According to the admissions of the Israelis themselves “Jenin refugee camp was the site where the Israeli army paid the highest price.”[1] For Israeli forces were utterly to charge the camp for seven days on end. “The battles that raged in the camp were fierce and heavily laden with casualties on the Israeli side. Therefore, the Israeli army decided to use giant bulldozers to pull down the houses, which were scenes of bitter fighting. Infantry troops as well as tanks could not force their way into them, and failed to purge these houses through pushing infantry troops into them.[2] The Palestinian fighters and civilians in the camp did display incredibly stiff resistance completely unexpected by Israelis who were humiliated and demoralized. On his part, Sharon, the bulldozer of Israeli terrorism, was brooding. Massacres, destruction and ruin for the Palestinians. For all what has been said above, General Shaul Mofaz, chief of staff of the Israeli army, “personally took command of the offensive launched against the camp after the senior commanders of the Israeli army had failed in all previous attacks mounted against it”[3]

 

The Israelis accordingly sent to battle large columns of tanks, armoured personnel carries and bulldozers supported by a formidable air cover of Apache and other helicopters motivated by grudge, malice and horrible revengeful desires which whetted the appetite of the occupation army officers and other ranks. This was translated on the ground into intensive killing and destruction rising to the level of the ugliest war crimes.

 

The occupation army perpetrated wholesale and collective bloody carnage in the camp. The carnage of total destruction and mass deportation of civilians not to mention all the criminal violations against the wounded and non-combatants in wartime when the occupation forces completely sealed off the camp and cut off water, electricity, communication and food supplies. The occupation forces also banned all types of relief to the wounded, to children, women and old people. It was the comprehensive Zionist slaughter against human beings and buildings. The massacre which opened the Palestinian wound and affliction to the severest and profoundest extent, the carnage which reopened the file of Zionist atrocities in a most vehement and pervasive manner right form Deir Yasin to Jenin refugee camp.

1-1- The massacre: Scenes of Killing, Destruction and Ruin:

During its offensive which targeted Jenin refugee camp, the occupation army intended to destroy all life facilities to such a degree that no house, institution or resident in the camp escaped throughout, the bombardment and violent incursions which included the UNRWA School.

For although the UN. Signs and flags were clearly displayed at the school entrance; Israeli tanks and planes showered it with machinegun fire and several missiles landed inside its walls. This was not apparently enough for the attackers. Thus a detachment of 50 troops broke into the school; and played havoc there without any regard whatsoever to all international conventions and covenants.[4]

 

From the beginning of the Israeli onslaught against the camp after Israeli security sources had branded the place as

“a base for resistance organizations and a starting point for destructive and saboteur groups, tanks and bulldozers destroyed and blasted the front walls of dozens of houses which were also severely mishandled frominside.[5]

 

• Samir al-Sa’di said that

without warning, the troops demolished the gate of his house. Over fifty troops broke in and led him and his family, which consisted of over 50 people and locked them up in a small room. Then they went to all other rooms and badly damaged all contents and furniture. When he protested they fired at him. Then he added: “I miraculously escaped death. They treated us with much severity and within one single hour they twice broke into the house.” (From al-Quds newspaper report)[6]

 

• Abu Ali Qwais, another resident in the camp said that

while he was sitting with his family at their home they were surprised with a shower of bullets over their heads and bombs fired at the main door of the house and (Israeli) troops asking him to open the door threatening him to blow up the house.

He said:

“they asked for opening the door while they were shooting at the same time. I shouted asking them to stop firing in order that I may be able to open the door. But while I was approaching they shouted louder while their bombs were still thrown at a higher rate. Then they broke the door open and entered drawing and levelling their weapons. They knocked me down ignoring that I was walking on a crutch. They packed us in the kitchen heavily guarded, while the rest ransacked the house and damaged all what they could lay their hands on. They mixed up the foodstuffs, smashed the furniture and, for five hours, they even prevented us from having any food or drink”.[7]

 

• Jamal al-Shati, Member of the Palestinians Legislative Council said:

“the Israeli forces indiscriminately shelled quarters and houses, which led to burning down more than twenty buildings. Some of their ,inhabitants, particularly children, received burns and other injuries. Ambulances, emergency and civil defence vehicles were denied access to his house”.[8]

 

• Mahmoud Abu Salah said

that a missile landed inside his house, which was completely reduced to ashes. He recalled that he had gotten married only one month before and he was paying for the furniture, which had bought on installments basis. Nasif al-Labadi’s house, on the other hand, was set on fire two days after it had been occupied. Labadi said, “They broke into the house, drove us out and laid ambushes for young men. When they failed to capture any of them, they set fire to the furniture. Everything was burnt down. My wife and I became practically homeless and had nothing to sleep on”.[9]

 

• Colonel Abu Mazen, Civil Defence Commander of the northern governments of the West Bank, reported that

“The Israeli army deliberately disrupted all the Civil Defence teams activities and actions. Thereby it caused the destruction of a large number of houses. Civil Defence vehicles were fired at, which endangered the lives of their personnel. This, of course, contradicts the simplest rules of human rights because fires may cause very dangerous explosions especially in populated areas and packed population concentrations”.

 

• Ata Abu Rmayleh, Chairman of the Popular Committee for Services, said,

“The Israeli caused serious damage and heavy losses to all infrastructure facilities in the camp. It bombarded the power transformers and electricity poles to keep the camp in utter darkness for several days. It destroyed the telecommunication lines and waternetworks while the tanks deliberately crushed over 20 vehicles that were parked in safe areas and grounded without carrying out any activities. Some of these cars were burnt down”. He added that the troops set fire to a number of stores while Israeli bullets targeted other stores and destroyed their contents. In fact there was no house in the camp that was not destroyed or riddled with bullets”.[10]

 

• According to Shaykh Khalid al-Haj of HAMAS Movement,

“Even mosques did not escape air bombing or tank shelling”.

He went on to say:

“Israeli troops emphasized (the word emphasized does not make sense here) and humiliated people. They detained children, tore to pieces copies of the Holy Quran, religion books, martyrs portraits; confiscated computer discs and electric appliances and, willfully provoked the people by reviling God the Almighty. They threatened the families of wanted young men and women to liquidate the latter and demolish their houses if they did not surrender themselves. All this took place under the nose of the world, which still behaves as if it were unconcerned. The question however, remains: “Till what time will this situation continue while Israel does not hesitate to kill even children, handicapped people, first aid men and medical orderlies?”

 

The Israeli siege of the camp included Jerusalem Open University and UNRWA schools.

• Sharif Tahayneh, a member of al –Jihad al-Islami Movement said:

“ Tanks are permanently stationed in the streets leading to UNRWA schools. Israeli forces have positioned several tanks and an observation post just opposite to the schools, which led to closing down the schools and preventing hundreds of students from regular attendance. For tank shoot at any moving thing in the area. A number of people were injured while they were trying to pass the area. This confirms that the Israeli army intended to paralyses all life facilities and cause fundamental destruction of the teaching process”. He recalled that the troops shot at children inside their own homes and would not, therefore, hesitate to target the students.[11]

1-2- The Center of the Camp is like Berlin in 1945

Piere Bar Bancy, the journalist who works for “Le Humanitie” newspaper, the organ of the French Communist Party, who spent 48 hours at the camp near Jalameh road block, said:

“According to testimonies made by Palestinians, the Israeli Army buried dead bodies in the large pit of the central square of the camp and filled it up with cement”. He added that the central part of the camp looked like Berlin in 1945 because of the horrible size of destruction”.[12]

He also reported that he smelled the stench of dead bodies and saw heaps of rubbish and insects and stunning health conditions, children and women crying while they were carrying their babies because they were no longer able to clean them owing to water shortage. Children food and milk are almost no longer existent”.

He went on say,

“At the Hawwashin Square, the middle of the camp, the sight is reminiscent of Berlin scenes in 1945. Everything is practically destroyed. The entire camp is damaged in varying degrees. Destruction is less in the upper part of the camp, but in the lower part we see complete devastation”.

 

The French journalist explained that

during the couple of nights he spent in the camp, he heard the roaring Israeli bulldozers working in the streets especially at the first night (Friday/Saturday). “We could no longer see corpses in the middle of the camp. In two different buildings, I saw a completely incinerated body and two others under the rubble. According to numerous testimonies, the corpses were thrown into a pit in the middle of Hawwashin Square and then covered with earth. Since then the Israeli army has been dumping the debris of demolished houses over this pit”.

 

After he had entered the Jenin refugee camp, Tsadok Yahizqili, the correspondent of the Israeli newspaper Yohdat Ahronot, said:

A preliminary cursory round in the camp reveals a number of facts: ruin and destruction glaringly present everywhere; many families rendered homeless, without sustainer and without food and dozens of putrified corpses still left inside the houses.

 

The camp suffered a great deal of ruin. This caused a severe predicament to the civilian population and mowed down scores of victims, dozens of decomposed bodies are still strewn in the houses.

 

The correspondent claims that so far there is no evidence that a wholesale massacre has been carried out but he said

“ Hundreds of innocent people have been killed and wounded ; at least four hundred in number ”.[13]

 

The Israeli correspondent goes on to say:

“But even if the issue of the number of killed people remained something like a puzzle, the general appearance of the camp leaves no doubt whatsoever concerning the formidable human problem which happened here. The destruction and debris to which the camp has been subjected are unprecedented in the Palestinian territories. For the center of the camp looks as if it had suffered from an earthquake. The signet no longer reveals houses with their walls blasted or riddled with holes caused by shells and rockets. In fact, entire houses have disappeared from the surface of the ground. The huge damage inflicted is the one caused by the intense if not hectic activity of helicopters.

Hundreds of families are left homeless. The Israel army led away about one thousands men of the camp’s inhabitants. Those of them who were not wanted were released but they were left at a distance of ten kilometers from the camp without food or any other help. Their families still do not know what happened to them”.

Then he goes on to say:

“The vast majority of these camp inhabitants now are women and children.When we entered the house of the Abu Saraya family the mother and her children were having their meal which consisted of a plateful of mujaddarah (rice and lentils) and some bread on the floor of the room. The refrigerator is empty. Nothing is left in it. The father and the eldest son were arrested. The eldest daughter relinquished her share of the lunch meal and looked at me with potent grief. I asked her about her name. She said: My name is Salam (“peace” in Arabic), but I do not like this name anymore”.

 

• Eyewitness, most of whom were women and children who were evicted by the Israeli army, told how the troops demolished their houses and chased them out from house to house with bulldozers before they forced them to flee half naked and barefooted. These people emphasized that

“they saw Israeli troops forcing men and youths to lie prostrate on the ground and stamp their bodies with seals before they led them away to unknown places.[14]

• Ra’idah al-Qrayni (45 years), one of these witness, said sobbing:

“Their bulldozers chased us from house to house. Then the troops arrived and took my husband and son”.[15]

• She added:

“They killed our neighbor Raja Abu al-Seha (70 years) in cold blood and also killed the wife and the daughter of Eisa al-Wishahi, our neighbor”.

 

• Nayef Suwaitat, a FATH Movement official in Jenin, said that

the Israeli army used about one hundred tanks and over one thousand men in the attack. The U.S.–made Cobra and Apache helicopters were incessantly pouring their missiles over the camp.[16]

 

• Fighters whom the France Presse Agency contacted, said:

“The dead bodies of martyrs filled the street while all places were overcrowded with the wounded. Meanwhile the Israeli army prohibited entry to medical teams, ambulances and pressmen”.[17]

 

• Jmal Abu Al-Haija, one of the fighters, said

“They (Israeli troops) demolish houses over the inhabitants and their bulldozers clear the debris together with the dead bodies underneath ”.[18]

1-3- Israeli troops kill even canary birds:

• A Palestinian woman, Tamam Raja, said that

she was huddled shivering under her blanket when she heard the cries for help and anguished appeals from her neighbors whose house caved in over their heads after Israeli helicopters showered their missiles on a number of houses.

