Foreign
Jenin: How The City Became A Symbol of Palestinian Resistance
Palestinians say Jenin has always been a hub for Palestinian resistance groups, despite ongoing Israeli attempts to stamp them out.
Jenin, Occupied West Bank – Months ahead of the 20th anniversary of the April 9, 2002 Israeli assault on the Jenin refugee camp, Israeli operations and arrests in and around the occupied West Bank city of Jenin were on the rise.
On the day of the anniversary, Israeli forces launched a large-scale raid on the camp, located in the heart of Jenin city. As Palestinian fighters responded, the raid culminated in two hours of heavy street fighting that left one Palestinian fighter dead and 13 others wounded.
The escalation brought back memories of deadly confrontations that took place 20 years ago, when an Israeli ambush on the camp killed at least 52 Palestinians, including women and children, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigation. There were also 23 Israeli soldiers killed and several others injured.
That day, 20 years ago, marked a turning point for Jenin – the city and the camp – making it a symbol of resistance for Palestinians.
“There are two places in Palestine that Israel has never been able to fully conquer – Jenin and Gaza,” Diana Buttu, a Palestinian political analyst and lawyer told Al Jazeera.
“That’s why Israelis try to bring down the people of Jenin and Gaza… time and time again, but it’s never worked,” she added.
Months of escalation
Although Israeli assaults on Jenin have been more sporadic since 2002, recent months have showed an uptick in Israeli violence and raids in Jenin.
In February, a joint search operation conducted by Israeli forces and the Palestinian Authority (PA) targeted about 25 men in Jenin, and saw many family homes raided and dozens of people arrested.
A week before the anniversary, on April 2, Israeli security forces killed three Palestinian men in a predawn shoot-out in Jenin. Israeli authorities said the men – later identified as members of the Islamic Jihad’s armed wing – were “involved in terrorist activity against security forces”.
The Israeli army (IDF) said the forces found weapons in the area and arrested several Palestinians suspected of “terror” activity, according to Israeli media.
The raids coincided with a series of shootings in Israel that have occurred since March 22, which left 14 Israelis dead in four separate attacks led by Palestinians – two of whom were from Jenin.
On April 7, 28-year-old Raad Hazem, from Jenin refugee camp, opened fire in a crowded Tel Aviv bar, killing three Israelis and wounding 10 others. Hazem was shot dead shortly after the incident, his family home was raided and demolished, and his father has been on the run as Israeli forces continue their search for him.
Only a week earlier on March 29, Diaa Hamarsheh from the village of Ya’bad, a few kilometres outside of Jenin, killed five people in the ultra-orthodox town of Bnei Brak, east of Tel Aviv.
Since then, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has granted “all security forces full freedom” during operations, with the aim of stopping future attacks.
For Israelis, the city is considered a hub for “terrorist activity” rather than resistance.
Israel also imposed economic sanctions on Jenin, revoked travel permits for residents working outside the city, closed off roads connecting Jenin to other parts of the occupied West Bank, and increased deadly raids, arrests, and targeted killings in and around the city, its residents told Al Jazeera.
Under the restrictions, Israel closed checkpoints and prevented travel between Jenin – known as Palestine’s bread basket – and Israel, leaving many merchants and workers in the city cut off from their sources of income.
Despite the grim picture the series of events has drawn, Jenin residents told Al Jazeera that the past few months had “revived the spirit of resistance”, and refreshed memories of Jenin’s emergence as a hub for Palestinian resistance.
“Jenin can only exist within the context of the resistance, with its history of perseverance, refusal to raise a white flag, and insistence on fighting back,” said the governor of Jenin and member of the Fatah movement, Akram Rajoub.
A Palestinian mother and camp resident, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, agreed: “Jenin has and always will be a source of Palestinian resistance.”
‘Returning to its roots’
Established to house Palestinians expelled during the Nakba of 1948 – when more than 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes to make way for the establishment of Israel – Jenin refugee camp has remained the most vibrant part of the city, despite being levelled during Israel’s assault during the 2002 Intifada.
The entrance to the half-square-kilometer area, which is home to approximately 14,000 refugees and dozens of Palestinian fighters belonging to the Islamic Jihad and Fatah movements, is adorned with a key symbolising the Palestinian right of return. Flags of the various Palestinian factions at the camp adorn the gates, and posters of Palestinian prisoners and “martyrs” are plastered across the camp walls.
