Necrology for a martyr who has died for his people
By Michael Pröbsting, RCIT, 18 October 2024, www.thecommunists.net
Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, has been killed by Israel while fighting fearlessly against the occupiers with a gun in his hand. He is a martyr of the Palestinian people like tens of thousands of others who have sacrificed their lives for the cause of freedom. However, there is no doubt that he was an extraordinary man.
He was born in a Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza on 29 October 1962 where his family was forced to live after the Zionists expelled them – like hundreds of thousand other Palestinians – in the horrific Nakba in 1948. He became an activist against the Israeli occupation in his youth and was first arrested at the age of 19 for participating in demonstrations. He would later help to establish a network of fighters to take up armed resistance against Israel, an activity interrupted by several more arrests.
Sinwar became a leader of Hamas soon after its foundation in 1987 and was one of the founders of its internal security organisation Munazzamat Munazzamat al Jihad w’al-Dawa. However, he was arrested in the following year and handed four life sentences – the equivalent of 426 years in jail – for involvement in the killing of two Israeli soldiers and four spies. He spent 23 years in Israeli jail where he became the leader of the imprisoned militants. During this time, he wrote the novel Thorns and Carnations which mirrored his life and the Palestinian resistance. He was freed in 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange deal.
Soon after his release, Sinwar was elected to the political bureau of Hamas and played a key role in organizing the armed resistance in Gaza. In 2017, he became Hamas’s chief in Gaza, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh, who was elected as the chair of the group’s Political Bureau. Later, after Israel murdered Haniyeh on 31 May this year, he became the new chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau.
A man they could not break
Sinwar was convinced that the liberation of Palestine is not possible by subordinating to the Israeli occupation – as the traitor Mahmoud Abbas has done for two decades. Neither did he wish to limit the resistance to the administration of the enclave of Gaza. In a 2021 interview with Vice News, he said – reflecting the collective experience of the Palestinian people: “For long periods, we tried peaceful and popular resistance. We expected that the world, free people and international organisations would stand by our people and stop occupation from committing crimes and massacring our people. Unfortunately, the world stood by and watched.”
Asked about Hamas’s tactics, including firing rockets that could harm civilians, Sinwar said Palestinians are fighting with the means at their disposal. He accused Israel of deliberately killing Palestinian civilians en masse, despite having advanced, precise weaponry. “Does the world expect us to be well-behaved victims while we are being killed, for us to be slaughtered without making a noise?” He added that while Palestinians do not seek war due to its high cost, they will not “wave the white flag”. This is the background why he and his inner circle designed and organized the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation on 7 October 2023.
The slain Palestinian leader was a remarkable man by all accounts. He did not look for money or career but devoted his whole life to the cause of the liberation struggle. Even his enemies were forced to respect his character. Yaron Blum, a former senior official of Shin Bet – Israel’s domestic intelligence agency – described Sinwar a few years ago: “He is charismatic, he is not corrupt, he is modest and he advocates action.” Likewise, the British Guardian pointed to his “modest lifestyle” and his “ascetic” and “highly disciplined” nature.
The Jamestown Foundation – a conservative and pro-Zionist think tank in the U.S. – reported a few months ago: “Shin Bet accounts describe Sinwar as a highly regarded, esteemed, and respected leader and a solid, educated, charismatic, and intelligent man who is not afraid of his enemy, going so far as to threaten Israeli officers who interrogated him. The same accounts also describe him as a very religious man, a writer, and an intellectual.”
Sinwar once told an Italian journalist that “prison builds you.” It gives you time to think about what you believe in — “and the price you are willing to pay” for it. There is no doubt that he knew what to live for and what to die for. He was a man who totally identified his live with the cause of Palestinian liberation. He is the Che Guevara of our times.
A symbolic death
The way Sinwar died is symbolic in every degree. The 62-year-old man was killed in his military uniform and with a gun, fighting against the occupiers. He resisted fearlessly the Israeli terrorists until his dying breath. According to the horrific video of an Israeli drone about his last moments, the Zionists had wounded him to death by shooting and cutting of parts of his right arm. He could not move anymore. But even in this hopeless situation he did not give up but tried to throw a stick towards the drone.
The Palestinian people are globally known for their steadfastness. Sinwar personified such steadfastness by all accounts.
Even in these difficult hours, we acknowledge that, as revolutionary socialists, we have deep political and ideological differences with Hamas which we consider as petty-bourgeois Islamist organisation. In contrast, we stand for a Palestinian workers and fellahin republic from the river to the sea within a socialist federation of the Middle East. But such differences do not limit our respect for this heroic son of the Palestinian people who played an outstanding role in their liberation struggle.
Sinwar’s death is also symbolic in another degree. It reflects the extreme unequal character of the struggle between the Palestinian people and the Zionist monster. Israel possesses one of the most modern and powerful armies in the world. With its myriads of hi-tech killing machines – drones, AI-surveillance programs, missiles, bunker-busting bombs, etc. – they can cowardly slaughter at the push of a button wherever they like. Aided by unlimited support of U.S. and European imperialism, they have organized one of the worst genocides in modern history. They are fighting against resistance forces in a small enclave with only guns and RPGs at their disposal. Their most important weapon are the tunnels which they have built in the past years in order to survive Israel’s never-ending bombardment and drone-attacks. Sinwar once said that “the first words my son spoke were ‘father,’ ‘mother’ and ‘drone.’” – reflecting the horrific life of the oppressed Palestinian people.
But despite this David-vs-Goliath character of the Gaza War, despite one year of relentless mass murder, despite waging the longest war in its history, the Israeli terror machine has not succeeded in defeating the Palestinian resistance. They did not succeed because the oppressed will never agree to submission!
The struggle continues
Unsurprisingly, Netanyahu – the bloodthirsty boss of the terror state and corrupted war criminal – is celebrating the killing of Sinwar. Likewise, various leaders of the decadent and decaying West, cheered. They might laugh now for a short while. But they will weep bitterly when the Palestinian people and the free people all around the world rise up and destroy the terrorist machine on which the Zionists and imperialists have built their power. And they will weep even more when they face justice for their countless crimes against humanity!
However, there is one thing where Netanyahu is right: “This is not the end of the war in Gaza.” Indeed, the resistance is not defeated. New leaders will emerge. New generations of militants will continue to fight for liberation.
It is the responsibility of the free people in the world to double their efforts to defeat the Zionist monster. Against the coward Arab leaders, the corrupted pro-Zionist politicians and trade union leaders in the West – the workers and oppressed must organise an effective campaign to boycott the Israeli Apartheid state and to aid the Palestinian people by any means necessary.
Once again, the Palestinian people have lost a martyr on the road to Jerusalem. The Israeli terrorists cheer today. But we will laugh tomorrow when Palestine will be free, and the tyrants have been overthrown!
We reiterate that the RCIT, like all socialists, democrats and righteous people, supports and will always support the liberation struggle of the oppressed!
* * * * *
We refer readers to special pages on our website where the RCIT documents on the 2023 Gaza War are compiled: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/compilation-of-articles-on-the-gaza-uprising-2023/ and https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/compilation-of-articles-on-the-gaza-uprising-2023-24-part-2/