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The Lions’ Den is Not a Fleeting Phenomenon: On Palestine’s Looming Armed Revolt </a>
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<h4>Ramzy Baroud - December 22, 2022<br><span style="font-weight:normal"><font size="1"><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/lions-den-not-fleeting-phenomenon-palestine-looming-armed-revolt/283094/">https://www.mintpressnews.com/lions-den-not-fleeting-phenomenon-palestine-looming-armed-revolt/283094/</a></font></span></h4><div></div></div><div class="gmail-content-sidebar-wrap gmail-main-content"><div class="entry-content"><img src="cid:ii_lc28jkwy0" alt="image.png" width="392" height="220"><br><p class="gmail-has-drop-cap">Just
when Israel, and even some Palestinians, began talking about the Lions’
Den phenomenon in the past tense, a large number of fighters belonging
to the newly-formed Palestinian group <a href="https://thecradle.co/Article/News/19378" target="_blank">marched</a> in the city of Nablus.</p>
<p>Unlike the group’s first <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/26/who-are-the-lions-den-armed-group-in-occupied-west-bank-explainer" target="_blank">appearance</a>
on September 2, the number of fighters who took part in the rally in
the Old City of Nablus on December 9 was significantly larger, better
equipped, with unified military fatigues and greater security
precautions.</p>
<p>“The Den belongs to all of Palestine and believes in the unity of
blood, struggle and rifles”, a reference to the kind of collective
Resistance that surpasses factional interests.</p>
<p>Needless to say, the event was significant. Only two months ago, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz <a href="https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-719683" target="_blank">undermined</a>
the group in terms of number and influence, estimating their number to
be “of some 30 members”, pledging to “get our hands on them (..) and
eliminate them”.</p>
<p>The Palestinian Authority was also actively involved in suppressing
the group, although using a different approach. Palestinian and Arab
media <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/palestinian-lions-den-fighters-dismiss-pa-surrender-proposal/" target="_blank">spoke</a> about generous PA offers to Lions’ Den fighters of jobs and money, should they agree to drop their weapons.</p>
<p>Both the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships have greatly misread the situation. They have wrongly <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-721406" target="_blank">assumed</a>
that the Nablus-born movement is a regional and provisional phenomenon
that, like others in the past, can easily be crushed or bought.</p>
<p>The Lions’ Den, however, seems to have increased in numbers, and has
already branched out to Jenin, Al-Khalil (Hebron), Balata and elsewhere.</p>
<p>For Israel, but also for some Palestinians, the Lions’ Den is an
unprecedented problem, the consequences of which threaten to change the
political dynamics in the Occupied West Bank entirely.</p>
<p>As Lions’ Den insignias are now appearing in every Palestinian
neighborhood throughout the Occupied Territories, the group has
succeeded in <a href="https://ecfr.eu/special/mapping_palestinian_politics/lions-den/" target="_blank">branching</a> out from a specific Nablus neighborhood – Al Qasaba – to become a collective Palestinian experience.</p><p>A recent survey conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/poll-72-of-palestinians-support-forming-more-armed-groups-in-west-bank/" target="_blank">demonstrated</a> the above claim in an unmistakable way.</p>
<p>The PCPSR public poll <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/poll-72-of-palestinians-support-forming-more-armed-groups-in-west-bank/" target="_blank">showed</a>
that 72% of all Palestinians support the creation of more such armed
groups in the West Bank. Nearly 60% feared that an armed rebellion risks
a direct confrontation with the PA. A whopping 79% and 87% respectively
refuse the surrender of the fighters to PA forces, and reject the very
idea that the PA has the right to even carry out such arrests.</p>
<p>Such numbers attest to the reality on the street, pointing to the
near complete lack of trust in the PA and the belief that only armed
Resistance, similar to that in Gaza, is capable of challenging the
Israeli Occupation.</p>
<p>These notions are driven by empirical evidence: lead among them is
the failure of the financially and politically corrupt PA in advancing
Palestinian aspirations in any way; Israel’s complete disinterest in any
form of peace negotiations; the growing far-right fascist trend in
Israeli society, which is directly linked to the daily violence meted
out against Palestinians in Occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.</p>
<p>The UN Mideast Envoy Tor Wennesland <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/2022-among-deadliest-years-for-palestinians-in-west-bank-middle-east-peace-process-coordinator-tells-security-council-press-release-sc-15086/" target="_blank">has recently reported</a>
that 2022 is “on course to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in
the West Bank since (…) 2005”. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported
that 167 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank this year alone.</p>
<p>These numbers are likely to increase during the new term of incoming
rightwing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The new government
can only remain in power with the support of Bezalel Smotrich from the
Religious Zionism Party and Itamar Ben-Gvir from the Otzma Yehudit
Party. Ben-Gvir, a notorious extremist politician is, ironically though
not surprisingly, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-religion-jerusalem-israel-benjamin-netanyahu-189ef3fc8c82d7163c1339e64bb1e40f" target="_blank">slated</a> to become Israel’s new security minister.</p>
<p>But there is more to the brewing armed rebellion in the West Bank than Israeli violence alone.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Nearly three decades after the signing of the Oslo Accords,
Palestinians have achieved none of their basic political or legal
rights. To the contrary, emboldened right-wing politicians in Israel are
now <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221124-reneging-on-abraham-accords-netanyahu-authorises-soft-annexation-of-west-bank/" target="_blank">speaking</a>
of unilateral ‘soft annexation’ of large parts of the West Bank. None
of the issues deemed important in 1993 – the status of Occupied
Jerusalem, refugees, borders, water, etc. – are even on the agenda
today.</p>
<p>Since then, Israel has invested more in <a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9569" target="_blank">racial laws</a> and apartheid policies, making it an apartheid regime, par excellence. Major international human rights groups have <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution" target="_blank">accepted</a> and <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/" target="_blank">reported</a> on the new, fully racist identity of Israel.</p>
<p>With total US backing and no international pressure on Israel that is
worthy of mention, Palestinian society is mobilizing beyond the
traditional channels of the past three decades. Despite the admirable
work of some Palestinian NGOs, the ‘NGO-ization’ of Palestinian society,
operating on funds largely obtained from Israel’s very western backers,
has further accentuated class division among Palestinians. With
Ramallah and a few other urban centers serving as headquarters of the PA
and a massive list of NGOs, Jenin, Nablus, and their adjacent refugee
camps have subsisted in economic marginalization, Israeli violence and
political neglect.</p>
<p>Disenchanted by the PA’s failed political model, and <a href="https://www.pcpsr.org/en/node/843" target="_blank">growingly impressed</a> by the armed Resistance in Gaza, an armed rebellion in the West Bank is simply a matter of time.</p>
<p>What differentiates the early signs of a mass armed Intifada in the West Bank from the <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/journey-into-the-stabbing-intifada/" target="_blank">‘Jerusalem Intifada</a>’,
also termed the ‘Knives Intifada’ of 2015, is that the latter was a
series of disorganized individual acts carried out by oppressed West
Bank youth, while the former is a well-organized, grassroots phenomenon
with a unique political discourse that appeals to the majority of
Palestinian society.</p>
<p>And, unlike the armed Second Palestinian <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/28/palestinian-intifada-20-years-later-israeli-occupation-continues" target="_blank">Intifada</a> (2000-2005), the ensuing armed rebellion is rooted in a popular base, not in the PA security forces.</p>
<p>The closest historical reference to this phenomenon is the 1936-39 Palestinian <a href="https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/158/great-arab-revolt-1936-1939" target="_blank">Revolt</a>,
led by thousands of Palestinian fellahin – peasants – in the Palestine
countryside. The last year of that rebellion witnessed a large split
between the fellahin leadership and the urban-based political parties.</p>
<p>History is repeating itself. And, like the 1936 Revolt, the future of
Palestine and the Palestinian Resistance – in fact, the very social
fabric of Palestinian society – is on the line.</p>
<p>Feature photo | Palestinian gunmen from the Balata Brigade of the
Fatah movement and from Groups of lions’ den carry their weapons during a
memorial ceremony of a Palestinian who was killed by the Israeli army
at the Askar refugee camp in the West Bank. Nasser Ishtayeh | Sipa via
AP Images</p>
<p><em><strong>Dr. Ramzy Baroud i</strong>s a journalist, author and the
Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His
latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is ‘<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Our-Vision-Liberation-Palestinian-Intellectuals/dp/1949762440" target="_blank">Our Vision for Liberation</a>:
Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak out’. His other
books include ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last Earth’.
Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam
and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is <a href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/" target="_blank">www.ramzybaroud.net</a></em></p></div></div>
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