“They are our heroes,” Khader Adnan, a leader in the Islamic Jihad movement told Al Jazeera, as he pointed to the faces on the posters. “They are reminders of what our youngsters want to be: resistance fighters.”
When tensions flared in Jerusalem in May last year over Israeli raids on the al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and attempts to expel Palestinian families from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, the heat was immediately felt in Jenin.
Masked men belonging to Fatah and the Islamic Jihad paraded in the camp to show their support and readiness to fight.
A few months later, six Jenin residents escaped from the maximum-security Israeli prison of Gilboa in September.
While the men were on the run, camp fighters attempted to aid the escaped prisoners by carrying out shootings at Israeli checkpoints and launching demonstrations vowing revenge if the men were hurt.
Reflecting on Jenin’s history as a centre for armed Palestinian groups, Adnan said: “Jenin has always been a hub for our movement and other resistance factions.
“Many of our youths believe in fighting until the last breath,” he added, as he named several famous fighters belonging to the movement’s armed wing, the al-Quds Brigades.
“The ongoing Israeli crackdown built Jenin’s character, and what we see today, is Jenin returning to its roots of resistance,” he told Al Jazeera.
‘Never worked’
According to Buttu, the Palestinian analyst, Israeli and PA attempts to control Jenin have always failed.
Again likening Jenin to Gaza – a place Israel considers an ongoing threat to its security – Buttu said the two were the only places Israel withdrew settlements because it “calculated that it was going to be far too costly to maintain a presence – not financially, but in terms of lives”.
Before the PA came to power after the Oslo agreement in 1993, Israel often targeted Jenin as a place to control, “but it never worked”, said Buttu. “When the PA came, their greatest challenge in terms of crushing the resistance has been in Jenin.”
For years, Israel and the PA have coordinated efforts to bring Jenin under their control. In the latest attempt ahead of the recent flare up in violence, the PA launched an arrest campaign in the camp in December last year. While it insisted that the campaign was a security operations to stamp out thugs, residents said it aimed to to crush the resistance.
For Adnan, the Islamic Jihad leader, the reasons are simple. “[The] Israelis are afraid that our spirit of resistance might reach other parts of Palestine. That’s why they keep hounding us.
“But these repeated arrests, raids, and sanctions only make us stronger, more united and determined to carry on,” he added.
Dozens of Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli strikes in central and south Gaza as Red Sea tensions rise.
Here’s how things stand on Monday, January 15, 2024:
Latest updates and human impact
- Israeli attacks continue unabated overnight killing and wounding dozens of civilians in central and southern Gaza. At least 22 people were killed and a large number injured as a result of Israeli forces targeting al-Thalatheni Street in the central Gaza Strip.
- Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired an antiship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea, which was shot down by a US fighter jet, announced US Central Command (CENTCOM) on X.
- This was the first US-acknowledged Houthi attack since the US strikes on Yemen on Friday.
- Hamas released a 37-second video showing three Israeli captives held in Gaza on Sunday, saying they would reveal the fate of the captives on Monday and urging the Israeli government to stop the offensive.
- The Israeli military says it has shifted to a new phase of the war focused on the southern end of Gaza, where almost 2 million internally displaced Palestinians are running out of safe spaces to shelter.
- The Gaza Ministry of Health has said almost 24,000 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive. More than 60,000 people have been wounded in 100 days of war.
Diplomacy
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his country will pursue its war against Hamas until victory and will not be stopped by anyone, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
- The White House said on Sunday that “it’s the right time” for Israel to scale back its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
- Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) said in a statement on Sunday that one of the biggest obstacles to the timely delivery of sufficient aid to Gaza was Israeli inspection of the aid. The statement came after Israel blamed Cairo for the delay in aid delivery to Gaza during its defence at the ICJ.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken posted on X on Monday, calling for the release of the remaining captives held in Gaza on the 100th day since they were taken by Hamas. He did not mention the Palestinian casualties.
- Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who described herself as a “friend of Israel” to the press, will travel to Jordan, Israel, the occupied Palestinian Territories and the United Arab Emirates this week, her office said on Monday.
West Bank raids and violence
- Israeli forces arrested 25 students staging a sit-in in protest against high tuition fees at An-Najah University in Nablus. Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut reported that the protesting students received a text message from Israeli forces telling them to “surrender now”.
