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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Palestine's widening geography of resistance: Why Israel cannot defeat the Palestinians</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Dr Ramzy Baroud - April 12, 2022<br></div></div>
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<p>There is a reason why Israel is insistent on linking the series of
attacks carried out by Palestinians recently to a specific location,
namely the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank. By doing so,
the embattled Naftali Bennett's government can simply order another
deadly military operation in Jenin to reassure its citizens that the
situation is under control.</p>
<p>Indeed, on 9 April, the Israeli army had <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/9/one-dead-in-israel-army-raid-on-palestinian-refugee-camp" target="_blank">stormed</a> the Jenin refugee camp, killing a Palestinian and wounding ten others. However, Israel's problem is much bigger than Jenin.</p>
<p>If we examine the events starting with the 22 March stabbing <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/22/1088126698/beersheba-israelis-stabbed-attack" target="_blank">attack</a> in the southern city of Beersheba (Bir Al Saba') – which resulted in the death of four – and ending with the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/07/tel-aviv-israel-attack/" target="_blank">killing</a>
of three Israelis in Tel Aviv – including two army officers – we will
reach an obvious conclusion: these attacks must have been, to some
extent, coordinated.</p>
<p>Spontaneous Palestinian retaliation to the violence of the Israeli
occupation rarely follows this pattern in terms of timing or style. All
the attacks, with the exception of Beersheba, were carried out using
firearms. The shooters, as indicated by the amateur videos of some of
the events and statements by Israeli eyewitnesses, were well-trained and
were acting with great composure.</p>
<p>An example was the 27 March Hadera event, carried out by two cousins,
Ayman and Ibrahim Ighbariah, from the Arab town of Umm Al-Fahm, inside
Israel. Israeli media reported of the unmistakable skills of the
attackers, armed with weapons that, according to the Israeli news
agency, <em>Tazpit Press Service</em>, <a href="https://worldisraelnews.com/isis-inspired-terrorists-kill-2-israelis-wound-6-in-northern-israel/" target="_blank">cost</a> more than $30,000.</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a title="Who is responsible for the ongoing attacks in Israel?" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220401-who-is-responsible-for-the-ongoing-attacks-in-israel/">Who is responsible for the ongoing attacks in Israel?</a></strong></p>
<p>Unlike Palestinian attacks carried out during the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/28/palestinian-intifada-20-years-later-israeli-occupation-continues" target="_blank">Second Palestinian Intifada</a>
(2000-05) in response to Israeli violence in the occupied territories,
the latest attacks are generally more pinpointed, seek police and
military personnel and clearly aimed at shaking Israel's false sense of
security and undermining the country's intelligence services. In the
Bnei Brak attack, on 29 March, for example, an Israeli woman who was at
the scene <a href="https://twitter.com/Malak__yousef/status/1508904511833784333" target="_blank">told</a> reporters that "the militant asked us to move away from the place because he did not want to target women or children."</p>
<p>While Israeli intelligence reports have recently <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-702902" target="_blank">warned</a> of a "wave of terrorism" ahead of the holy month of Ramadan<strong>,</strong> they clearly had little conception of what type of violence, or where and how Palestinians would strike.</p>
<p>Following the Beersheba attack, Israeli officials referred to Daesh's
responsibility, a convenient claim considering that Daesh had also
claimed responsibility. This theory was quickly marginalised, as it
became obvious that the other Palestinian attackers had other political
affiliations or, as in the Bnei Brak case, no known affiliation at all.</p>
<p>The confusion and misinformation continued for days. Shortly after
the Tel Aviv attack, Israeli media, citing official sources, spoke of
two attackers, alleging that one was trapped in a nearby building. This
was untrue as there was only one attacker and he was killed, though
hours later in a different city.</p>
<p>A number of Palestinian workers were quickly rounded up in Tel Aviv
on suspicion of being the attackers simply because they looked Arab,
evidence of the chaotic Israeli approach. Indeed, following each event,
total <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-march-30-2022-2/" target="_blank">mayhem</a>
ensued, with large mobs of armed Israelis taking to the streets looking
for anyone with Arab features to apprehend or to beat senseless.</p>
<p>Israeli officials contributed to the frenzy, with far-right politicians, such as the extremist, Itamar Ben Gvir, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/far-right-mk-returns-to-sheikh-jarrah-hotspot-claims-cops-were-told-to-assault-him/" target="_blank">leading</a> hordes of other extremists in rampages in occupied Jerusalem.</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_547812" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/AA-20220409-27516944-27516931-FUNERAL_CEREMONY_OF_A_PALESTINIAN_YOUTH_IN_JENIN.jpg?fit=933%2C622&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1" alt="Palestinians attend funeral ceremony of Palestinian Ahmed Nasser Al-Saidi, who was killed in Israeli forces' raid, at Jenin Refugee Camp in Jenin, West Bank on 9 April 2022. [Issam Rimawi - Anadolu Agency]" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="453" height="302"></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Palestinians
attend funeral ceremony of Palestinian Ahmed Nasser Al-Saidi, who was
killed in Israeli forces' raid, at Jenin Refugee Camp in Jenin, West
Bank on 9 April 2022. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]</p></div><p>Instead
of urging calm and displaying confidence, the country's own Prime
Minister called, on 30 March, on ordinary Israelis to arm themselves.
