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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230626-the-extraordinary-palestinians-of-jenin-will-not-surrender/">middleeastmonitor.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">The extraordinary Palestinians of Jenin will not surrender</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Dr Ramzy Baroud - June 26, 2023</div></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_ljd1e1w70" alt="image.png" width="421" height="281"><br><p>A large Israeli military force <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/19/sraeli-forces-helicopter-raid-jenin-west-bank-palestinians-killed" target="_blank">raided</a>
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.</p>
<p>Israel <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/palestinian-teen-dies-of-wounds-from-israeli-fire-in-jenin-death-toll-rises-to-7/2927618" target="_blank">killed</a>
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 <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-killed-as-heavy-clashes-erupt-during-idf-raid-in-jenin/" target="_blank">admitted</a>
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.</p>
<p>The reality on the ground, however, suggested that an extraordinary battle had taken place. Locally produced videos <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBL1f1n1N6Y" target="_blank">showed</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>One of those killed was Amjad Aref Abu Jaas, the father of a Palestinian youth, Wasim, who was<a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/death-toll-from-israeli-assault-on-jenin-rises-to-six-as-palestinian-man-succumbs-to-his-wounds/" target="_blank"> killed</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The Jenin refugee camp was <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/west-bank/jenin-camp" target="_blank">established</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>In my 2003 book <a href="https://www.amazon.it/Searching-Jenin-Eyewitness-Accounts-Invasion/dp/1885942346" target="_blank"><i>Searching Jenin</i></a>,
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 <a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/israel0502-05.htm" target="_blank">killing</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>In April 2002, during Israel's <a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/israel0502-05.htm" target="_blank">invasion</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</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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