Editorial

Hail the Heroic Resistance of the Palestinian People

For over ten days, a few hundred lightly armed Palestinian police and militia fought the vaunted Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to a standstill in the Jenin refugee camp, even driving the IDF out of the camp on at least one occasion. Many of the Palestinian fighters fought to the death and hundreds more surrendered only after running out of ammunition. It is being reported that during the course of the Israeli assault on the refugee camp, the IDF carried out a massacre of hundreds of unarmed civilian refugees, whose bodies have been buried in mass graves to prevent the images from being captured by the news cameras. There are also reports of other war crimes, including the execution of prisoners, the denial of medical care to the wounded and the almost total destruction of the refugee camp following its capture.

It was reported in the Israeli press that, prior to the assault on Palestinian refugees, Israeli commanders openly called on their troops to study and utilize the tactics of the Nazis in suppressing the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. All reports indicate that this is precisely what the IDF did in Jenin. However, the Israelis are discovering, just as the Nazis did, that the military defeat of a heroic people by the use of overwhelming force does not cover the victors with honour and glory, but with shame. The defenders of the Jenin refugee camp have won a significant moral victory for the Palestinian people and have also shaken the myth of invincibility of the Israeli armed forces.

The resistance in Jenin, as well as in Ramallah, Bethlehem and scores of other towns and villages, stands as an inspiration to the Palestinian people to continue their struggle until they win victory.