When an Israeli sniper hit her son-in-law in a room on the top floor of the same house the members of the family and Tamam were crying and sighing, for they could do nothing to stop the continuous bleeding after he was hit by the Israeli sniper’s bullets. About fifteen minutes later, a helicopter which the U.S. provides Israel, fired another salvo of missiles which buried the poor bleeding man alive and his shouts for help were no longer heard.[19]

 

Regardless of the final number of victims, the Palestinians who fled or were evicted from the camp during the last days of fighting gave accounts of most repugnant scenes of destruction, horrible attacks and inhuman treatment by Israeli troops.

• These people said:

“Israeli troops fired randomly and shot at people through the windows of the latter’s houses and used civilians as human shields when they carried out house- to- house searches. The Israelis went so far as to cut off the heads of the canary birds kept by one of the camp inhabitants who was an aviarist.[20]

 

• Muhammad Ali (17 years), an inhabitant of the camp said,

“When bombing started, it caused splintering of the glass panes of windows everywhere in the camp. Ali and his family sheltered themselves in the kitchen which they regarded to be strongest part of the house”. He went on to say that when the neighboring houses were subjected to the helicopter missiles from the air and the bulldozers from the ground he risked his life and looked out of the window to see what was going on outside his house. He actually saw the remains of five corpses, including that of a small child, under the rubble of a demolished building. He believed that they died because the house collapsed over them when it was destroyed by the bulldozers.[21]

1-4- Fourteen missiles fired at one house:

• Mahmoud Abu Samin (40 years) said that

“Israeli helicopters fired 14 missiles at this house and that Israeli troops were moving in the streets and told the inhabitants over fifteen years of age to go out to the street where they wereforced to take off their clothes”.

He added that

they forced him to accompany them and ordered him to open the doors of the houses and ask people to go out of their homes. When he returned to his home, he found that they had cut off the heads of all the canaries and other birdwhich he kept. Even the birds did not escape their brutal behavior, he commented.[22]

 

• Rabi’ah Najm said that

She and three other women in their twenties went out of the camp carrying with them four small children and a three months old infant.

She went on to say that they were forced out of their homes while Israeli troops arrested and beat up their husbands in front of them. She said that the Israelis told them to leave the houses; otherwise, they would collapse while the (women) were inside.

 

Rabi’a continued saying that

Israeli troops denuded the arrested Palestinians and placed them in front of a tank. When the women started to cry they placed them together with the children (all of whom were estimated at 150 in umber) inside small rooms.So far the fate of these detainees is not known.

 

• The Israelis admitted that

they pulled down the hoses inside the camp where the Palestinian fighters were besieged. [23]

Many Palestinians affirm that

they saw Israeli forces kill unarmed civilians. Male nurse Asa’d Hashshash said he saw with his own eyes “an Israeli sniper kill an aged Palestinian about 70 years old when the latter went outside his house to see some sunshine after several days of being held up inside”.

 

Hashshash, who could not reach the hospital he worked in for ten days on end, added that

an Israeli sniper murdered a shepherd; in both cases ambulance cars were not allowed to work. Hashshash, in this respect, confirms what others said that a person hit by Israeli snipers bullets will be left to bleed to death.

1-5- The first massacre of the century:

“Ya…Allah” (O,God!) were the first words to be uttered by Jamal Muhammad al-Fayid, a dumb person from Jenin,for the first time in his life!! Thus Israeli repression made even the mute Jamal who completed his forties speak. The first appeal articulated by him was made to Allah the almighty. This was the first word spoken by this speechless person who spent the past years of his life suffering from his handicap, a speech and motor handicap. The story began when the Israeli destructive machine started to level the house of Jamal and his family to the ground with children, women and elderly people under the ruins. At that time Jamal was not able to leave because of his handicaps. Abdul Hadi Abu al-Na’ji then gave the following account of the occupation crime, which was committed in cold blood against his incapacitated neighbor Jamal:

“What has happened is indescribable. The slaughter has proved to be incomprehensible, for the camp and the city were over run by about 500 tanks and PPC’s.

The camp where thousands of people live received over 350 missile fired by U.S.-made Apaches and over and above hundreds of artillery shells. [24]

He added

“The rocket and artillery missiles forced us to gather together in the ground floor of a neighboring house. Most of us were children, women and aged people”. He pointed out that Israeli bulldozers started to demolish the housewhich was hit by rocketand artillery shelling while dozens of unarmed civilians were inside.

 

Abu al-Niaj went on to say that the people managed in the last minutes to go out of the house and thereby Providence saved them from a horrible carnage.

He pointed out that bulldozers continue to pull down the houses without asking their inhabitants to evacuate them. Some managed to escape while others could not make it and remained under the debris without having any one to care for their dead bodies or give them any first aid if they were destined to survive.

Then he spoke about evicting him from his house together with his wife and their nine children after which they were moved form one house to another, while their own house lay at the center of the camp. Not to mention their suffering form severe hunger and thirst.

 

• In another statement made to Palestinian sources, Jamal al-Zubidi who was still inside the camp said that

he and others came across the dead bodies of five martyrswhich began to decompose and stink while birds of prey started to nibble them.

Al-Zubaidi added:

“The features of the martyrs were changed and it was only with great difficulty that three were identified as Mahmoud Tawalbeh, Shadi Nobani and Bashir Hamdouneh who was 80 years old”.

Then he gave an account of the corpses scattered in the camp lanes and under the debris while others were shovelled away and were changed and distorted beyond recognition. In his description of what happened to his house, which used to shelter thirteen persons, he told about air bombardment and how he had to move to a neighboring house. Anyhow, they had to leave it under heavy air raids until he was settled in another quarter where he is still besieged without food or drink.

 

• Umm Mus’ab, the widow of the martyr Mahmoud Musa, felt shocked at the silence observed at the atrocious slaughter perpetrated against the people of the camp. She said:

“We receive and accept congratulations for the loss of our martyrs who heroically fell in defence of their land and honor” and went on to say that “what has happened and what is happening now is unspeakable. Air raids and tanks shelling did not stop even for a moment. It did not spare any elderly person, child or women”. She recounted how occupation troops broke into her brother–in-law’s house where she and her children stayed,in addition to throwing sound bombs inside it. She emphasized that what did happen inside the camp is much similar to the Sabra and Shatila massacre especially because the butcher is the same.

 

• Antoine Jamal, a lad of 16, told how the occupation troops killed his young neighbor in cold blood, Antoine said,

“The Israeli told the men aged 15-45 to get out, which I did.On my way I met Jamal al-Sabbagh (35 years) who suffers from diabetes. The occupation troops forced them to take off their clothes. When Jamal tried to take his diabetes medicine the Israelis shot him dead. But al-Sabbagh’s martyrdom murder was not the only one executed simply for the sake of killing.

 

In fact there are numerous stories and reports about killing captives, old people and women and the burial of martyrs’ corpses under the rubble. Most of these will possibly be revealed upon the completion of the investigation of the massacre of the campwhich has been reduced to ruins, smelling of murder, blood and devastation.

1-6- The camp-martyrs, collective burials and attempts to conceal the crime:

1-6-1- With regard to the numbers of the Palestinians martyred and wounded in Jenin Refugee Camp,

• while General Shaul Mofaz, chief of the Staff of the Israeli army, announced at a session of the Israeli government that “about 200 Palestinians were killed and nearly 1500 others were wounded”. [25] Sa’ib Uraiqat, head of the Palestinian negotiation team on the other hand, announced that 500 Palestinians were killed all over the West Bank by the Israeli army, most of them fell in Jenin Refugee Camp.
• Meanwhile Haj Abu Ahmad, Commander and founder of the Aqsa Martyrs Battalions in the Camp announced that the number of martyrs in Jenin camp exceeds 400, many of whom were women, children and elderly. The Israeli army troops, on their part, liquidated most of the wounded Palestinians whether those who admit to or are found
• at the offensive launched against the camp or those who surrendered to the Israelis. [26]
• Munthir al-Sharif the Under-Secretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, said, “The number of martyrs in Jenin Camp amounted to 450”, adding that the martyrs carried to Jenin Hospital number 23 only. He wondered, in these contexts, if the Israelis admit that hundreds of Palestinians were martyred, where are the rest of the dead bodies?? [27] Al –Sharif emphasized that “the Israeli army perpetrated an ugly massacre in Jenin camp. The insistence of the Israelis on preventing the Red Cross, the Red Crescent and many legal institutions from entry to the camp is an evidence that Israelis are trying to conceal their crime”.

 

1-6-2- An attempt to hide the mass killing

In an attempt to hide the mass killing of the people of Jenin, there are different successive accounts of collective burial operations carried out by Israeli occupation troops of hundreds of dead in unknown places.

• In this respect, Arab members of the Israeli Knesset affirmed that they received daily telephone calls from citizens who, in turn, asserted that they saw collective burial operations at places far away from one another.
• Ahmad Tibi, the Arab Member of the Knesset said that

he had received a call from a Palestinian in which the latter affirmed that he had seen a collective burial operation in the Jericho area. [28]

He added:

“we daily receive indications which confirm that there is an Israeli attempt to hide a slaughter and a crime of war perpetrated in Jenin camp and the Israeli army is trying to conceal it.”

Dr. Tibi pointed out that

the Israeli army’s insistence on banning the Red Cross entry to the camp is an evidence to the fact that they are trying to keep secret a crime which they wanted nobody to know.

 

• In the same context, the Palestinian Organization for Human Rights appealed to Maty Robinson, the High Commissioner (?) for Human Rights, to investigate Israeli massacres in Jenin camp.

In a statement it issued, the aforesaid Palestinian Organisation said:

“We have been informed by our reliable sources in Jenin that two Israeli military trucks carried the corpses of the Palestinian martyrs form Jenin camp on the night of April 12 and made for the Ghor (Jordan Valley) area (Specifically Jiftlik) near the border with Jordan.” [29]

 

The statement went on to say,

“Local people assure us that the occupation forces try to cover up crimes. But many dead bodies are still under the debris, particularly in the three quarters of the camps which were completely destroyed.

“Consequently we appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee, Amnesty International and all concerned international bodies to send specialized investigation committees to find out the facts about execution of prisoners, arrest and detention of civilians, breaking the houses open, destruction of houses and depriving people, including children even of a drink of water.

 

• In the same context, the Arab member of Israeli Knesset Dr. Ahmad Tibi together with a number of the Arab Movement for Change including Dr. Rizq Atrash,wereable to break through the siege and reach the villages of Rummaneh and Zboubah on the outskirts of Jenin camp. There Deputy Tibi, who was the first Arab Knesset member to break through the siege, met hundreds of the inhabitants of Jenin camp who were recently evicted to these two villages.

Dr. Tibi and the accompanying delegation listened to first-hand evidence about the carnage executed in the camp by the Israeli military authorities. These testimonies were documented together with affidavits by Lawyer Anwar Zabaraqah. Dr. Tibi said:

“The statement we have heard go beyond all that has been mentioned so far in the media”. According to the evidence he heard, Dr. Tibi confirmed that there were summary field executions, pulling down houses over their civilian inhabitants and transportation of the dead bodies of martyrs to areas outside the camp in addition to the Israeli attempts to obliterate the traces of the crime by dumping debris and earth from destroyed houses.

 

Tibi promised to “pursuethe war criminals and see to it that they are brought before the War Crimes Court in The Hague. This is a promise we made in front of you and we will not rest until the perpetrators have duly paid for their crime.”

