ONCE again, Israel is on the rampage in the occupied territories. Whilst most incursions over the recent past have devastated Gaza, this time it is the West Bank’s turn to face the Israeli war machine. At the centre of the storm is a new Palestinian armed resistance group, the Lions’ Den, based out of Nablus and composed of young fighters belonging to Fatah, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Israeli media has termed the new group a “major headache”, and Nablus has been facing a “state of war” for the past several weeks, say Palestinian journalists. The apparent spark that led to the current round of violence has been the killing of an Israeli soldier on Oct 11 near an illegal settlement by Palestinian fighters. Israel, typically, has responded with great brutality, with Palestinians describing the Israeli reaction as an ‘invasion’. Five Palestinian men, including Lions’ Den fighters, as well as non-combatants, were killed on Tuesday, resulting in Arab outrage and a massive outpouring of mourners at the funerals. In the latest violence, two Palestinian men were shot dead by Israeli forces at a checkpoint near Nablus on Friday.
The emergence of new armed groups is a reflection of the fact that the Arab-Israeli peace process is dead. In fact, many younger Palestinians, who have failed to see any benefits of negotiations, and have directly felt the brutal force of the Israeli occupiers, term their ageing leadership ‘collaborators’ of Tel Aviv. It is telling that young Arabs are willing to leave established Palestinian parties and directly take on the occupation. When talks with Israel have given the Arab side nothing but more illegal settlements, and more bodies to bury, greater resistance is but the natural outcome. Sadly, the international community that has shed tears over Russia’s occupation of Ukraine, has failed to express similar remorse over Israel’s over five-decade-old occupation of the Palestinian territories, while numerous Arab states continue to bend over backwards to develop relations with Israel.
Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2022
