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Life of Terror
By G.S. Petit and N. Belabdelouahab, Nablus, Palestine
Mahdi Abu Ghazaleh is a dead man walking - or more accurately riding with his army of ghosts at night down the narrow streets of Nablus - once called the economic capital of the West Bank - now called the "capital of misery" by Palestinians.
"[Ghazaleh's] youth was like that of thousands of other young Palestinians who grew up under occupation - stateless, living with Israeli checkpoints and barriers. Their dreams of a future were closed, their state of Palestine, shrunk, and their connection and interaction with the outside world, cut off."
Ghazaleh is a wanted man - wanted by Tsahal (a unit of the Israeli Defense Forces) because he is a local leader of the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, a secular Palestinian militant wing of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah political party. Every night Ghazaleh leads a special unit, the Night Riders, into the Old City of Nablus hunting down Israeli forces.
Last February, Tsahal invaded Nablus, and according to Palestinian sources, for six days they tried to arrest and kill Ghazaleh and six other leaders. But Tsahal's Operation Warm Winter failed. A Palestinian civilian was killed and 15 other civilians were injured. The families of the wanted men were beaten and arrested. Many houses and streets were destroyed, but the hunted are still on the run.
Ghazaleh, who is in his mid-30s, is a hard-looking, but soft-spoken man. He leads a rough life, changing his plans whenever Tsahal rides through the streets. No home, no wife, no kids, he considers his death for a cause the only protection he can afford. "I hope that I will be a martyr," he says.
Ghazaleh says most of the leaders of the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade are either dead or in an Israeli jail. Every month, he says, one or two members of the movement are killed in Nablus by Israeli soldiers.
Ghazaleh finds secret refuge in safe-houses of a "brother" near the Old City. On his legs he straps his machine gun. "This is the arm of the resistance," he says. "We do not have factories or all of the much talked about artillery. Every fighter tries to resist the way he can." He describes his resistance movement as a rag-tag guerrilla group. But Ghazaleh does not talk about suicide bombers.
Since 2002, when they started suicide bombings, al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade has been considered a terrorist group by Israel, the U.S., Canada and Japan. "I do not kill civilians, I fight soldiers," Ghazaleh insists. "As a soldier myself I only fight to defend myself." Since its inception, the group vowed to carry out guerrilla attacks only against Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank. But since 2002, it has taken responsibility for attacks against some Israeli cities.
The Israeli government doesn't like to talk about Ghazaleh and his followers. During a recent visit to Israel's GPO government press office in Jerusalem, press officials tried to discourage us from going into Gaza, Nablus, Hebron and Jenine and said no government official would comment on the situation in Nablus. But representatives at B'tselem (The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights) we met with in Jerusalem told us about the difficult social conditions for refugees in Balata.
For Ghazaleh this fight is about freedom. He does not believe in talking anymore. "All the peace negotiations with Israel [have] broken down - from Oslo to Camp David," he said. "Israel does not even respect the agreements they sign."
"According to the Taba Accords, signed in Washington in 1995, Nablus is under Palestinian Authority control," said an International NGO spokeswoman. "Tsahal is violating this accord each time they crash into the city."
Ghazaleh has been fighting for seven years. He is a "War of Stones" kid - one of the children who threw stones and faced tanks and soldiers in the first Intifada in 1987. His youth was like that of thousands of other young Palestinians who grew up under occupation - stateless, living with Israeli checkpoints and barriers. Their dreams of a future were closed, their state of Palestine, shrunk, and their connection and interaction with the outside world, cut off.
His childhood was marked by violence, poverty and anger. While he tried to eek out a living in mechanics, he got caught up with the war. In 2000 he became involved with the Resistance movement of the second Intifada which was more violent than the first.
Arrested by Tsahal in 2002, he was accused of activism and jailed for five years. It was then that he became a member of the al-Aqsa Martyr Brigade. As the heads of the movement were killed or imprisoned, he became a leader. Today his soldiers are as young as the Israelis who are sent to kill or capture him.
It's hard for him to accept criticism from his own government. "They told us that armed resistance is against the interest of our nation," he said. "But we are the ones living occupation everyday. We are the ones being persecuted."
Despite government criticism, Ghazaleh's fight is popular in Nablus. He is a local hero. Kids are proud to shake his hand when he weaves through the streets of the Old City.
In the Balata camp, the largest refugee camp on the West Bank, most of the refugees support al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade. They are proud to say that 250 people have died as martyrs since the beginning of the first Infitada.
On the dusty walls there are hundreds of pictures of martyrs. "They are a lost generation which sacrifices for the next one," said Sheikh Abdullah, an unemployed father of seven. More than 20,000 people are living in the camp - almost stacked on top of one another. Tsahal does not allow them to go out. Unemployment is over 60 percent. "Resistance is natural considering these conditions," Sheikh Abdullah said. "We cannot keep our children away from it. We cannot even speak to our kids anymore. We have a kind of psychological tension because of our problems."
Even though resistance still burns in the Palestinian people's hearts, many are weary living under such desperate conditions. "We have already paid a heavy price since 1987," said a refugee, Samir Duqan holding his son in his arms. "We don't know what to do. We have waited for too long now. We are surrounded by Israelis."
Changing the paradigm in Balata seems impossible at best. Israel wants to stop terrorism and considers the refugee camp a base for terrorism. Indeed, Balata is where the first and second Intifadas originated. The question remains - how can the desperate people of Balata and Tsahal live in peace when the refugees blame Tsahal for their situation, and Tsahal blames the refugees for protecting the terrorists?
Until that question is answered, peace cannot be achieved.