• According to the evidence presented, Knesset Member Tibi revealed that

“a number of Israeli troops who executed the massacre belonged to the “South Lebanon Army”. A number of these Lahdists (got this name after Antoine Lahd, the commander of the so-called Israeli – sponsored “South Lebanon Army” – Translator) said that they came to stage “ Sabra and Shatila No.2”.

• Lawyer Anwar Zabarqah, on his part, said:

“We document these testimonies to put them before the judiciary bodies through which the latter civilians(this last part of the sentence does not make sense). The Israeli army, on the other hand, rejects these charges, stressing that the Palestinians who were killed in Jenin fell during the fighting and that the Israeli army did not carry out mass burials and dig collective graves.

1-7- The massacre: conviction and incrimination testimonies:

The Israeli government launched an intensive media campaign at the international level in a desperate attempt to deny that a massacre had taken place in Jenin Accordingly, it mobilized all its various information and propaganda potentials to explain to the world that

“What has taken place in Jenin Refugee Camp is not Sabra and Shatilla II.” [30]

But it was a military affair and a battle between the Israeli army and Palestinian terrorists. In that battle fifty Palestinians were killed including forty-seven terrorists and only three civilians”, according to the allegations of Shimeon Peretz the Israeli Foreign Minister, which he made before the European Conference held in Valencia. [31]

 

• Meanwhile, David Eleazar, Israeli Minister of War, claimed that

“only dozens were killed in Jenin camp.” [32]

 

• Ahmad Abdul-Rahman, Secretary General of the Council of Ministers of the Palestinian National Authority, told France Presse Agency that

“Hundreds were martyred as a result of the slaughters perpetrated by the occupation troops and that the concealment of the dead bodies by the Israeli army is an indicator of the high numbers and quality of those who were slaughtered.” [33]

He went on to say,

“The statements made by Ben Eleazar do not exonerate him nor do they relieve the Israeli Prime Minster Areil Sharon form the responsibility for these crimes and carnages committed against humanity.” Sharon’s government is trying to cover up the crimes and massacres perpetrated particularly in Jenin camp.

He also pointed out that

if the martyrs had been fighters, the Israelis would have left them in the street. But the Israeli army killed out entire families including children, women, old people and invalids. He demanded that it was necessary to immediately set up an international investigation committee to prepare an urgent report on the crimes and massacres committed by the Sharon government in Jenin Camp.

 

• Interestingly enough, the testimonies and admissions made by Israelis themselves may be the most eloquent and most condemnatory. Therefore, in an internal debate when Shimeon Peretz himself describes the Israeli army operation in Jenin camp as

a massacre lest the Israeli image should be adversely affected abroad, [34]

this admission constitutes an open and clear irrefutable condemnation of the Hebraic state of perpetrating a slaughter and war crimes in the camp.

 

• The women who formerly headed Merets Movement corroborated the admission of Peretz by publicly declaring that

“Sharon and Mofaz committed crimes against humanity and therefore it is not unlikely that there will be demands to bring them to the court as accused of having committed war crimes.” [35]

• Uri Avnery, the Israeli Journalist and writer and one of the leads of the Israeli Peace Movement hastened to condemn Sharon’s government when he said in an interview with “ Sadbrucker Tseitung”, a German newspaper, (April 19,2002),

“the Israeli army committed war crimes in Jenin camp”

• Meanwhile Yussi Sarid, leader of the Meret Movement, wrote in the “Yadeot Ahronot” newspaper (April 21, 2002), admitting that

“A horrible tragedy took place in Jenin Camp

• At the international level, on the other hand, the “Guardian” British newspaper said that

“When Israeli kills hundreds of Palestinian civilians, intimidates children, follows a humiliation policy, destroys Palestinian institutions and converts holy places into battlefields, this is an incarnation of terror.” [36]

In a leading article the newspaper goes on to say:

“It is the duty of the world to face the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who ignored the American, European and regional demand to stop his operations against the Palestinians ands even went ahead in this terrorist campaign in Palestinian territories”

 

• Amnesty International, on the other hand, labeled the Israeli offensive against Palestinian territories as a “collective punishment” and condemned the Israeli troops’ behavior which, if it had happened anywhere else, they would have been brought to trial before a military court.

In a statement of the organization which defends human rights and has its headquarters in London, it says:

“The conduct of the Israeli army makes one apprehensive that the main objective of the operation is to deal a collective punishment to all Palestinians.” [37]

The organization also felt that

“the flagrant violations of human rights committed by the Israeli army have reached an unprecedented level.” With the operation it launched on March 29,2002.

 

• The UN. Human Rights Committee convicted Israel of perpetrating “mass killing” against the Palestinians and asked it to put an end to its military expedition in Palestinian territories. The committee whose head office is located in Geneva approved in its annual session the draft resolution tabled by Arab and Muslim countries which criticizes Israel also because of the “grave violations of human rights” and confirms the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to resistance.” [38]

 

The testimony announced by Peter Hansen, Director General of UNRWA and Terry Rod-Larson, UN. Special Envoy may be among the strongest ones that condemn the occupying state of Israel of perpetrating a “Massacre” in Jenin Camp.

• Following a visit he made to Jenin camp, Pete Hansen, Director of UNRWA said that

“the situation in Jenin camp is hell in the fullest sense of the word and it is by no means an exaggeration to describe that as a carnage.” [39]

He added:

“so far I have refrained from using the term “carnage”; but having seen reality with my own eyes, I cannot use any other term.” He went on to say that he was shocked at the sight of the camp.

Hansen said:

“I saw people who were stunned after the destruction of their houses. I also saw families extricating dead bodies from under the rubble. A seismologist who accompanied me in Jenin said he hadn’t seen for along time a ruin of such a massive size.”

 

Terry Ro-Larson, UN. Special Envoy, on his part, said upon his visit to the camp that

“the devastation in the camp testifies to unimaginable atrocities.”

He added upon his visit to the camp with UN. and International Cross delegates that

“the camp was totally destroyed, so much so, that it looked as if an earthquake had befallen the camp.”

In a statement made to France Presse Agency he emphatically said:

“this is absolutely unacceptable. It is hideous beyond imagination”,

and continued,

“We have experts who are used to war and earthquakes. They assert that they have never seen such things.”

 

• In one of its reports, American Human Rights Watch, accused the

Israeli army of forcing Palestinian civilians to help it during its operations. Human Rights Watch feels that such practices are classified as war crimes. [40]

 

• Peter Burckardt, the official who compiled the report and who is charged by the aforesaid organization with investigating emergency cases and situations, said:

“We feel that such events take place during almost all the raids launched by the Israeli army in the West Bank.”

 

• William Burns, Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of State, bashfully acknowledge the massacre. In the tortuous statement he made after the visit he paid together with Andre Vidovin, the Russian Envoy, to the camp:

“I think that what we see here is a horrible human tragedy, and what has happened in Jenin camp has caused tremendous human suffering to thousands of Palestinian civilians.” [41]

 

Thus through all this large quantity of Israeli and international confessions and testimonies which are only the tip of the iceberg; irrefutable and glaring evidence condemn the Israeli state and occupation forces of committing a wholesale carnage against the Palestinians. This constitutes an abominable war crime in the full sense of the term. It certainly requires a serious pause and a firm stand first by the Arabs, secondly by the international community and thirdly by the United Nations to bring Israel’s leaders and generals to the International Court of War Crimes.

[1]. “Ha’aret”anewspaper April 7,2002.

[2]. Ibid.

[3]. Israeli newspapers and news agencies April 8,2002.

[4]. “Al-Quds” newspaper.

[5]. Ibid.

[6]. Ibid.

[7]. Ibid.

[8]. Ibid.

[9]. Ibid.

[10]. Ibid.

[11]. Ibid.

[12]. Quoted from “ Al-Dustor”, Jordanian newspaper, April 15,2002.

[13]. “Yaeot Ahronot”, newspaper April 14,2002.

[14]. “Al-Quds” Jerusalem newspaper April 11,2002.

[15]. Ibid.

[16]. France Presse Agency.

[17]. Ibid.

[18]. Ibid.

[19]. The “ Washington Post” newspaper, April 14,2002.

[20]. Ibid.

[21]. Ibid.

[22]. Ibid.

[23]. Israeli newspaper- “ Haaretz”, April 13,2002.

[24]. News Agencies. April 15,2002.

[25]. “Yadeot Ahronot”hnewspaper, April 7,2002.

[26]. Quds Press, April 13,2002.

[27]. French News Agency, April 14,2002.

[28]. News Agencies, Arab Press, “ Al-Quds”, and “al-Rai”aJordanian newspaper, April 14,2002.

[29]. News Agencies, April 15,2002.

[30]. “ Haaretz”, April 15,2002.

[31]. Agenciesand Israeli, newspapers. April 24,2002.

[32]. Israeli Army Radio, April 14,2002.

[33]. France Presse Agency April 14,2002.

[34]. “Haaretz”aApril 11,2002.

[35]. “Ma’ariv”, April 11,2002.

[36]. the “Guardian” newspaper April 9,2002.

[37]. “Al-Quds” newspaper April 9,2002.

[38]. Agencies April 16,2002.

[39]. News Agencies, April 19,2002.

[40]. France Presse Agency: April 19,2002 .

[41]. News Agencies, “ al-Quds” newspaper, Jerusalem.

 

Section Two

Jenin Refugee Camp – Testimonies On Heroism And Pride

 

What happened in the Jenin refugee camp over a stretch of 10 days from the first to the tenth of April 2002 represents an embodiment of the of the above title: “An Epic and a Massacre.”

It is a time when the occupying state and its military committed an atrocious massacre and heinous war crimes in clear daylight and in front of the eyes and ears of an entire world that kept completely silent and content to issue reserved press statements. But it was also a time when the Palestinians fought a big and an extremely honorable battle before and during which they swore to fight until the last bullet, gasp last breath.

 

They bravely fought in a great battle of martyrdom never witnessed before in all the wars and battles that took place against the Israeli occupation over the past decades. What happened in the Jenin refugee camp did not really come without any introduction or prior warning, there were in fact several clear indications. What happened in the camp reopened again, and more than any other events the files of the Arab – Israeli conflict and in its entirety. Most notably the Nakba file in all of its events, details, headlines, and repercussions especially those of the massacres and horrors of the heinous Zionist war. A war whose toll exceeded all limits and boundaries and should have increasingly constituted that the occupying state be held accountable for compensation promptly and duly.

 

What happened in the camp also crowned the march of the Palestinian struggle, resistance, and sacrifice on the road to Palestinian independence through a heroic and legendary epic never witnessed before…

2-1- The camp – An epo-pee of pride, honor and morale

Before the start of the destructive invasions of the “Defensive Shield”, it was quite clear to the Palestinians,

– “That the Israeli army is involved and showing great interest to intensify and multiply the killing of Palestinians and that this is mentioned in the Israeli army instructions,”^[1]

– And that Sharon will not stop before completing his military mission – as he declared it himself”^[2]

-” Israel is racing against time to accomplish its mission and objectives”^[3]

– And “that the Israeli army is accelerating the pace of military operations in the Palestinian territories aiming to achieve as much as possible of the goals of the Operation Defensive Shield plan”^[4].

 

Before the invasions of operation “Defensive Shield” started, Palestinians across all factions from Hamas to the Democratic and Popular Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine, to Fatah, and other national activists were determined to take a brave stand and resist because the battle as they understood it was;

– “A bone breaking battle testing the capabilities of the resistance, its level of resilience, and morale” and because,

– “The battle is a monumental battle for the rights to exist, to belong and have an identity.”

These idealistic realizations were displayed and manifested in the brightest of ways in the epic battle of Jenin refugees camp. For the people of the camp, fighters and civilians, children and the elderly, recorded the finest of verses on tenacity, pride, and honor despite the horrendous imbalance of power between the two sides. The countless testimonies and confessions that amassed afterwards to forcefully confirm the reality of this Palestinian legendary event in the Jenin refugee camp.

