Al-Faraa camp- “It is for God, not for power or prestige,” and “I have to vote, the camp will not die,” and “Oh martyr, do not frown, you want a soldier with clothes,” and “Oh Jamil Al-Amouri (founder of the Jenin Battalion), we brought you back Al-Juri,” were all chants that resonated. It contains the throats of thousands of demonstrators as they mourn 4 of the martyrs of Al-Faraa camp near the city of Tubas in the northern West Bank, who were martyred yesterday, Monday.
It was not just chants, but rather words that carried many messages, including: loyalty, mobilizing resistance, victory for the souls of the martyrs, singing of their glories, following in their footsteps, and avenging them against their common enemy, the Israeli occupation.
Al-Far’a camp began to mourn its people, who had become the target of the occupation and its escalating incursions. Within less than two weeks, 12 of the camp’s residents were martyred, and they were preceded at the end of the year, most of them civilians and children, as if the occupation wanted to cut off the path to a state of resistance that had emerged in the camp and was expanding among its alleys and disturbing it with its strikes.
A state of uprising
Tel Aviv Tribune Net experienced a state of uprising in the camp during the funeral process, as the people of the camp went out of their way, carrying the martyrs on their shoulders and carrying them through its narrow alleys, and they were preceded by dozens of resistance fighters who grabbed their rifles and pulled the veils off their faces without firing their bullets into the air, which they had saved for another time and goal, which was the occupation without… doubt.
Young men in the prime of their lives, and they did not enjoy living there at all, after they chose the path of struggle and defense of their camp and their people, and they set out to form the “Far’a Camp Brigade” like the other sites and camps revolting against the occupation, especially in the northern West Bank.
They were similar in dress, general appearance, and discipline, and even in entering among the hundreds of mourners and withdrawing quietly, and they only appeared during the clash and during the funeral of their martyred comrades.
We asked resistance fighters about the secret of the Israeli escalation and its targeting of their camp and the implications of that. We were answered by one of them who introduced himself as “Saber” and said, “The occupation wanted to hastily end the state of resistance in Al-Fara’a camp, so that it would not expand and extend to become inspiring, like a natural and national situation extending between the camps of the West Bank.”
Saber sees this large number of martyrs in just days as an attack launched by a “brutal enemy” who does not understand the confrontation with the resistance that has deepened his wounds, so he began targeting civilians and children by sniping them from the roofs of buildings, and executing them directly from zero distance without any guilt, and he “does not He emerges without these achievements,” he asserts.
Every time the occupation storms the camp, “it fails to reach its goal, and the resistance remains fine, and with every martyr they kill and think that the resistance is dying, ten take their place, and the resistance remains a thorn in the occupier’s side,” Saber adds.
Unified national resistance
But why did not all the occupation’s attempts to support the resistance fighters in the Fara’a camp fail? Saber answers, “Our national state of resistance is united, and with every martyr it rises more. We do not follow a specific faction, we do not resist for one party, or we disagree with another, and we are all defending the camp and for the sake of the homeland.”
But other reasons, which Omar Sobh, one of the camp’s leaders, believes have highlighted the resistance in the camp and revived it strongly despite its short duration, compared to the situation that extended in the West Bank two years ago, the most important of which is that Al-Far’a camp formed one of the advanced sites in the resistance historically.
The occupation war is comprehensive and affects all Palestinians, in addition to the fact that the resistant youth are enthusiastic and reject the daily occupation invasions, Omar Sobh tells Tel Aviv Tribune Net.
The same spokesman adds, “Al-Fara’a camp has a history and a long history of resisting the occupation and not remaining silent about its injustice, especially since Al-Fara’a prison, the most famous during the first intifada in 1987, was built by the occupation on the camp grounds.”
Omar pointed out other reasons that made the resistance of the Fara’a camp intensify and solidify quickly, making it a target for the occupation, which is that there is a popular incubator for them, and that all the youth of the camp take them as a model.
Politically, Omar adds, “This generation was born after the Oslo Accords, and it has lost confidence in all the political process and the nonsense of negotiations, and has lost hope in the peace process – as well – and turned to the best option, resistance.”
A generation hungry for confrontation
Zaid Sarhan, one of the Islamic leaders in Al-Faraa camp, agrees with Omar Sobh, and says that the camp’s situation escalated further with the war on the Gaza Strip, and was affected by it, but its peculiarity lies in its distance – by virtue of its geographical location – from other resistance sites in the cities of the West Bank. He added, “Therefore, he is always thirsty to confront the occupation, and this is what made the martyr Baraa Al-Amir, one of the resistance leaders in the Fara’a camp, participate in more than one site in the Jenin, Nablus, and Tulkarm camps.”
Moreover, Zaid says, the camp battalion does not consist of a specific faction and does not fall under any framework, and this is what makes the occupation request more than 20 resistance fighters by name, and put some of them on the elimination list.
For his part, Basil Mansour, a member of the factional coordination committee in Tubas Governorate and Al-Faraa camp, confirms that the national situation in the camp is very high and its strength cannot be broken. Rather, its level has increased, especially since the camps were and still are hotbeds of revolutions and an inspiration for them, and they live in historical injustice and oppression due to the displacement of the occupation. Its people in 1948.
In the case of the Fara’a resistance camp, Basil told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “It is a free, honorable, sincere and honest patriotic act, united by the field regardless of its party affiliation.”
He adds that what harms the occupation is that the situation of resistance was quickly transferred to the camp, and many of the young generation were affected by it, which prepared to sacrifice its soul and everything, especially if it found a nurturing and patriotic revolutionary environment.
This generation that Basil Mansour spoke about appeared as a reality, as it lined up to see the martyrs up close and participate in their funerals, and imitated the resistance fighters by appearing wearing the veil of the resistance fighters and their headbands.
