Yossi Schwartz, ISL the section of the RCIT in Israel/Occupied Palestine, 30.08.2022
The Palestinians armed resistance of the past few months shows that there is a real possibility to return to the days when Palestinian freedom fighters roamed the streets of Palestinian cities villages and refugee camps.
Armed Palestinians fired in the air during the funeral of Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, a senior commander of the Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who was killed in armed clashes with the Zionist repressing forces, in Nablus in the West Bank August 9, 2022.
Since the end of the Second Intifada, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas the collaborator with the Zionist state against the resistance has stated his support for a nonviolent “popular resistance” against Israel as opposed to the shooting, throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails. It now appears that the Palestinians in the West Bank have adopted the armed struggle.
Abbas has never clarified what he means when he speaks about “popular resistance,” while oppressing Palestinians who belong to movements and groups that opposed his Bonapartist rule in collaboration with Israel. However, some of his advisers and senior officials have emphasized that he means peaceful and nonviolent protests by Palestinian civilians, against Israeli soldiers and settlers that are using weapons and shooting Palestinians.
He brings to mind Mahatma Gandhi who in a letter advised the Jews to use peaceful means against the Nazis:
“Gandhi advocated only for non-violent resistance to the Nazis and sent a conciliatory letter to Adolf Hitler in which he addressed the Fuhrer as a “friend” and wrote that he did not believe the German dictator was the “monster” his opponents described.” [1]
Until March many Palestinians considered throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at soldiers and settlers as an essential part of the “popular resistance.”
They bring to mind the Russian peasants who during the 1905 revolutionary struggle killed landlords and called it a strike action.
Until a few months ago, most Palestinians appeared to heed the call by Abbas to engage in pacifist “popular resistance” activities. However, since March we begin to see armed freedom fighters shooting back armed settlers and soldiers who come to arrest and kill people whom the Zionists call terrorists. In addition, they shoot in the air during funerals of Palestinians fighters killed by the Zionist army.
Thus the “popular resistance” Abbas the Quisling talked about is turning into an armed confrontation between Palestinian gunmen and soldiers, especially in the northern West Bank. In some instances, when the soldiers don’t show up, the gunmen go out searching for them at the entrances to the cities, villages and refugee camps. The fighters have replaced the Palestinian security forces, which often disappear from the streets just before the arrival of the Zionist soldiers.
In the past the Zionist army faced stones nowadays, the soldiers are almost always met with heavy gunfire from Palestinian gunmen.
“Obviously, the reality on the ground is changing,” said a senior Palestinian official in Ramallah. “We have a popular resistance during the day and an armed resistance during the night. The number of young men carrying weapons is increasing every day. We have a popular resistance during the day and an armed resistance during the night. The number of young men carrying weapons is increasing every day” [2]
As this line are written Palestinian gunmen shot at five people who entered the complex of what the Zionists call Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus without coordinating with the Zionist army for protection. The five entered in a private car without permission.
In addition, according to the Zionist army Spokesperson, “a firefight broke out while troops were operating in the city and surrounded a home in the town of Rujeib. Security forces from the Shin Bet, Israel Police’s YAMAM unit and IDF troops surrounded a house and used a pressure cooker method, including firing an anti-tank guided missile, in order to force the two men to surrender” [3]
The Zionist Force surrounded a house in which there were two freedom fighters, identified by the Border Police as Nabeel Sawalhi and Nihad Owais who had been involved in several shooting attacks, including in Shavei Shomron last week when a car was hit by bullets.
The armed resistance of the Palestinians is taking place at time the Sadrist movement in Iraq occupied the Parliament in the city’s Green Zone, a heavily fortified area that houses government buildings and foreign embassies, and struggle against the army used by the corrupted rotten government of Mustafa Al-Kadhimi. In Tunisia on July 25, exactly one year after Tunisia’s President Kais Saied sacked the prime minister, dissolved the parliament, suspended the much-celebrated 2014 constitution and started to rule by decree, Tunisians were called to vote to approve a draft constitution proposed by Saied. However, with less than 30 percent that voted, it means that the new constitution lacks legitimacy.
All these events may predict that a new round of the Arab revolution is near.
For a new and victorious Arab Spring!
For a new mass intifada!
Down with the Zionist apartheid state from the river to the sea!
For Palestine red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
(1) https://apnews.com/article/f40d8c2c7d8d4ffeadd576ded89acc0c
(2) https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/article-715846
(3) https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-715882