2-2- Israeli testimonies and confessions

A large number of Israeli testimonies, confessions, reports and analyses accumulated over the course of the battle and the invasion of the Jenin refugee camp to show with utmost clarity and certainty that the Palestinian fighters backed by civilians in the camp succeeded not only in holding their ground against tanks, helicopters, missiles and units of the Israeli army fighting for ten full days, but that in contrast with their numbers and arms, Arab armies were unable to do. Not stopping at that they engaged the the Israeli special forces units in brave fights reflected in high Israeli casualties that reached 23 dead and over 200 injured, a number unheard of before, even in previous Israeli confessions in bigger and more comprehensive military battles with Arab armies.^[5]

2-2-1 Fierce fighting and crazy incentives

• One of the Israeli military engineering battalion soldiers confessed, saying:

“The situation there is frightening, it is better not to go in there,”^[6]

and he added:

“We are moving from house to house, but they are fiercely fighting”

 

• In a report by the Hebrew newspaper:

“Armed Palestinian militants are not leaving the camp, and they are fighting… They have planted hundreds of roadside bombs and prepared bombed cars… they have crazy incentives, they fight fiercely and do not surrender”

• Another Israeli soldier, describing the fighting in the camp added:

“What is happening there is like untamed West, and soldiers are receiving Palestinian fire from all directions, dozens of improvised explosive devices are flying over the heads of soldiers… and bullets are also passing near their heads.”

• A Hebrew newspaper recorded the following discussion between a soldier and his officer:

– The yelling soldier: they are shooting from all directions.

– The officer: Counter them with fire…

– The soldier: I cannot identify where the fire is coming from, they are firing from all directions.

– The officer: So fire towards all directions. ”

– An Israeli soldier from the Golani Brigade acknowledged saying:

“It’s the worst fight I’ve ever experienced, as I have never experienced one like that until now in all our battles in the region, wherever we go we face the fire and improvised explosives… and in every hole there is an armed Palestinian”^[7]

• The Hebrew newspaper Haaretz described the situation from the words of military sources

“The battle in the Jenin refugee camp was the most difficult confrontation with the Palestinians in the framework of Operation Defensive Shield. Despite four days passing after the entry of the army for the first time to the camp, they could not control the situation”^[8]

• The head of the division commander General Eyel Chlayn said to the radio station, the Voice of Israel:

“Palestinians have learned from previous battles and acquired some lessons, and started fighting the fiercest battles so far.”^[9]

2-2-2 Palestinian Masada

– A senior Israeli military source said regarding the battle in the camp:

“The armed Palestinians, who remain entrenched in the camp, want to turn the camp into a Palestinian Masada”… And the resistance there is very powerful…”^[10]

– A number of military leaders in the camp admitted:

“We started monitoring the situation and we felt helpless, fire was shot against everyone who dared to raise their head.”^[11]

– An Israeli soldier named Ron League, who was wounded in the camp, said:

“While we were moving, we entered into a narrow alley, and suddenly an explosive device that was thrown at us exploded, I do not know where it came from and after that another bomb exploded, and they started shooting at us heavily from all directions … and they simply started to hit us, and shot fire on us from the distance of 20 meters and I started shooting rocket-propelled grenades. I step my foot a bit outside, it got shot… and then the soldiers carried me to the ambulance. ”

– Another soldier added:

“Soldiers started running between the alleys, and when they arrived at a narrow alley surrounded by houses, an ambush was awaiting them. As the armed Palestinians let a large number of soldiers enter the alley, a suicide bomber blew himself up among them, at the same time were blown dozens of IEDs tied as a series, as heavy and accurate fires were shot from the windows of the houses towards the soldiers”^[12]

2-2-3- Hell and the worse trauma

Israeli soldiers, returning from battle, said that the Israeli forces that won against Palestinian towns in the West Bank without any hassle in the past, recalled the battle saying they faced “hell in Jenin refugee camp.”^[13]

• Israeli soldiers took photos on top of the tanks whereas others called their families from mobile phones and received a call from the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who fought all the Arab-Israeli wars.
• Soldiers told journalists

“The battle in Jenin has caused the worst shock to the strongest army in the Middle East during the Palestinian Intifada that erupted 18 months ago. 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in one day in an ambush timed very accurately by Palestinians who blew a building that was being searched by an Israeli unit then they started firing on another unit which rushed to the rescue of the first unit.

Israelis took with them a large number of wounded in Jenin, more than anywhere else. Fire from tanks, columns of smoke and dust rising in the air were seen above Jenin on Wednesday.Soldiers said that the battle was not over, even though they took over the place.

The ambush coincided with fierce fighting and close combat between Israeli armored forces that are trying to maneuver in the narrow winding streets of Jenin and in particular the refugee camp and groups of Palestinians.”^[14]

– The Sergeant Yaron Tsyeltsr,20-years-old,who served in secret armored vehicles equipped with machine guns of large caliber said:

“The last two days in Jenin were like hell… They were shooting from everywhere to everywhere… It was scary and it was an act of madness.”

– Tsyeltsr whose unit got a 24 hours break from fighting, while other soldiers arrived on trucks carrying tanks, said:

“Things grew harder after the easy startfrom Ramallah to Nablus to Jenin.” (awkward sentence need to rewrite)

 

• Nablus one of the largest cities in the West Bank showed the fiercest resistance in fierce fighting which happened in the old city, and then Jenin became angrier.
• Sergeant Dov Rivkin, a tank gunner, said

“Most of the time we could not get out of our tanks and military vehicles because the fire was very close and very intensive ,”

– Tsyeltsr said

“The Palestinians were well prepared in Jenin, specifically where cells of the resistance existed. I think that all our dead and our wounded fell as a result of bombs that were hidden in many different places in sewers…. as well as in women’s bags.”

– Oded Ben Aruya, a 20-year-old tank commander said:

“The ambush was a great shock for us in a war where anything could happen,” Rivkin said “Jenin was the worst thing I have ever encountered.”

2-2-4- The Curse of Jenin

Perhaps one of the most important Israeli analyses about the battle of Jenin is the commentary published by the newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, written by its military correspondent Roni Shaked, in which it says:

“In the last days, Jenin refugee camp turned into another Palestinian legend, as a symbol of Palestinian tenacious fighting, under the slogan” Victory or death. “^[15]

 

The ability to withstand and the high motivation of Palestinians are not the only reasons why the the mission the Israeli army in Jenin refugee camp was so difficult and dangerous. The heavy price paid within eight days of war is also contributed to the the financial conditions in the camp. For over a little more than half a square kilo meter, lived approximately 18 thousand people, many of them children in small houses not exceeding three floors and in an area where it is difficult to call streets as such with many complex and narrow alleys that resemble a maze.

These circumstances necessitate a house to house fight, and sometimes room to room all with limited ability to use air power and artillery out of a desire to limit as much as possible civilian casualties. Palestinians prepared well for the battle. Over the last month before the invasion, the camp was transformed into one single large workshop producing explosive materials. One camp residents said that the camp was turned into a large factory, where every child of 14 years old was working and every woman producing improvised explosive devices. Production was taking place in houses, alleys, streets and squares across the camp.

 

Palestinians planted explosives in every corner, on entrances, in the alleys, on electricity poles, in parked cars, and in houses. Especially those that they thought the Israeli army would enter. Weapons and ammunitions were collected from all over the Jenin area and all needed people were called from all the villages of the region to participate in the battle. Every family, as well as the national Islamic Committee, which was leading the Intifada in the camp, stored large amounts of food, water and medicines.

Before the start of the fighting a decision was taken to unite forces, turning Fatah, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad into a single force under the name of the “Palestinian Resistance”.

2-2-5- Jenin camp; the Palestinian Stalingrad

The Israeli military analyst, Reuven Pedatzur, revealed the results of Operation Defensive Shield in the Jenin refugee camp, in a commentary published by Haaretz newspaper, saying:

“The analysis of the results of the campaign shows that it was not a great military success. If the goal of the fight was as stated in the beginning, the”eradication” of terrorism, it has been shown that this goal cannot be achieved. The officers who repeated the claim that terrorism can be liquidated provided that the Israeli army is allowed to use its power in region “A” intensely, began to change their tone to not doing any other liquidation operation, but they recognized the fact that they can only try to reduce the size of terrorism.”^[16]

 

The Israeli military analyst added:

“The military operation itself has not always been efficient or professional, especially that it has suffered from short-term thinking even at the field level and the explanations put forward by the Israeli army, which refer to refrain from the use of air and artillery weapon in Jenin to avoid involvement, cannot cover the fact that the Israeli army had to fight for more than ten days and pay a high price in the lives of its members in order to dominate the refugee camp where a few dozen fighters were barricaded.

The failure lies in the poor planning and the use of inappropriate force and that the result was not previously expected.

If it was decided to occupy the refugee camp, why should it be done after fighting for more than a week while experienced Palestinians managed to prepare well for it?”.

The Israeli analyst concluded his comment, saying:

“The one who decided to occupy the refugee camp in Jenin made a mistake in analyzing the intelligence data and information as well as in understanding the impact of fighting in the camp. In all cases, if the Israeli army completed the occupation of the camp, this battle will be recorded as the Stalingrad of the Palestinian nation. Even before mentioning the isolation and lack of basic understanding of those who prevented for more than ten days the entry of humanitarian aid to the camp.”

2-3- Palestinian testimonies and others

The fighters of the Jenin refugee camp proved their ability not only to turn back the continuous Israeli army attacks, but they also switched to attack mode and cost their enemy unexpected losses.

Fighters, who were armed with automatic rifles forced the better equipped and stronger than most Israeli army, to request a cease-fire to evacuate the injured soldiers. A Palestinian official said that Israel asked for a cease-fire in the Jenin refugee camp, as Palestinian militants killed thirteen soldiers in one attack.

 

The official, who requested anonymity said:

“The Israelis requested for a ceasefire to evacuate their wounded soldiers in the Jenin refugee camp.”^[17]

 

The Palestinian widespread attack followed a seven consecutive days of attacks by the Israeli army tanks, military helicopters, high-intensity fires against the camp that is no larger than 100 thousand square meters and is inhabited by about ten thousand people.

Fighters confirmed that Israeli soldiers were caught in an ambush by militants inside the besieged camp.

 

• Jamal Abu Hija one of the leaders of the fighters who are affiliated with all the national factions and Islamic movements, said:

“The soldiers were ambushed by improvised explosive device and then surprised with fire coming from young fighters facing them, leaving them with huge losses,”

He added

“Israelis are still trying to evacuate their wounded and their dead members….”

The fighters who were estimated at about 200 or slightly more, confirmed that they would fight in the battle until the end…

Abu al-Hija said:

“After these days of steadfastness and rare resistance, the Mujahideen apply their slogan: No to surrender, only victory or martyrdom….

He added

“Our strength is that we are real Mujahideen”

 

Nayef Soitat, a Fatah official in the city of Jenin saw that there were several factors behind the strength and steadfastness of the Palestinian fighters in Jenin refugee camp.^[18]

– Soitat said:

“There is the insistence from young people and the military arm in the camp to fight until the end.”

Soitat clarified that it was due to

“The fact that a large number of them were chased by Israel and they were not ready to surrender to die in the hands of Israeli soldiers, in addition to the coherence of the existing national unity among different factions and movements in the camp.”

He added

“We must not forget the misery and oppression and deprivation inside the camp, which drives a lot of young people to engage in the resistance.”

2-3-1- fighting till the last bullet

For nine consecutive days, the new nazi army used fire from helicopters, tanks, and armored vehicles to bombard about 18 thousand Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp in order to break the back of a group of militants who refused to surrender and preferred to fight until the last bullet and the last drop of blood.

