Palestinian Resistance Confronts Imperialist-Backed Zionist Aggression

In the early morning hours of Monday, 3 July 2023, Zionist forces began invading and assaulting Jenin city and refugee camp with a massive military presence involving 1,000 soldiers and at least 150 armored Caterpillar bulldozers, armed drones, armored vehicles and aerial military equipment. The aim of these attacks is to target the growing Palestinian resistance with deep roots in Jenin, that has created a new reality on the ground in the northern West Bank of occupied Palestine that is no longer under the control of the Zionist occupation or the proxy Palestinian Authority.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins with our comrades in the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, in calling upon “all solidarity forces and liberation movements around the world to begin organizing activities and demonstrations to support our Palestinian people and their heroic resistance in Jenin camp and city. The Palestinian people in the homeland and in exile and diaspora are united around the valiant resistance that is currently confronting the brutal Zionist-U.S. aggression, and is confirming with its blood and bullets its ability to confront the attack.”

The strugglers of the resistance are fighting and sacrificing their very lives not only to defend Jenin camp but to advance Palestinian liberation.

The Rising Resistance

This attack on Jenin has so far claimed the lives of 11 Palestinian martyrs. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, over 100 Palestinians have been wounded in Jenin. Occupation bulldozers have cut deep swaths through the streets of Jenin, destroying vehicles and property, while over 500 Palestinian families — already refugees — have been forcibly evacuated from their homes in the Jenin refugee camp. The Red Crescent stated that this includes over 3,000 individuals, who have continued to come under attack by occupation forces amid this example of ongoing Nakba. The occupation forces have blocked Palestinian ambulances from reaching the wounded, while their drones have targeted homes and residences, mosques, and the Freedom Theatre of Jenin.

The resistance — who have dubbed this battle, “Fury of Jenin” — continues to fight back and to hold their ground in the besieged Jenin camp. Several Israeli military drones have been shot down, occupation soldiers have been ambushed by resistance fighters, and multiple military vehicles have been exploded, damaged and destroyed by explosives and roadside bombs of the resistance forces. As in Gaza, the escalated use of aerial bombing and assassination indicates that the resistance has in many ways made it impossible for occupation soldiers to enter on the ground.

As always, the prisoners’ movement is in the heart of the resistance. Jenin is home to many martyrs and prisoners who have sacrificed dearly for the liberation of Palestine and continue to do so on a daily basis. Jenin is, of course, home to the six Palestinian prisoners of the Freedom Tunnel operation, who liberated themselves from the occupation’s high security Gilboa prison in 2021. The self-liberation of these prisoners is deeply connected to the ongoing resistance in Jenin, with the name “Jenin Brigade” applying to both.

Imperialist Crimes in Jenin

Emergency demonstrations are being organized in cities and towns around the world to demand an end to this aggression. In the meantime, the full complicity and involvement of imperialist powers — particularly the United States — in the attack on Jenin is perhaps best made clear by Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as he spoke to the 4th of July celebration at the U.S. embassy in occupied Jerusalem on 3 July.

The United States provides the Israeli regime with over $4 billion in military aid annually, and is joined in this economic, military, diplomatic and political aid by its imperialist cohorts in the United Kingdom, the European Union states, Canada, Australia and elsewhere, which continue to maintain trade privileges and military alliances with the occupation while suppressing organizing for justice in Palestine in their own countries.

Zionist Crisis and PA Complicity

The Israeli regime has attempted to shatter the Palestinian resistance and its broad, nurturing popular cradle in Jenin through massacres and colonial violence. It has been shaken by the reality that it is losing its grip over Jenin and the entire northern West Bank as the resistance has grown, developed itself and enhanced its capacities to defend their people and fight for freedom. Further, the fascist forces around Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir are attempting to displace the ongoing internal crisis of the Zionist project into yet another brutal assault on the Palestinian people.

While the Zionist assault and the regime’s fascist leadership are backed by imperialist forces, the Palestinian Authority has remained subservient, issuing statements of condemnation while directing its security forces to stand aside and allow the occupation forces to invade and rampage against Jenin. PA forces have even arrested Murad Malaysheh and Mohammed Brahmeh, leaders of the Al-Quds Brigades, as they atempted to travel to Jenin to support the resistance; despite the PA’s claims that it is protecting Malaysheh, he rejects his arrest and has launched a hunger strike for his release. The PA was created in the Oslo accords to serve as a proxy for the occupation and to engage in security coordination, not to represent or defend the Palestinian people — and these moments reveal that reality with exceptional clarity.

Defend Jenin! Stand with the Resistance!

The occupation is attempting to strike at the beating heart of the growing Palestinian resistance in the West Bank through its assault on Jenin and, in particular, Jenin refugee camp. It is clear that 75 years of ongoing Nakba have failed to break the spirit or conquer the will of Palestinian resistance, and the same is just as true today. The resistance has the capacity to confront these massacres, to fight back, and to move forward toward liberation; in fact, the fighters holding their ground in Jenin today represent a true hope for humanity, and that justice can prevail over the oppressor and exploiter.

At this moment, we must not leave the brave people of Jenin and of Palestine alone to confront this military machine of colonialism and occupation. Just as the Zionist regime relies on its imperialist partners in crime to continue to attack the Palestinian people, and they rely upon it to deny sovereignty and self-determination to the Arab nation and all nations of the region, the resistance in Palestine also finds its support in the regional forces and alliance of resistance and in the international camp of resistance and revolution. In the imperial core, our popular movements must organize, take to the streets, hold emergency actions and build power that is capable of boycotting and isolation the occupation regime, and breaking the bonds of military cooperation, diplomatic alliance and security collaboration targeting the Palestinian people.

From the posters of resistance on the streets of Berlin that sparked the condemnation and demands for criminalization by the Israeli Ambassador to Germany, to the direct actions of Palestine Action that have shut down two of Israeli war profiteer Elbit Systems’ sites in Britain, we can and must organize and take action to defend Jenin, defend Palestine, and stand with the Palestinian people and their brave resistance as they fight for a free Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Follow up-to-date news in English from the Resistance at https://t.me/PalestineResist

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Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network has chapters and affiliates in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Spain, Palestine and Lebanon and we work with groups around the world. Would you like to form a local chapter or become an affiliate? Contact us at samidoun@samidoun.net.

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