- Israeli forces have reportedly raided the family home of Nael al-Barghouti, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, in the village of Kobar, in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
- The Israeli army said on Friday that it killed three Palestinian men who infiltrated a West Bank settlement and fired upon soldiers.
- The Israeli military killed two Palestinians after accusing them of ramming their car through a checkpoint near Hebron.
- Local sources reported that Israeli forces bulldozed two Palestinian-owned houses during a Sunday midnight raid in the city of Qalqilya, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
- Armed Israeli settlers broke into the village of Burin, south of Nablus, and attacked Palestinian residents’ houses and properties after midnight on Sunday, Wafa reported.
- “Violent raids and arrests have become part of the fabric of daily life in the occupied West Bank,” Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said. At least 347 Palestinians have been killed and thousands have been arrested since October 7.
Flames and smoke billow during Israeli attacks against Gaza on October 9, 2023
Human Rights Watch terms Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s call for a ‘complete siege’ on Gaza a ‘war crime’.
The Hamas movement has threatened to kill an Israeli hostage every time Israel bombs a Palestinian home without warning as Israel mobilised some 300,000 reservists and imposed a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, denying the enclave’s millions of residents access to food, water and fuel.
The warning from Hamas came on Monday as the death toll from the armed group’s surprise weekend attack climbed to 900 in Israel and revenge attacks by Israeli forces on the besieged Gaza Strip killed more than 700 people and left some 3,700 others wounded.
Residential apartment blocks, hospitals, schools and a mosque have been among the sites attacked by Israeli fighter jets, artillery and drones, according to media reports and witnesses.
Hamas spokesperson Abu Ubaida issued the threat to kill Israelis from the dozens held captive by the armed group. He said an Israeli hostage would be killed for every Israeli bombing of a civilian house without warning.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said more than 100 people were taken captive by Hamas during the deadly cross-border incursion over the weekend.
As Israeli forces conducted intense retaliatory attacks on Gaza on Monday, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant drew international condemnation by announcing a total blockade of the densely populated and besieged enclave, which is home to 2.3 million people.
Gallant said Israel would impose a “complete siege” on Gaza. “No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply distressed” by the siege announcement and warned that Gaza’s already dire humanitarian situation will now “only deteriorate exponentially”.
Guterres also said some 137,000 people were taking shelter with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) at schools across Gaza.
UNRWA said on Tuesday that almost 190,000 people have been displaced in Gaza amid the Israeli attacks and the figure is expected to grow further as the violence intensifies.
Nearly half a million people have also not received food rations this week in Gaza as UN food distribution centres have been forced to remain closed amid the Israeli onslaught, UNRWA said.
Human Rights Watch said Israel’s total blockade on the necessities of life for everyday people in Gaza was a war crime.
“Defense Minister Gallant’s statements are abhorrent,” Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
“Depriving the population in an occupied territory of food and electricity is collective punishment, which is a war crime, as is using starvation as a weapon of war. The International Criminal Court should take note of this call to commit a war crime,” he said.
Abhorrent. This is a call to commit a war crime by @yoavgallant. The @IntlCrimCourt should take note.
Quote by @OmarSShakir ⤵️ https://t.co/kKVo6YtpI1 pic.twitter.com/neHQMwnXVn
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) October 9, 2023
Shakir also condemned the threat by Hamas to kill hostages, warning that such action was also a war crime.
“All hostages should be safely released to their families,” he said.
Grotesque. These threatened acts would amount to flagrant war crimes by Hamas’ armed wing. The @IntlCrimCourt will be watching.
Quote from @OmarSShakir ⤵️ https://t.co/FuNtvHe0YG pic.twitter.com/6cnHODLWyZ
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) October 9, 2023
On the diplomatic front, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Hamas and Israel to immediately end violence and protect civilians, the Egyptian presidency said.
Erdogan urged Israel against “indiscriminately” attacking civilians and delivered measured criticism of Hamas, urging both sides to respect the “ethics” of war.
The United Kingdom, French, German, Italian and US governments issued a joint statement on Monday recognising the “legitimate aspirations” of the Palestinian people and supporting equal measures of justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
But the prospect that fighting could spread also alarmed the region and the world.
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in response to at least three of its members being killed in Israeli shelling of Lebanon.
Israel said one of its deputy commanders was also killed in an earlier cross-border raid from Lebanon.
US President Joe Biden holds a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York City, the US, September 20, 2023
Social media users, including journalists and observers, are calling out what they call a ‘double standard’.