 

The enemy brought back to mind the story of Palestinian refugees since the Nakba in 1948, for which, the camp was the main witness The Israeli occupation army sent its best units and reinforced the siege on the Jenin refugee camp. It also

sent its helicopters and tanks to shell the homes of the camp and its narrow streets to push the fighters to surrender. However, the group of fighters made up of various national groups and Islamic factions have shown rarely seen resistance that even turned to offence and caused casualties among Israeli soldiers.

With the passage of time and the steadfastness of the fighters, the Israeli Defense Forces Chief, General Sharon Mofaz, decided to personally oversee and manage the army attacks on this camp. The aggression turned in a short time to:

“The destruction of homes, when Israeli army bulldozers destroyed the homes of people to open the way for tanks and soldiers to reach Hawashin lane in the heart of the camp where the militants barricaded themselves.”^[19]

 

– Witnesses, mostly women and children expelled from the camp by the Israeli army, narrated how the soldiers destroyed their homes and chased them with bulldozers from one house to another before forcing them to flee naked and barefoot. They confirmed that they:

“Saw Israeli soldiers forcing men and young people to lie on the ground to stamp on their bodies before taking them to unknown destinations.”

 

• Um Raed Alqoraymi (45 years old) one of the witnesses said while crying:

“Their bulldozers chased us from house to house, and then the soldiers came and took my husband and my son”, she added, “they killed our neighbor Raja Abu Sabaa, 70 years old, in cold blood and killed the wife and daughter of our neighbor Issa Alwashahi.”

2-3-2- We will never forget

After spending several long sleepless days without food, the survivors of the massacre of the Jenin refugee camp were unable to hide their tears and anger, swearing that they will never forget what the Israeli forces did in their camp.

After a week of fierce battles inside this small camp, eight women and one man managed to get out of the camp and access one of the houses of Kafr Dan, a few kilo-meters from Jenin.

 

As documented below the women expressed their concerns for their relatives with whom they lost all traces after the “Masscre of Jenin”.

 

– Hanan, 23 years old, remembers the first three days after the start of the siege on the camp by the Israeli army and its bombing, where about eighty people gathered in one house to take shelter from the bombing of helicopters, and she says:

“We did not have anything to eat or drink and my sister fainted from hunger, we felt the smoke coming from a home burning nearby, but we were unable to move because of the shelling.”^[20]

Hanan continued

“Some of the fighters came to us to take shelter but we were so many that we were unable neither to sleep nor to move, and after three days we decided to try to leave,”

Hanan continued narrating how she went out of Jenin

“We came out… women at the forefront carrying a white flag, as soon as we got out for about twenty meters, an Israeli sniper fired at us, we raised our hands screaming that we are civilians,”

She added:

“The Israeli soldiers stopped the men and left the women”,

– Her sister Hala, 19 years old, said:

“It is very difficult to recognize the Jenin refugee camp, where about 18 thousand refugees used to live before the Israeli aggression on the third of April,”

Hala also said:

“We will not see dead bodies in the streets because the bulldozers washed away destroyed houses to enable the tanks and soldiers to move forward,”

– While Amani, 18 years old, sat crying silently, she said:

“I lost all trace of my family and our house was subject to shelling and we ran away from one place to another,”

“I do not know whether they are dead or alive, but I am very scared for my brothers who work with the resistance.”

• Hasan, 52 years old, sat down in a corner of the room next to his wife Aisha, 43 years old, he remained in the Jenin refugee camp until the sixth day of the Israeli aggression,

Hassan said

“I saw dead bodies on the road and we buried a number of them on the same street under the mud.”

– Abu Mohammed, 36 years old, says that he was among the two thousand people who were arrested and then released and fled to the village of Rummana, several kilo-meters away from Kfar Dan with 300 other people released like him.

Abu Mohammed said,

“I was handcuffed and blindfolded before I was taken with ninety other man to the camp of Salem, near Jenin,”

He continued

“I was forced to remove my clothes and I was beaten and I knelt for hours, handcuffed with my head towards the ground .”

– Hanan said

“They say it’s over, but we are here with our children and we will never forget.”

2-3-3- Jenin refugee camp between perish and survival

• Yahya Saleh

People cannot do anything but say “may God be with you” to Yahya Saleh (42 years old), who sweltered while his feet sank in a skylight at the top of the mountain of garbage and debris in the center of the Jenin refugee camp in an attempt to uncover the ruins of his house, that was blown-up^[21],

Saleh said “my house is here,” he straightened up and stood under the hot sun and said: This is our bedroom, holding a squishy rubber still buried under the rubble.

He went on saying: “this is our pillow,” referring to a dirty pillow on which his young daughter was sitting watching him from the corner of the hole he dug,

He said: “I’m trying to find our identity papers and at least some clothes for my wife and kids; they need them.”

Now, everything that Saleh, the car painter, owns are the tools he is using to save his home, his wife and his children.He sat amid the garbage to rest next to his son Ahmad (five years old), who came close to kiss his father’s dusty beard.

 

The main square in the camp is an area that dates back some 49 years made of densely populated concrete houses that no longer exist after being blown up or bulldozed by the Israeli army “to bury booby traps or kill Palestinians.”

Homes in the neighborhoods surrounding the main square were severely damaged in the battles and by shelling from tank and military helicopters, tens of these houses became inhabitable.

Going downhill from the square to the Ansar Mosque, the external walls of which and a neighboring kindergarten are covered with holes resulting from the shelling of the square that was transformed into mountains of rubble and garbage the size of a football field.One does not find words to describe the case of those who lack basic elements of survival in a blatant illustration of the meaning of the struggle to survive and not perish.

2-3-4- In the ruins of the camp

– Rashad Al Kasser Fifty-six years old former Palestinian fighter Rashad Al kasser tried to control his anger while watching Palestinians trying to dig out of the rubble of the camp the decomposed bodies of their relatives.

Other Palestinians continued their work perfuming the corpses of Nubana family that they dug with their bare hands out of tons of concrete. But the suffocating stench of death was forcing them to stop from time to time and rise to the surface of the pile of rubble to get a breath of fresh air. Al Kasser goes on to insist;

“Despite our huge suffering, we will bury our dead and we will reconstruct the camp.”^[22]

Al Kasser stayed inside the camp during the violent confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters, which ended on April 12, 2002.

And then he added,

“We shall restore Haifa and all the other towns captured by Israel to force us to live in camps and then haunt us to commit massacres

Al Kasser points to the torn bodies saying that

“Israel claims that these people were fighters, but they were civilians who all became fighters when thousands of Israelis attacked their homes.”

 

The size of the destruction in the camp, part of which was completely removed by the Israeli army, was not equivalent to the size of hatred that was generated.

The center of the camp, which was established 54 years ago, became a kind of a desolate area scattered with intertwined pieces of iron and concrete and where barefoot children covered with mud run around waving pieces of the missiles fired from Israeli Apache helicopters.

 

Complimenting this sad spectacle, entire families sat on piles of rubble where their homes used to be before the Israeli invasion, or sought refuge in underground shelters that escaped the Israeli bombardment.

– Abdullah Attia (48 years old) said

“We will live in this place,” pointing to a ground floor with low lights which miraculously did not get destroyed by Israeli bombings^[23]

He added

“We will not leave and maybe (the Secretary-General of the United Nations) Kofi Annan will help us rebuild our house.”

– Other families reported that they survived Israeli missiles fired from the air and tank shells because Israeli soldiers sought refuge in their homes.

Jamal Saleh (45 years old) tells that

“Fifty soldiers broke into our house, where they kept us with a number of neighbors in a single room, saying to us that their presence will save us and so we were able to survive.”^[24]

However, Saleh does not have any feeling of gratitude towards the soldiers under those conditions other than hatred, and he emphasizes that saying:

“The feelings of hatred inside me are stronger than words can express.”

2-3-5- Tales of martyrdom and heroism in the camp

– Hajj Ahmed Mohammed Abu Kharj

The eyes of Hajj Ahmed Mohammed Abu Kharj fill up with tears as he makes his way back to his house that was bombed by Israeli fighter jets during the attack on the camp to guide ambulance crews to the room where his 65-years-old sister Yusra was martyred. She died in the third day of the attack after the Israeli army did not allow him to save her. Tears of Hajj Ahmed broke his words when he saw the lifeless body of his companion through a life full of suffering and struggle stretched on the floor after a missile tore it a part. The tragic scene was too much to bare even for the ambulance crew. They gathered around the old man encouraging him and comforting him as they dressed his wounds and listened to him recalling that what happened in those terrible moments is much harsher, bigger and far more difficult than what he witnessed during the Nakba of 1948”^[25]

Abu Kharj continues,

“On the third day of the invasion we heard a loud explosion on the top floor of my house of three stories, where my sister was collecting her things and was getting ready to join my family, consisting of 13 members. My family had resorted to the basement to avoid the consequences of random bombing, after the explosion that shook the house.One of my sons went up to check on his aunt but he was not able to enter the room due to bombing underway”. He saw her from the peephole lying down on the floor and bleeding without any movement. Abu Kharj added that he immediately called the ambulance, the hospital and the Red Cross and asked for their help to no avail

 

Ibrahim Dababneh , the head of the Emergency Unit at the Red Crescent said:

“We received a call from Yusra Abu Kharj’s family saying that their daughter is injured and is bleeding, some of the crew moved immediately towards the camp, but the Israeli tanks opened fire on us and refused to let us access the camp. We informed the International Red Cross, which made the necessary calls to the Israeli authorities, but nothing happened and we were not able to get to the Abu Kharj family to complete our duty. ”

 

However, the story of the Abu Kharj family did not end here as Hajj Ahmed, who was more than 80 years old said:

“After hours, large forces of the army stormed our house and gathered all of us in one room and after searching us they arrested my four sons and took them to an unknown place. Then they turned the home into a military barrack and spread on the second floor without allowing us to practice the minimum of our rights as human beings,”

Abu Kharj added:

“I went to the responsible officer and asked for his permission to bring my sister from the third floor and to check up on her but he refused, but due to my persistence he told me that my sister was dead and there was no need to check on her. I then asked for their permission to let the Red Crescent in, to take her body and transport it to the hospital but he refused and we stayed in detention in the basement and the martyr stayed upstairs and then they forced us at gunpoint to leave the house and they kicked us out and this is when my family was dispersed. I still do not know what happened to my daughters. It is a disaster, he said, my sister did not pose any threat to them and did not threaten their lives and despite that they left her unburied for 16 days. Is there any law that authorizes this?”.

– The tragedy also hit the family of the young man, Ashraf Mahmoud Abu Al-Hija whose body was found charred completely in a relative’s house in Jourat Al Zahab in the Jenin refugee camp. His family said:

“When bombing of planes and tanks towards our house became intense and the area became dangerous, we started leaving towards the home of our neighbors, one by one, during that time an Israeli rocket landed at the entrance of the second floor, which broke out on fire and we started to shout and call Ashraf to come out quickly and we called the civil defense and the ambulance to save him since we thought he was cornered by fire, but it turned out later that the missile had directly hit him and burned his body, he died on the spot. ”

– The family of Abu Al-Hija said:

“His body remained on the ground for more than two weeks until the army cleared the area that was demolished by 90% of its homes, and a number of its citizens died being deprived of treatment and bled until death. His mother says that the place where he was, was a civilian site and not a military one.Despite that, the military bombed throughout a full week and then they brought their weapons and tanks that carried out the job that aircrafts failed to complete.”

2-3-6- Stories about the days of the battle

Perhaps most poignant of the testimonies around this epic tale of resistance, confrontation and heroism of the Palestinian Stalingrad are reported by the fighters and residents of the camp themselves.