"Whoever has a gun license, this is the time to carry it," he <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/bennett-urges-israeli-gun-owners-to-strap-up-amid-murderous-terror-wave/" target="_blank">said</a>
in a video statement. However, if Israel's solution to any form of
Palestinian resistance was more guns, Palestinians would have been
pacified long ago.</p>
<p>To placate angry Israelis, the Israeli military raided the city and
refugee camp of Jenin on many occasions, each time leaving several dead
and wounded Palestinians behind, including many civilians. They include
the child, Imad Hashash, 15, killed on 24 August while <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/1/west-bank-anger-boils-as-jenin-becomes-hotbed-of-resistance" target="_blank">filming</a> the invasion on his mobile phone. The exact same scenario played out on 9 April.</p>
<p>However, it was an exercise in futility, as it was Israeli violence
in Jenin throughout the years that led to the armed resistance that
continues to emanate from the camp. Palestinians, whether in Jenin or
elsewhere, fight back because they are denied basic human rights, have
no political horizon, live in extreme poverty, have no true leadership
and feel abandoned by the so-called international community.</p>
<p>The Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas seems to be entirely
removed from the masses. Statements by Abbas reflect his detachment from
the reality of Israeli violence, military occupation and apartheid
throughout Palestine. True to form, Abbas quickly <a href="https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/128717" target="_blank">condemned</a>
the Tel Aviv attack, as he did the previous ones, making the same
reference every time regarding the need to maintain "stability" and to
prevent "further deterioration of the situation", according to the
official <em>Wafa </em>news agency.</p>
<p>What stability is Abbas referring to, when Palestinian suffering has
been compounded by growing settler violence, illegal settlement
expansion, land theft, and, thanks to recent international events, food
insecurity as well?</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220411-why-does-the-world-believe-that-killing-palestinians-is-necessary-for-israels-security/">Why does the world believe that killing Palestinians is necessary for Israel's security?</a></strong></p>
<p>Israeli officials and media are, once again, conveniently placing the
blame largely on Jenin, a tiny stretch of an overpopulated area. By
doing so, Israel wants to give the impression that the new phenomenon of
Palestinian retaliatory attacks is confined to a single place, one that
is adjacent to the Israeli border and can be easily 'dealt with'.</p>
<p>An Israeli military operation in the camp may serve Bennett's
political agenda, convey a sense of strength, and win back some in his
disenchanted political constituency. But it is all a temporary fix.
Attacking Jenin now will make no difference in the long run. After all,
the camp rose from the ashes of its near-total destruction by the
Israeli military in April 2002.</p>
<p>The renewed Palestinian attacks speak of a much wider geography:
Naqab, Umm Al Fahm, the West Bank. The seeds of this territorial
connectivity are linked to the Israeli war of last May and the
subsequent Palestinian rebellion, which erupted in every part of
Palestine, including Palestinian communities inside Israel.</p>
<p>Israel's problem is its insistence on providing short-term military
solutions to a long-term problem, itself resulting from these very
'military solutions'. If Israel continues to subjugate the Palestinian
people under the current system of military occupation and deepening
apartheid, Palestinians will surely continue to respond until their
oppressive reality is changed. No amount of Israeli violence can alter
this truth.</p>
<p>The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.</p>
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