Israel’s vicious assault on Jenin, far from crushing Palestinian resistance, is likely to provoke a new wave of united resistance, argues John Clarke

On 5 July, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) Chief Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, stated that: ‘All the forces have left Jenin. We have finished the operation – its goals have been achieved.’ Very clearly, there were some immediate objectives to the assault on the Palestinian population of the Jenin refugee camp. As another Israeli official put it, the intention was to ‘break the safe-haven mindset of the camp, which has become a hornets’ nest.’ This choice of words indicates that the military operation was intended as an important step in a broader effort to crush Palestinian resistance.

The attack on Jenin involved ‘a major aerial and ground offensive’ and was considered the ‘biggest military operation in the Palestinian territory in years.’ The IDF deployed ‘at least 10 drone strikes on buildings, a brigade of Israeli troops … backed by armoured bulldozers and snipers on rooftops.’ Predictably, the attack was officially described as an ‘extensive counter-terrorism effort.’

Thousands of Palestinian residents were forced to flee and some of them described the ordeal they went through. Odai Alaqmeh, 20, said the soldiers ‘shot live ammunition inside our house,’ adding that ‘they hit a home in front of ours, it’s on fire. It’s still on fire. They didn’t have any mercy on anyone.’ The UN has reported that ‘ambulances with medical teams were prevented from entering parts of the refugee camp and reaching those critically wounded’ and that the attack ‘resulted in significant damage to infrastructure and most of the Jenin camp lost access to drinking water and electricity.’

At least twelve Palestinians perished in the attack on their community and around a hundred were wounded. As the troops withdrew, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that at ‘these moments we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive operation in Jenin is not a one-off.’

Despite the overwhelming military power that was unleashed on Jenin, Palestinian resistance and defiance was evident. As the operation proceeded, ‘images from inside Jenin showed armed and masked Palestinian fighters on the streets as gun battles and explosions continued.’ In the midst of this, ‘calls to support the fighters rang out from loudspeakers in mosques.’

Nathmiyeh Mer’i, 53, told Al Jazeera that: ‘This is the second time we leave the camp, and it’s the third time we are displaced since the Nakba. What do they want from us?’ She added ‘I hope all the young men of the camp are safe – and that we remain a thorn in their side.’

Importance of Jenin

There are very clear reasons why Jenin was selected for attack by Israel’s political and military leaders. The refugee camp, bearing the same name as the town it is located within, is populated by some 14,000 people who ‘are descendants of Palestinians dispossessed of their land and homes when the state of Israel was created in 1948.’

The Jenin refugee camp also ‘has one of the highest rates of unemployment and poverty among 19 refugee camps in the occupied West Bank.’ It was at the centre of the Second Intifada and was subjected to a massive Israeli assault in 2002. Jenin has also emerged in the last year as a focal point for Palestinian resistance and just last month, ‘Palestinian fighters and Israeli troops waged an hours-long battle in Jenin in which six Palestinians were killed and more than 90 wounded.’

Jenin’s stubborn resistance has come to the fore at a critical point. Richard Falk has suggested that the present ‘Israeli government is the culmination of decades of apartheid subjugation of the Palestinian people in their own homeland.’ It represents a point in the development of the Zionist project at which it is discarding all pretensions of a ‘peace process’ and preparing ‘to finish the job by incorporating all of the occupied Palestinian territories into Israel.’

The government that Netanyahu has brought together includes figures who would previously have been viewed as part of a right-wing fringe within the Zionist political spectrum. Under such a regime, more ‘Palestinians continue to be killed as Israeli raids become more frequent.’ Increasingly the repressive violence of the Israeli state is bolstered by attacks by racist settler mobs on Palestinian communities.

Though mild rebukes and expressions of concern have come from military commanders, ‘days after far-right settlers went on a rampage in the occupied West Bank villages,’ Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich declared that: ‘I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out. I think the state of Israel should do it.’

While ‘Smotrich wants to exploit the violence as a pretence to expand illegal settlements,’ fellow cabinet minister, ‘Itamar Ben-Gvir, is searching for a civil war, led by the most violent of Jewish settlers, the very core of his political constituency.’ Israel has also reactivated ‘aerial assassinations of Palestinian activists’ and its internal security service ‘Shin Bet is expanding its list of targets. More assassinations are surely to follow.’

Yet containing Jenin, let alone suppressing Palestinian resistance in general, will be an enormously difficult task, even for the most ruthless and determined Zionist regime. ‘The rebellious refugee camp has never ceased its resistance to the Israeli occupation.’ The more Israel escalates its attacks, ‘the tougher the resistance, which has swelled beyond the confines of Jenin itself, to nearby illegal Jewish settlements, military checkpoints, and so on. It is common knowledge that many of the Palestinians who Israel accuses of carrying out operations against its soldiers and settlers come from Jenin.’

Red lines

As always, Israel remains confident that it can rely on the political and material support of its Western sponsors, especially the US. As might be expected, Washington was immediately ready to provide cover for the criminal attack on Jenin. Despite standard empty calls for ‘restraint’ and ‘the protection of civilians,’ the core White House message was that ‘we support Israel’s security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups.’

Though the directions being taken by the present Zionist leadership are a source of considerable concern in Washington, Israel’s unique role as a garrison of Western interests in the Middle East lends credence to Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s assertion that there are no red lines and that US ‘security assistance to Israel is sacrosanct.’ Certainly, there is no level of Israeli atrocity or Palestinian suffering that would induce a US government to stop arming Israel to the teeth.

However, as even the illusion of a ‘peace process’ and an eventual two-state solution are obliterated, the present uncompromising effort to complete the Zionist colonial project enters uncharted territory. The zealots in the Netanyahu government are ready to incite and crush Palestinian resistance at all costs, but there are serious implications that flow from this. The present direction of this government has already opened up serious divisions within Israeli society, as the escalating assault on the Palestinians comes into conflict with the norms of liberal democracy.

The state of Israel owes its existence to its role as a ‘strategic asset’ for US-led imperialism that advances the latter’s domination of the broader region. An all-out drive to complete the colonial dispossession of the Palestinians brings with it the threat of unprecedented resistance and this, in turn, could have very serious implications in terms of regional stability.

The prospects for that Palestinian resistance were in evidence, even as massive force was unleashed on Jenin. Even so loyal a supporter of Israel as the New York Times felt obliged to report that ‘Jenin is revered because it has provided the Palestinian collective memory with many examples of not just resistance but also of popular endorsement and solidarity.’

The IDF spokesperson’s assertion that the recent attack on Jenin achieved its goals can only be true in terms of the most immediate tactical questions. Such murderous ‘solutions’ have a way of generating new and greater problems. As Middle East Monitor put it, the ‘next Intifada in Palestine will be armed, non-factional and popular, with consequences that are too difficult to gauge.’