After they ran out of ammunition, Palestinian fighters opened holes in the walls to flee from house to house to escape the bulldozers of the Israeli army then they hid for several days under the rubble to avoid getting arrested after the battles that took place in Jenin ended.

In interviews with the fighters in the Jenin refugee camp, activists described their plight during the confrontation with the Israeli enemy.

– A fighter said “that he spent a few days with his colleagues under the rubble of a house destroyed by bulldozers and they escaped arrest by disguising themselves and sneaking out during medical evacuations.

– Activists say that they fought “with honor” and pledged to revive the struggle against the Israeli occupation in a matter of weeks.

– Alaa, 23 years old member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said:

“It is a miracle that I survived this unbelievable destruction.”^[26]

He also said

“The resistance will resume soon. However, I will change my daily routine and I will stay hidden from sight as much as possible and I will sleep in a different place every day, and I will keep my mobile phone switched off so that the Israelis cannot track its frequency.”

-Mohammed, 25 years old, a member of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said:

“All units of fighters were hiding and preparing for the battle when Israeli forces stormed the camp on the third of April and that the fighters avoided the progress of Israeli pedestrians by shooting fire in narrow alleys, but they did not respond to the shelling of tanks and helicopters. Each of us slept an hour a day and we lost the sense of time… We were exhausted, we were only few while they were numerous,”

He said

“On the eighth day, armored vehicles and bulldozers came with snipers and they started shooting from rooftops, which significantly reduced our ability to move… and the number of our martyrs started increasing.”

He added

“We started to quickly move from house to house and opened holes in the walls to be able to move,”

After they ran out of ammunition, Mohammed and the surviving members of his unit resorted to a basement, he said,

“We could hear the bulldozers demolishing the house above us.” and

 

“We stayed there a week … and we could hear the tanks and the soldiers above us speak in Hebrew… Had they searched the rubble, we would have been dead.All we had was mineral water.”

Mohammed added

“On a day, things were quiet and we heard people talking in Arabic, so we assumed that civilians had returned and that the Israelis had left, we asked for help and they saved us, we felt very weak.”

– Alaa said that he was trapped with 39 Palestinian civilians in one building, and they surrendered when a bulldozer began demolishing the building.

“I managed to tear up my identity card before going out… Therefore, when they interrogated me I impersonated my brother who is not a fighter, and I told them that the person they are looking for is dead under the rubble.”

– Mahmoud, 39 years old, a Palestinian security man said:

“I fought over two days and hid in the basement of a house for eight days.”

– Raed Abbas, the leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine fighters in Jenin, hid under the rubble for a week before he could escape.He said that

“Israeli attacks got the best of all factions, we lost a lot of our weapons and we will reorganize ourselves. It is impossible to defeat people fighting for freedom. Palestinians from the Jenin refugee camp confirmed that the Israeli army used them as human shields despite the clear ban on this action under the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in time of war.”

2-3-7- The story of sacrifice and heroism: Tawalbeh preferred to blow himself up killing 13 Israeli soldiers

Did Youssef Qabha, the child who wrote with his friend the legend of the children of “RPGs” in 1982 when the armies of Sharon besieged the first Arab capital in order to eliminate the Palestinian struggle, know that he would lead another battle against the same army and the same commander? Abu Jandal, as he used to introduce himself to the Arab satellite channels when speaking from the heart of the Jenin camp, and without reminding Sharon what he did as a child in Beirut, tells the story of the camp that resisted for ten days the mightiest military power in the Middle East as an eyewitness who lived the story hour by hour and minute by minute or using his words from the time of infancy to its youth.

– Adnan al-Sabah, the Chairman of the Media Centre in Jenin and the media spokesman for its municipality told the Jordanian newspaper Al Arab Al Yawm details about the camp and its heroism. The camp that was established in 1950 after its inhabitants spent two years in a nearby area called Janzur. Snow in Janzur overwhelmed its resident and drowned them moving the UNRWA to establish the camp against a mountain that became home till the Israeli occupation displaced them again. Al-Sabah says that the center of that mountain faces – maybe by accident – Nazareth and Haifa, therefore he kept dreaming of the past to escape its bitter reality.”^[27]

Al-Sabah recalls:

“On the night of Wednesday the second of April the Israeli army entered by four axes in large numbers of tanks estimated at 200. It seems they thought that the psychological warfare practiced before the attack would have an impact especially as they did not hear nor find any resistance as they moved towards the camp until they reached the endof the camp from the West and North and the endof Jenin from the East, the South and the North and fire rained on them from every side and they retreated” (need to be consistent when using upper case and/or lower case)

Al-Sabah added “after their retreat, they were able to enter some crowded populated neighborhoods outside the camp but overlooking it, and they used the residents of those homes as human shields for their protection, they used the buildings as centers for snipers. On this night, the nurse Fadwa Al-Jamal died and her sister Attaf was seriously wounded, she was taken out of her home to receive medical treatment. Hani Atiya Abu Rumaila also died and fighting continued as normal until the morning and was intensified during the day. Six martyrs fell, but we were not able to take out any of them.The martyr Walid Ibrahim Mahmoud remained in the street until the 11^th of April”.

2-3-8- on the third night

Al-Sabah goes on to add;

“On the night of the second day, the Israeli army used aircrafts and tried to break through the camp from the west side, but the severe resistance forced them to back down, and they began to launch missiles indiscriminately which hit the regions close to the camp. They shot the governmental hospital and the oxygen pump of an old woman which led to her death in the recovery room. Then they tried to compensate for their failure in the camp in some neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city and they were surprised by fierce resistance, which was not expected.Therefore , they quickly returned to the bush area and tried another failed attempt to invade the village of Qabatiya. A Palestinian policemen died.He was transferred to the Al-Razi Hospital without being identified. Similarly,number of young people were hit, among them Barhan Samir, who suffered a very serious injury to his head. No one could reach him. He crept by himself to Razi Hospital where no doctor was able to perform a risky surgery on his head. Two doctors were able to conduct this surgery after each one of them called his professor at the Faculty of Medicine where they studied. One of them called Damascus and the other called his teacher in Canada. Microsurgery was performed according to the instructions of the two professors and the surgery was a success. On the sixth day, Mofaz announced the dismissal of the officer in charge of the Jenin operation and the withdrawal of all the reserve forces and replaced them with selected units of the two brigades Golani and Jaati, the two most important brigades in the Israeli army. Airplanes intervened violently until the tenth day, while Mofaz claimed every day would be the last day but the battles kept going. ”

2-3-9- Full closure

Al-Sabah continued

“Due to all of this, the occupation forces closed the camp. Ambulances and the Red Cross were denied entry to the camp. Afterwards, the army began to remove people from their homes by force until the camp was empty of civilians. On the ninth and tenth day, the southern neighborhoods of the camp where the fighters were located, specifically in Hawashin neighborhood, Jourat Al Zahab and Haratal Damjwere bombed. Then, a large number of bulldozers progressed in an attempt to open wide roads for the arrival of the tanks to the center of the camp. For this reason, houses were demolished on their residents and some of them were not able to survive. Al-Sabah said “The mother of Jamal Mahmoud Fayed a mentally disabled, deaf and mute, 38 year old, begged the soldiers to stop demolishing the house, they refused to stop despite hearing her loud screaming from under the cement piles. The army arrived to the camp house by house, and one of the women died while opening her door due to the explosion of the plastic bomb that the Israelis had put on her door. On the last night more than 200 rockets fell from aircrafts apart from tank shells and fire bullets from heavy machine guns.”

Al- Sabah talks about the peak of sacrifice and heroism of Mahmoud Tawableh saying:

“The fighters ran out of bullets, some of them chose for their body to be the last bullet, as Mahmoud Tawalbeh who blew himself up and killed 13 Israeli soldiers at once in a suicide operation.For the Israeli occupation army this was a turning point after which they started to destroy the camp and informed the inhabitants that the soldiers would start bombarding the camp with F-16 aircrafts. The men had to ask the women and children and civilians to leave the camp and tell them that they should face Mofaz and Sharon’s army alone this time. Throughout that night, the heroes were able to defeat the soldiers out of the camp and they expanded the reach of their presence. Although the army, more than once, tried to give them the chance to escape, they did not.”Resistance”for the fighters was a call for their future. They did not have in mind to completely defeat the Israeli army but they wanted to give them a lesson, and that they did.”

Al-Sabah also continues to say:

“Jouret Al Zahab, Al Damj and Al Awda streets lead to the Hawashin district.It was clear that bulldozing would start there. It is very crowded and some of the alleys are so narrow that only one person at a time can pass through them. For this reason, it was easy for the fighters to move there from one home to another, to change their positions and strengthen the resistance. After the losses it had faced, the occupation army was not able to move forward directly, this is why it was necessary to get the tanks there and this was the reason behind the destruction and dredging in the neighboring streets to Hawashin. However, the tanks were able to get near Hawashin but they faced failure, as Mahmoud Tawableh and Fadl Ahmed blew themselves up and made it impossible for the Israeli army to progress. There were experienced fighters like Abu Jandal who led the strong fight along with Mahmoud Abu Helweh, who also led a team and blew himself up after he asked his comrades to complete the task as they assailed the soldiers with bullets as they tried to save their dead. This is why the only way left for the Israeli army was to destroy the Hawashin neighborhood and everyone inside it. And so they did, and many fighters and civilians fell under the rubble that still bear witness to the heroism of the camp and the barbarism of the occupation. ”

Al-Sabah narrated:

“One day, on which battles intensified, I was contacted by a delegate of the Red Cross and she told me that the Israeli army would allow the evacuation of the wounded and the martyrs under the condition of the ceasefire. I asked “who should cease the fire? The trapped fighters or the extremely well-armed army? I told her the army of the occupation has two choices, theyeither withdraw and thus the fire automatically stops, because we promise not to shoot at the soldiers from behind, or they should go, through the mediation of the United Nations, to President Yasser Arafat demanding an official agreement for a cease-fire.”

Perhaps among the dozens of stories of the fighters and civilians some stay especially alive in memory:

– Youssef Qabha, also known as Abu Jandal, the commander of Al Ashbal in Beirut, the commander of the defenders and fighters of the camp, who distributed the fighters hours before the fight and until the last bullet, was arrested alive,and when they found out who he was, they stood him againstthe rubble of a house and shot him.

– While Ashraf Abu al-Hija, the theatre artist, refused to stay alone after the death of his soul mate Youssef Soitat. He was wounded in the battle inside the camp, but refused care for his wounds saying: “you will not be able to rescue me, no ambulance will come, I will die between your hands, let me die standing against them”. In spite of his wounds, Abu Al-Hija carried his gun, went outside towards the soldiers and showered them with bullets until a sniper was able to shoot him. His body was riddled with bullets.

2-3-10- The legend of children

The report of the newspaper Al Arab Al Yawm covers the realities of heroism in the camp through the following testimonies as well: As for Mahmoud Tawalbe, commander of Al-Quds Brigades in the West Bank,”He was from the camp, known for his simplicity, his gentle manners, and his kindness. He turned into a legend in the eyes of the children of Jenin and the camp.”