After Saturday’s surprise attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to the social media platform X to offer “condolences go out to everyone who lost relatives or close ones in the terrorist attack”.
He also stated, “Israel’s right to self-defence is unquestionable.”
Many world leaders, including US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, shared similar sentiments.
The world is seeing appalling images.
Thousands of rockets raining down on Israeli cities. Hamas terrorists killing not only Israeli soldiers, but civilians on the streets and in their homes.
It’s unconscionable. Israel has a right to defend itself – full stop.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 7, 2023
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated, “Israel has the right to defend itself – today and in the days to come. The European Union stands with Israel.”
Accusations of Western ‘double standards’
Some social media users have criticised these statements, saying they highlight a double standard.
The world is seeing appalling images.
Thousands of rockets raining down on Israeli cities. Hamas terrorists killing not only Israeli soldiers, but civilians on the streets and in their homes.
It’s unconscionable. Israel has a right to defend itself – full stop.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 7, 2023
Ukraine’s right to defend itself is praised by most international leaders while Russia’s invasion is condemned, but commentators said the same cannot be said about Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Aaron Bastani, a leftist British journalist, said on X that there’s a “clear double standard in endorsing terrorism against civilian targets in Ukraine … and condemning it by Palestinians”.
Many users said Western diplomats and media support the Ukrainians who defend their land, but label the Palestinians fighting against Israel as “terrorists”.
https://twitter.com/KhaledBeydoun/status/1710787817415082349?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710787817415082349%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine
An illustration of a woman’s face, in which one eye is closed beside a Palestinian flag, and one eye open beside a Ukrainian flag, has been regularly shared as a symbol of the West’s alleged double standards in how the two conflicts are viewed.
https://twitter.com/OnlinePalEng/status/1710994682883273172?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710994682883273172%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine
Clips also emerged on social media from a CNN interview with Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, in which he posed the rhetorical question, “Why does the United States support Ukraine in fighting occupation – while here they support the occupier, who continues to occupy us?”
The hypocrisy and double standards of western governments and media platforms dealing with situations in Ukraine-Russia and Palestine-Israel blow the mind. Absolute disgrace.
— Said Yacoubi (@AlyacoubiSaid) October 8, 2023
It is not the first time Western nations have been accused of double standards in their stance on the Ukraine war.
Earlier in the year, Amnesty International published a report highlighting the West’s “double standards” on global human rights.
Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general, told Al Jazeera at the time that the occupation of Palestinian territory was a “particularly important one”.
“Without making any comparison between Russia’s aggression and Israel … it is clear the Palestinian people are under a regime of oppression – a regime of occupation and a regime of apartheid,” Callamard told Al Jazeera.
Over the last three days, X users recirculated earlier statements calling out what they called Western hypocrisy, sharing video by the Irish lawmaker Richard Boyd Barrett from March 2022 in which he berated the Irish government’s double standards regarding Ukraine and Palestine:
“You’re happy to use the most strong and robust language to describe the crimes against humanity of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, but you will not use the same strength of language when it comes to describing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.”
Barrett on Sunday again called out what he described as “shocking double standards of Western leaders supporting Ukraine resistance but condemning Palestinian[s].”
Meanwhile, others warned against comparing conflicts.
https://twitter.com/denfordauthor/status/1710993737738768607?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710993737738768607%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine
And some cautioned that Hamas and the Palestinians should not be seen as one and the same.
Just to clarify:
Palestine did not mount an attack on Israel. An Iranian proxy militia did. Palestinians are by and large huddled in their homes praying that an Israeli airstrike won't kill them or theirs. Hamas is the culprit here. This isn't a decentralized grassroots thing.
— Romeo Kokriatski (@VagrantJourno) October 9, 2023
Ukrainian footballer Oleksandr Zinchenko, who plays for Arsenal, posted on Instagram, stating he “stands with Israel”.
Zinchenko has been a vocal supporter of his home country in its ongoing defence against Russia, and he participated in a Game4Ukraine charity match in London earlier this year to raise money for Ukraine.
After online backlash, with some questioning an alleged double standard in his support of Israel, the footballer removed the post and switched his social media account to private.
Several people claimed that Zinchenko’s football club, in not responding to his comments, was guilty of hypocrisy after they had distanced themselves from former player Mesut Ozil’s comments in 2019 over alleged human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims in China.
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