and his fellow fighters because
Israeli forces would resort to collective punishment to dissuade the
community from sheltering the resistance youth. “They took out their anger
on the camp residents and their properties. They destroyed its
infrastructure and punished the people of the camp,” Ghaith explained.
“Every house we would seek shelter near would have bombs planted in them
[by the army] and blown up.”

For Ghaith and the other members of the Tulkarem Brigade, the objective of
these punitive measures was clear. “They are trying to destroy the popular
support base in the camp,” he said.

I asked him how he felt surrounded by all this destruction, and he answered
that it drove him to seek revenge. “The occupying settler wants to impose
his power over us. He wants to show that he is in control.”

“But once the raid is over, many people check in on us and express their
gratitude that we are safe. When they look at the destruction of the camp,
they just say, ‘better to lose your wealth than lose your children,’” he
continued.

Tareq al-Doush echoed Ghaith’s sentiments, insisting that the fighters drew
their strength from the camp’s popular support base. “Our resolve comes
from the women, elders, and children of the camp,” he explained. “They give
us our strength.”

“We will continue to mobilize, generation after generation,” he vowed.

When we asked Ghaith if he feared that the resistance might end after him,
he replied with a slight smile. “It’s true that Palestine is a land of
‘birth,’ but a person can’t help but feel fear about what will happen after
their martyrdom. Will there be people who will remain on this path?”

He paused for a moment before continuing. “This path has never stopped for
anyone. When Jihad Shehada who founded the Brigade in Tulkarem refugee camp
was killed, everyone said that his death would end the resistance. But on
the contrary, it intensified. In Jihad’s time, we were seven guys, and then
our numbers increased. Whenever one of them was martyred, we only grew.”

“This path has never stopped for anyone. When Jihad Shehada who founded the
Brigade in Tulkarem refugee camp was killed, everyone said that his death
would end the resistance. But on the contrary, it intensified.”
Ghaith Radwan, Palestinian resistance fighter

[image: Ghaith Shehadeh. a resistance fighter in the Tulkarem Brigade,
September 2024. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)]Ghaith Radwan. a resistance
fighter in the Tulkarem Brigade, September 2024. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha) The
promises of *October 7*

“Gaza definitely impacted me. When October 7 happened, we celebrated here
in Tulkarem refugee camp with a car parade and kept driving through the
neighborhoods. Of course, it gave me motivation and made me believe that we
will be liberated. We are fighting here for our homeland and our dignity,”
Ghaith said.

“October 7 was like a dream for us,” Tareq added. “I am sure that we will
sleep and wake up again to see the dream grow even larger. We will be
liberated.”

Tareq believed that the war on Gaza brought the resistance fighters
together and united the different resistance factions. The Tulkarem Brigade
exemplified this unification. “The factions do not divide us. In the end,
we are the Tulkarem Brigade…we are all from the same camp, the same people,
the same blood, and we live for one goal.”

Another resistance fighter who preferred not to be named said that the
assassinations, bombings, and raids that the Israelis have been carrying
out since October 7 were all an attempt to erase the joy Palestinians felt
on that day.

“Every time I hesitate to pick up my weapon and resist the occupation, I
remember October 7,” he said. “And I feel that our freedom is close.”

“Every time I hesitate to pick up my weapon and resist the occupation, I
remember October 7. And I feel that our freedom is close.”
Ghaith Radwan, Palestinian resistance fighter

*Dreams of freedom*

Most of the resistance fighters I’ve met over the years have been no older
than 30, and the majority have been in their twenties. Being so young,
Ghaith and his comrades’ resolve to join the resistance prompted us to ask
them why they resisted.

What was consistent in all their answers was the life they wanted to lead
after liberation. Most of them expressed disarmingly simple aspirations,
like being able to drive a car for hours without being stopped at a
checkpoint, or moving freely without the fear of being killed by a
soldier’s bullet or assaulted by a settler mob. Others just longed for not
living with the constant fear of being arrested, a feeling they experienced
long before they became fighters.

“My personal dream is to live like any person who is comfortable in their
life. There is no Palestinian who is comfortable. Anyone who says otherwise
is lying. No one can be at ease while being occupied,” Ghaith said. “The
comfortable one is either a traitor or has no problem with the occupation.”

“My personal dream is to live like any person who is comfortable in their
life. There is no Palestinian who is comfortable. Anyone who says otherwise
is lying. No one can be at ease while being occupied.”
Ghaith Radwan, Palestinian resistance fighter

Ghaith’s other dream is the same as any other fellow descendants of
refugees who grew up in the camp. They all want to go back to the villages
and towns from which their ancestors were displaced in 1948. “My roots
trace back to a village called Wadi al-Hawaris in the Haifa district,”
Ghaith explained. “My grandfather used to tell me about it and what their
lives were like. I’m fighting the occupation because I want to visit my
land one day. Every Palestinian, every person, every refugee has a dream of
returning to their land.”

Tareq’s answer is no different. He spoke of his dream of returning to the
village of Sidi Ali in the Jaffa district, from which his grandfather was
displaced. “Every day, I would sit with my father and grandmother, and they
would tell me about my village overlooking the sea. This conversation has
been etched in my mind since childhood,” he said.

“I will keep resisting until I reach that village overlooking the sea. I
love the camp, but this is not our place. Our place is in Sidi Ali,” he
vowed.

Tareq was the eldest among the resistance fighters in Tulkarem refugee
camp. I had earlier encountered him speaking with his comrades in the
camp’s alleyways. I got the impression that the other fighters treated him
like he was an older brother. When I asked for someone to interview,
everyone immediately mentioned Tareq’s name, knowing him to be an eloquent
speaker.

But when I asked Tareq about what it was like leading everyone, the first
thing he mentioned was his mother. “I haven’t seen my mother for ten days.
The occupation bombed our multi-story house and burned it down, and my
mother moved to live in another house, which is difficult for me to reach,”
Tareq said. “Every ten days or so, my mother comes to see me here in the
streets and alleys.”

I asked him what his message to his mother would be. “God willing, we will
be liberated. And if I become a martyr, I want to tell her that she is the
person I love most in life, and her faith in God should remain strong. I
don’t want her to grieve for me; I want her to rejoice in my martyrdom.”

The paradox in these fighters’ answers was striking. They all said that
they were fighting to be able to live a different life, and every one of
them was living with the expectation that they would be killed at any
moment and become martyrs. The dream of a different life, for many of them,
has stood side by side with the dream of martyrdom itself.
[image: Aftermath of the Israeli airstrike that killed 20 Palestinians in
Tulkarem refugee camp, October 3, 2024. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)]Aftermath
of the Israeli airstrike that killed 20 Palestinians in Tulkarem refugee
camp, October 3, 2024. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)

The day after the airstrike on the cafe that killed Ghaith and his
comrades, hundreds of residents took to the streets to participate in their
funeral procession. During Ghaith’s funeral, people carried him on their
shoulders, chanting to him with a mournful melody: “Where are you going,
Ghaith? You opened our wounds!”

Then another chant responded, louder and more insistent than the first, as
if answering Ghaith’s injunction to continue the struggle after he was
gone: “Ghaith, you are our leader, our hero, our teacher! We learn from
you, Ghaith!”
[image: Funeral of Ghaith Radwan, a resistance fighter in the Tulkarem
Brigade, October 3, 2024. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)]Funeral of Ghaith
Radwan, a resistance fighter in the Tulkarem Brigade, October 3, 2024.
(Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)
------------------------------

*Shatha Hanaysha*
Shatha Hanaysha is a Palestinian journalist based in Jenin in the occupied
West Bank.
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