– Al-Sabah tells his story with Shams, his small child, who came one morning holding the remains of an Israeli missile asking of his father to go to the Palestinian security forces to secure this rocket to Tawalbeh. His father asked him why? He innocently responded, “to protect us from the Jews”. On the second day, Shams asked his sister to keep a secret and not to disclose his secret hiding place for bullets. He was collecting all the bullets and bombs to send them to Tawalbeh not believing that he had died days ago. Tawalbeh kept social contact with all the families of the camp, and was the leader of the suicide bombers. When the battle began, some told him he could leave and he responded: “I always go to and come back from battles that include attack and retreat but this time I am going on the attack and I cannot come back aliveout of respect for those who have gone with my orders to be martyrs.,I have to respect my resolutions for others and this time and issue it to myself.”^[28]

– Jaber Hosni Jaber a café worker, 23-years-old, who does not belong to any political faction, told his friends before going to Hawashin alley in the camp, “If I die do not affiliate me with a party or a group, I am a Palestinian martyr”. He told his mother before going out “these twenty shekels are for this person give them to him” They found the shekels in his wallet when they found him under the rubble.He went out of his home in silence and told his friends that he is safe outside the area.^[29]”

Those who were with him said that when Abu Jandal asked him what can you do in the battle, he said: “I only master throwing grenades” and onApril 9, 2002, when fighting raged overnight, Jaber asked his comrades to cover him while throwing grenades at Israeli tanks, they did, but he got shot on the upper side of his chest. He was dragged into the house and moved to a safer place and they wrote on a piece of paper his name, his family name and his parent’s name in case the owner of the house found him. The man said he did not know what to do with Jaber. He sat next to him, reading verses of the Koran.Jaber asked several times for water, he put drops of water in his mouth then he said that Jaber told him “I live in Mount Eben Zahir, tell my family to bury me next to my father and tell my mother not to cry”^[30]

When the family of Jaber asked about him, the man described him as a tall handsome man with green eyes and that he read the Fatihah and pronounced the two shahadas before he closed his eyes for the last time.

Jaber’s sister, who was working as a volunteer for the Red Crescent, found him.Others helped her pull out his body, and then, she took his wallet to look at the photo on his identity card.

2-3-11- The hug of the martyrs

• Mary Weshahi, 48 years old, remained with her son Munir, who died several days before until she was hit inside her house and died from bleeding.. Days after the start of the battle the Red Crescent was allowed to enter the camp for the first time, and for only one hour due to international pressure.One of the inhabitants inside the camp was looking for the medics of the Red Crescent in the region, he called me and said that the mother of Munir may be alive. I asked the men to go to the Weshahi house and told them to look for the wounded and leave the dead. When the men entered the house, one of them shouted:

“I can’t believe what I am seeing, the mother of Munir died and it is obvious that she crawled until she reached Munir and hugged him and died on his chest, I am in front of two martyrs hugging, a son and his mother”

– Atiya Abu Armileh died after his son Hany who died on Wednesday, April 3. Hani is his son from his first marriage. Atiya died on Friday, April the 5^th when he peered from the window of his home. Hewas dragged by his mother and his wife to the house and they could not ask for anyone’s help or get out of the house. They lied next to him on the floor; his mother hugged him every night until Wednesday the 10^th of April. Atiya’s children were trying to go to him every day to make him stand up, asking him for food, and when they would fight, they would go to him to complain., not knowing their father had died.

They were complaining to him about each other and they were hitting him trying to wake him up. On Wednesday April 17, they came out of the house and arrived at my home looking for safety and they stayed Thursday night at my house, none of them was able to sleep. Atiya’s mother did not eat nor drink and when she started telling the story, especially about the children of Atiya, she broke down and cried and I could not do anything but cry. I was looking at the children who were not talking but poking their mother telling her “let’s go to daddy”.

Then Atiya’s mother remembered “we have to go back, we cannot keep Atiya alone” and then the wife of Atiya murmured “he should not sleep alone tonight”. I could not keep them from going back to Atiya at dawn. (Who is the narrator?)

2-4- When the camp overflows with resilience and willingness.

Jenin refugee camp is no longer just a symbol of the resistance or the capital of martyrs, but it became a part of history because the story of its resistance and the heroism of its fighters encouraged a lot of people to read about what happened there. Especially the imbalance of power, the size of losses, the ferocity and vigor of the battle, the stories of tricks and traps, the engagement that characterized the fighters of the camp, and at the end the stories of all the martyrs who fought till the last breath.

In the center of the Hawashin neighborhood, the region that faced the bulk of the destruction, a black banner is risen high with the slogan of Islamic Jihad, the movement that lost the highest number of martyrs, amongst them leaders who were accused by the state of the occupation as being behind multiple operations that killed dozens of Israelis.

In the entrance of the camp there were several heavy Israeli Mirkava tanks, a part of the Hebrewarmy’s losses that the young men collected. In other parts of the camp as well, are several pieces of those tanks dispersed, in Hawashin and close to Al Ansar mosque. The children and students of the camp who tasted the ferocity of the battles did not hesitate to step on those Zionist remains with their feet. Here they blew up a few tanks, and there is the back door of a tank left behind when the soldiers used enormous bulldozers to pull the tanks away., This is what Ibrahim a boy of 10 years, said.

The stories and tales do not stop at a certain point, in every corner lays a story, and under every destroyed house and pile of rubble lays a martyr attached to his weapons. Here died Taha Zubeidi, and here Shady Nubani, Riad Bedier, Mahmoud, Muhammad and other heroes.

In one of the rooms of the camp the blood is still a witness and the remnants of some hair that is still stuck to the walls due to the explosion of two rockets fired from Apache helicopters through the window, killing five martyrs immediately. Their bodies stayed as is for several days till worms started eating them.

A report was published by the Palestinian newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, on the tales and stories of heroism in the camp:

“The inhabitants did not hide their grief for losing a number of fighters during the battle, especially as they were characterized by tenderness, generosity, courage and purity. Abu Jandal, who used to talk through Al-Jazeera to spread hope to millions, was not looking for anything apart of the wolves who devoured the camp unjustly and insidiously, until the day of his death and execution, a lot of people did not know the real name of the martyr. “^[31]

As mentioned by a man from the resistance of the camp, Abu Jandal, Youssef Qabha Freihat, was a symbol for everyone, he used to work in national security and had special relations with the militants of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and he used to always accompany them in the alleys and neighborhoods.

Mohammed Nursi also died in the camp, he was the officer of the Special Forces in the General Intelligence Service. His death was considered a great loss for both the resistance and the camp alike.

The engineer of death, as described by the Israelis, escaped several times from assassination attempts, the most recent attempt being the bombing of the prison where he was detained. in Nablus, the martyr,Mahmoud Tawalbe, commander of the Al-Quds Brigades, military faction of the Islamic Jihad. Ziad, 28-years-old, one of the militants from the camp, describes Mahmoud as a fighter looking for soldiers in homes, persecuting them one after another and injuring them. He kept fighting until he ran out of ammunitions, then some bulldozers demolished the house on him and his body was never found except for some parts, some people said they were Mahmoud’s but his mother is not yet convinced.

According to the Israelis, Mahmoud Tawalbeh was responsible of sending no less than 12 suicide bombers inside Israel, among them his younger brother, and he is responsible for the death of dozens of Israelis and the injury of hundreds, as mentioned by his enemies.

Regarding the battle, Sheikh Bassam Al Saadi, 43 years old, one of the leaders of the Islamic Jihad and a resident of the camp,said:

“We performed our duty to the fullest and the Islamic Jihad participated with three of its military wings led by Thabet Mardawi, who could be arrested by the occupation forces, and Sheikh Riad Badir, 56 years old, from Tulkarem, whose body was found after days entwined with his weapon and holding a Koran, and, Mahmoud Tawalbe who died under the rubble for whom only the remains were found.”^[32]

Saadi, who was with a number of his comrades in a simple home in the remainder of the camp, said:

“The Mujahideen were well prepared for the battle and they gained experiences as a result of previous operations and previous Israeli incursions, which enabled them this time to organize themselves and prepare for their intervention, the tricks for the soldiers, their prosecution and incursion of losses among their ranks. The main thing that enabled the resistance to withstand is the state of cohesion, unity and common desire among everyone to die fighting and become martyrs. ”

At the beginning of its military operation, the army surrounded Saadi’s home asking him to surrender before they bombed him, but this leader who considers himself a political official said: “they called through loudspeakers and asked me to surrender, but I was not there, then they burned the house and bombed it”. Saadi says that he was walking around to raise the morale of the fighters and look at their condition, sharpen their motivation and urge them to resist, confront and give the enemy a lesson not to be forgotten.

With regard to the planning and military preparations done by the members of the resistance in the camp, Saadi said:

“We were expecting a huge Israeli invasion because of the crowds around the camp, but we did not expect it to be this size. The resistance fighters, who were about 250, equipped themselves and were convinced that this battle would be tough, so they prepared sand barriers and sandbags and planted explosives in the entrances of the camp to hinder the entry of soldiers and their tools. In addition to that, they divided the fighters into small groups and placed them in different locations inside the camp. The also assigned some snipers to protect the fighters.”

2-5 Jenin – The National Museum

And so…the Jenin camp turned into a symbol of Palestinian heroism and a legend that stays in the consciousness and memory of Palestinians over our present time and for the future.

Hundreds of Palestinians called their newborns “Jenin” making it a sound on everyone’s lips.

For this reason, the Palestinian leadership decided to establish a national museum in the Jenin refugee camp called, Palestinian Catastrophe and Heroism Museum.^[33]

The Museum of Palestinian Catastrophe and Heroism: the unique legendary epic of heroism, documented by testimonies and confessions and analysis referred to earlier.The disaster /the Nakba/ the horrific massacre committed with premeditation, determination, design, planning and orders of Israeli officials atthe highest levels.

[1]. From the report of the Hebrew newspaper Kol Ha’ir 22/3/2002.

[2]. Haaretz newspaper 8/4/2002.

[3]. Al-Quds newspaper 6/4/2002.

[4]. Israeli military/Israeli army radio 5/4/2002.

[5]. Haaretz 11/4/2002.

[6]. Yediot Ahronot newspaper 7/4/2002.

[7]. Maarev 7/4/2002.

[8]. Haaretz 7/4/2002.

[9]. Ibid.

[10]. Maarev 9/4/2002.

[11]. Haaretz 10/4/2002.

[12]. Maarev 10/4/2002.

[13]. Ibid.

[14]. News agencies 12/4/2002.

[15]. Yediot Ahronot 11/4/2002.

[16]. Haaretz 1/5/2002.

[17]. AFP 9/4/2002.

[18]. Al-Quds Newspaper 10/4/2002.

[19]. Al-Quds newspaper and news agencies 11/4/2002.

[20]. AFP 13/4/2002.

[21]. Details from the Reuters report dated 20/4/2002.

[22]. Jordanian newspaper Al Arab Al Yawm 24/04/2002 “.

[23]. AFP 24/4/2002.

[24]. Ibid.

[25]. Al-Quds newspaper 27/4/2002.

[26] Report from the news agencies on 1/5/2002.

[27]. Jordanian newspaper Al Arab Al Yawm 1/5/2002.

[28]. Ibid.

[29]. Ibid.

[30]. Ibid.

[31]. Report of the new Palestinian newspaper Al-Hayat on 30/4/2002.

[32]. Ibid.

[33]. From Maarev newspaper and a Palestinian newspaper 9/4/2002.

(A book soon to appear in English translation from the Arabic original already in print)

A Foreword to the English Edition

by A. Clare Brandabur

 

 

The uninitiated should be warned that Nawwaf Al-Zaro’s book will produce the kind of vertigo suffered when the mind undergoes a profound paradigm shift, a disorientation akin to that experienced by Dante when, having descended through the narrowing circles of Hell, he clambers over and under the hairy groin of Cerberus at the still point of the turning world and what had been ‘down’ becomes ‘up.’ To those who have not yet heard the voice of Palestine, the record of massacre and atrocity contained in this book will sound shocking, even improbable. I remember having the same uneasy response to the first of Bishop Huddleston’s pamphlets on Apartheid in South Africa some thirty years ago, before Steve Biko had cried out for the assertion of Black Consciousness, and while Nelson Mandela was still in prison.

