MIDEAST: A Former 'Terrorist' Speaks Out

• by Mel Frykberg (jenin, northern west bank)
• Thursday, April 30, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Zacharia Zubeidi, 33, who survived six assassination attempts by the Israeli military's elite undercover units, was once labelled 'one of Israel's most wanted men, dead or alive.'

Zubeidi from the Jenin refugee camp, population 15,000, in the northern West Bank, an hour and a half's drive north of Ramallah, was a former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

The brigades were the military wing of the Fatah movement, affiliated with the Palestinian Authority (PA) which controls the West Bank.

The brigades were disbanded when PA President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, reached a deal with the Israeli government where brigade fighters would be given partial amnesties. In return they had to hand in their weapons and sign a pledge to give up the armed struggle.

'I spent seven years in Israeli prisons under brutal conditions which included being beaten, tortured and deprived of basic rights,' Zubeidi told IPS in an exclusive interview.

'I know what Palestinian prisoners are going through in Israeli and Palestinian jails. I know their needs and feelings, more than other people who never experienced this,' said Zubeidi.

Zubeidi survived a traumatic and violent youth under Israeli occupation, and his experiences led him to take up arms against Israel.

His mother was shot dead by an Israeli sniper as she stood at the family's kitchen window, while his brother and two cousins also succumbed to the bullets of Israeli snipers.

He watched his father die a slow and agonising death from a brain haemorrhage as a result of a severe beating by Israeli soldiers.

Zubeidi was shot in the leg by Israeli soldiers when he was a 13-year-old school boy as he threw stones at Israeli soldiers.

But following his partial amnesty, which confines him to Jenin, Zubeidi also believed that peace and compromise with Israel was both a possibility and a necessity.

His new life saw him join the Palestinian police and take up acting with The Freedom Theatre in Jenin camp. He became somewhat of a celebrity with the international media as interviews with him were beamed across the globe.

Zubeidi had also been a regular feature in the Israeli media as his legend loomed large over both Palestinians and Israelis.

The Israelis knew him as one of the country's 'most wanted and dangerous terrorists' who had managed to outmanoeuvre numerous attempts to capture or kill him.

He was armed and dangerous and wasn't about to go down without a fight, as has been attested to on a number of occasions when he had returned the fire of Israeli soldiers moving in on him.

Zubeidi also made Israeli headlines for his close relationship with an Israeli woman Tali Fahima, who was eventually sentenced to three years in an Israeli jail for treason, but eventually served only a portion of this.

She was accused of meeting with and aiding and abetting the enemy during a time of war, specifically for translating for Zubeidi an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) document left behind by departing soldiers with Zubeidi's picture on it.

'Fahmi was a former supporter of right-wing premier Ariel Sharon. But she wanted to know what life for Palestinians was really like in the occupied territories, not just what she had seen on Israeli TV,' Zubeidi told IPS.

'She came here, even though it is against Israeli law for Israeli civilians to enter the areas of the West Bank under Palestinian control, and spent time with us and we became firm friends.

'After witnessing the misery of our life under occupation she became an advocate for the Palestinian cause,' added Zubeidi.

While Zubeidi's legend as a 'top terrorist' was the Israeli public's perception of him, for most Palestinians he was a freedom fighter of the first order.

In 2002 during the second Palestinian Intifadah or uprising, the IDF invaded Jenin refugee camp and reduced it to rubble, killing many dozens of people, some of whom were bulldozed in their homes before they had a chance to escape.

The decision to invade followed a suicide bombing in the coastal city of Netanya in northern Israel which killed 28 people and wounded 140. The bomber was from Jenin camp.

'We the residents of Jenin camp made a decision to fight to the last bullet and stand face to face before our occupiers,' Zubeidi told IPS.

'The Israelis brought in 1,500 troops, including 50 elite commandos, about 400 bulldozers, jeeps and tanks, two M16s and six Apache helicopters.

'The bulldozers were the size of small buildings and razed most of the camp's infrastructure after the Israeli soldiers were reluctant to fight in the street hand to hand,' recalled Zubeidi.

The former Al-Aqsa Martyr leader's resolve to fight was hardened after his mother's death at the hands of an Israeli sniper during the invasion.

'There is no way that it was an accident. The sniper was metres away from our home and he could see my mother through his telescope. I'm a military man, I know that he did this deliberately. She was an elderly woman and a civilian,' said Zubeidi.

The camp was eventually rebuilt by the UN and the international community.

Zubeidi resigned from the police force recently to take up his new position as a minister with the prison service. He was made honorary director of the Freedom Theatre as a protective measure due to the authority and respect he commands in the camp.

This followed incidents where unknown elements tried twice to burn down the theatre, which produces controversial plays taking swipes at various elements in Palestinian society.

Despite the changes in his life, Zubeidi is pessimistic about the peace process.

'There is no peace under occupation. Unless Israel gives us our freedom and leaves our land we will be forced to take up arms again.

'I have already decided I will never go back to an Israeli prison under any conditions. I will never forget the torture and brutality I endured. It is either freedom or death.'

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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