From Deir Yasin to Jenin documents the hundreds of massacres and assassinations carried out by Israel against the Palestinians up to, during and since its foundation in 1948. The book, staggering in its cumulative effect, puts paid finally to the ‘crazed lone gunman’ explanation often used by apologists for the Zionist state to account for atrocities like the massacre by Baruch Goldstein of worshippers in the Ibrahimi Mosque on February 25, 1994, and many others. What Al-Zaro forces us to realize by documenting the consistency of the phenomenon of massacre as Israeli policy is the intrinsically genocidal nature of Israel as a colonial settler state designed only for Jews. In addition, he forces us to see that Israel has targeted the leaders of Palestinian resistance from the beginning, often subjecting them to torture and mutilation before inflicting death, and frequently killing indiscriminately anyone who happened to be in the way. Among the victims of ‘extra-judicial execution’ –carried out by what in all other parts of the world we call ‘death squads’—have been Palestinians of great vision and talent, from Ghassan Kanafani, the gifted writer who was murdered together with his niece by means of a car-bomb in Lebanon in 1972, to the poet and patriot Kamal Nasser, executed together with two other Palestinian leaders in their homes in Beirut by a death squad using frog-men and helicopters in 1973.

This important document, From Deir Yasin to Jenin, comes to us at a propitious time. Palestine is at a crossroads, suffering an intensification of genocidal violence thinly disguised by Ariel Sharon’s pathetic attempt to to cloak its barbarism under the rubric of the American-led war against ‘terrorism.’ Well-meaning people who, out of sympathy for the Jewish people after the tragedy of their mass murder in Germany, have until recently chosen to see the tiny struggling Jewish homeland as incapable of wrong-doing. The world has been blinded to Israeli crimes by massive pro-Zionist propaganda. A constant stream of books and Hollywood blockbuster movies, perceived through a mist of biblical legend– Exodus, Shoa, Yentl, Shtetl, Schindler’s List, The Diary of Ann Frank, Sophie’s Choice, etc.– has created the public perception that the Jewish people are the only ones ever to have suffered, though Hitler’s victims included Gypsies, Poles, the mentally ill, as well as anyone who opposed his program of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Meanwhile, books and films which tried to show a more balanced view (like Hannah K by Costa Gavros) have been vilified and strictly censored. Hannah K opened in New York to be closed after a single showing.

An example of the silencing of the Palestinian voice is contained in a small article by Chris McGreal in The Guardian Weekly (Oct. 24-30, 2002) reporting that the Simon Wiesenthal Centre demanded that Jack Straw recall Sherard Cowper-Coles, British Ambassador to Israel, for saying: ‘Israel has reduced the West Bank and Gaza Strip into a vast concentration camp.’ Simon Wiesenthal spoke man Shimon Samuels, complained to Jack Straw: ‘If substantiated, we urge the prompt recall of Mr. Cowper-Coles for Holocaust revisionism, banalisation of the memory of its victims, and endorsement of the most extreme voices of Palestinian anti-semitism.’ Sadly, Mr. Cowper-Coles, like many others who actually go to Occupied Palestine and see appalling oppression with their own eyes, was forced to recant. McGreal quotes him as denying that he had used such terms ‘nor would I ever do so.’ Thus we see the specious equation of Palestinian resistance to a brutal illegal occupation with anti-semitism, precisely the tactic exposed by Norman Finkelstein in his important book, The Holocaust Industry. I offer this as a typical example of the kind of pressure that is brought to bear on anyone who speaks the truth about Israeli occupation policy. In fact, if the ambassador or any other visitor to the West Bank and Gaza had failed to see that they have been turned into a vast concentration camp, he would have to be certifiably blind.

Fortunately a new literature has sprung up, including many important books by Jewish as well as Arab and other scholars, in which basic issues and misconceptions underlying the problem are addressed in dynamic and healing new ways. In addition to the book by Finkelstein already mentioned, there are Marc Ellis’s Beyond Innocence and Redemption, Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky’s Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel , Regina Sharif’s Non-Jewish Zionism, and Roberta Strauss Feuerlicht’s The Fate of the Jews. In biblical scholarship, revisionist theologians and historians have radically altered the reading of biblical myths on which the claims to land justifying Zionist settler colonialism have been based, like Rev. Michael Prior’s The Bible and Colonialism, Keith Whitelam’s The Invention of Ancient Israel: the Silencing of Palestinian History, Thomas L. Thompson’s many books on new findings in biblical archaeology. Most stunning of all is the entire opus of Edward W. Said, a Palestinian in exile whose scholarly work has created a context in which the Question of Palestine can at last be addressed.

Most importantly, it has been possible to arrive at the basic understanding that the colonial settler state is intrinsically genocidal, thus allowing Israel to be perceived in its true light rather than through the idealizing mythos of biblical claims to exceptionalism. The importance of this development cannot be overemphasized, since even people like the heroic Sara Roy who have taken courageous stands documenting the ravages of the Israeli occupation, seem to waver when it comes to facing the fact that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians .Though Roy has spent months in Palestine and has done pioneering work on the economy of the Palestinians (The Development of Gaza, for example) and has witnessed the brutal facts of Israeli occupation, in her recent statement widely published on the Internet (http://.ipsjps.org/jps/125/roy.html) entitled ‘Living with the Holocaust: The Journey of a Child of Holocaust Survivor’, she nevertheless felt obliged to deny that Israel’s occupation is genocide. Even though she lists all the atrocities of dispersion, dispossession, torture, land confiscation, illegal settlement, etc., she nonetheless concludes: ‘Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians is not the moral equivalent of the Nazi genocide of the Jews. But it does not have to be. No this is not genocide, but it is repression, and it is brutal.’(09.12.2002)

Evidently Roy is using here a definition of genocide which makes it impossible to apply the term to any other case except the Jews. Ward Churchill argues that this restricted definition has been preached by Holocaust exclusivists like Cornell’s Stephen T. Katz in order to prevent the application of the term genocide to the Native Americans, the Gypsies, and of course the Palestinians—in short, to any other group except the Jews.. This restricted definition is patently inadequate and must be changed –and fortunately it is being changed. Israel’s occupation of Palestine is, no matter how painful the realization may be, absolutely and unequivocally genocide, one which is going on under the very eyes of the world.

Maxime Rodinson’s book, Israel: Colonial Settler State (1973) goes a long way to establishing that of the various forms of colonialism, settler colonialism– that characterized by the importation of a foreign population into an area with the concomitant subjection and then annihilation and/or dispersal of the indigenous population –is intrinsically genocidal. There has also been a more recent major elaboration of the scope and meaning of genocide as it applies to the Palestinian and many other people, in a book by a Native American academic Ward Churchill. In his brilliant book on the genocide by European settlers and soldiers against the entire Western Hemisphere, Churchill, a professor at Colorado State University, in A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present (San Franciso, City Lights Books, 1977) articulates Raphael Lemkin’s definition of genocide. In doing so, Churchill points out that Holocaust exclusivists—like Cornell’s Stephen Katz—have completely misrepresented Lemkin’s careful definition of genocide (in Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1946). Lemkin’s definition makes it very clear that the actual physical annihilation of every single member of a group is not the only or necessary character of genocide. Lemkin says in one place:

Genocide has two phases: one, destruction of the national pattern of the oppressed group; the other, the imposition of the national pattern of the oppressor. This imposition , in turn, may be made upon the oppressed population which is allowed to remain, or upon the territory alone after removal of the population and colonization of the area by the oppressor’s own nationals.(Axis Rule p. 82, quoted by Churchill, p. 68)

 

In another section Lemkin says:

Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. . . . The objectives of such a plan would be a disintegration of political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.(Axis Rule, p. 79, quoted by Churchill p.70) (My emphasis)

If we apply this definition to the Palestinian situation, as Ward Churchill does, (the first entry in his Index under ‘Palestine/Palestinians, gives various page numbers; then his second entry is ‘Israeli genocide of, 74, 398n89’), it is self-evident that the definition fits. The context in which this application occurs is the explanation of the motive for the Holocaust exclusivist position of Stephen Katz and others. Churchill says:

The factors motivating exclusivists to conduct themselves as they do have been analyzed elsewhere. They concern the agenda of establishing a ‘truth’ which serves to compel permanent maintenance of the privileged political statues of Israel, the Jewish state established on Arab land in 1947 as an act of international atonement for the Holocaust; to forge a secular reinforcement, based in the myth of unique suffering, of Judaism’s theological belief in itself as comprising a ‘special’ or ‘chosen’ people, entitled to all the prerogatives of such; and to construct a conceptual screen behind which to hide the realities of Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian population whose rights and property were usurped in its very creation.(pp.73-74) (My emphasis) (In this passage, Churchill makes many references to other authors, a scholarly apparatus too lengthy to reproduce here.)

If this more inclusive definition of genocide is adopted, then, it become obvious that the Palestinians constitute a whole people who have been condemned by history to be ethnically cleansed to make way for the restoration of the promised land to the Jewish people, the ‘Chosen People’ of Yahweh. The outcome of this religious view can be heard in the Baptist radio evangelists who mindlessly praise Israel for fulfilling divine prophecy! On the other hand, through a more secular perspective, like that of Maxime Rodinson, Palestine is the victim of a colonial settler state which is intrinsically genocidal, and therefore has an innate right to resist

In his Introduction to Rodinson’s Israel: Colonial Settler State, Peter Buch remarks: ‘It is . . . incredible that the colonial-settler character of Israel has not been widely recognized by world public opinion, even among those who normally sympathize with the colonially oppressed.’ (p. 18).

In the discourse of post-colonial studies, it has become increasingly apparent that the colonial settler state is intrinsically genocidal. This realization was not arrived at over night—it has taken years of dialectic in the face of formidable imperialist powers which attempted to silence all opposition and which claimed the right of colonization under the rubric of Social Darwinism.. The arguments justifying Israeli genocide against the Palestinian– like those which justified European genocide against the indigenous populations of the Western Hemisphere –have been exposed for the racist delusions that they are.

But Nawwaf Al-Zaro reminds us that however Palestine is perceived from outside, the Palestinian people have their own perspective. The voice through which that perspective is expressed speaks through this book, so powerfully that we recognize it as strange, because Palestine is an entity whose voice has until recently been silenced as Edward Said has said repeatedly in books like Culture and Imperialism and The Question of Palestine. The tones of this book are not the modulated accents of disinterested academic discussion, but the strident tones of outrage and justified condemnation.

The Israeli poet and peace activist Yitzhak Laor (someone I trust having seen him in Ramallah with a few comrades get tear-gassed, beaten up and arrested for protesting the closure of Birzeit University twenty years ago), has made one of the most profound and ominous indictments of Israeli occupation policy. In a recent article in the London Review of Books, Laor said:

The Israeli agenda is way ahead of what critics of Israel abroad manage to grasp in their sometimes too careful language. I have just seen Edward Said on the BBC’s Hard Talk trying to explain to Tim Sebastian that Israel is destroying Palestinian civil society. That is true, of course, yet it is already an understatement. What is being destroyed, every day, every night, by guns, by undercover units, by raids and manhunts, by arbitrary orders, by rapid military trials, by kidnappings and numberless arrests without trial is something greater than ‘civil society’. We are shown the ‘events’: suicide bombings, bombardments of civil neighborhoods, assassinations of political activists or terrorists. What we do not see is the undermining of the idea of society itself.’(04.12.2002)

In light of these developments on the question of Palestinian, it becomes clear that the most murderous form of terrorism is not the violence used by victims of oppression for their own liberation, but that waged by colonial settler states, i.e. official state terrorism which poses as legitimate force to quell any resistance to its power. The perpetrator of the assassinations and atrocities documented in From Deir Yassin To Jenin is the colonial-settler state of Israel, aided and abetted by the United States whose own genocidal past and present it has yet to confront.