Yahya Sinwar (1962-2024), the head of Hamas, and the mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel was killed in his birthplace, Khan Younis. He died while fighting the Israel Defense Forces, IDF, trying to liberate Palestine from occupation.
Sinwar viewed armed struggle as the most effective way to confront the Israeli occupation in light of the indifference of the international community who stand silently watching the suffering of Palestinians deprived of all human rights in the last and longest colonial project.
Some have compared Sinwar to another revolutionary freedom fighter connected to Gaza. Che Guevara (1928 – 1967) symbolizes the underdog, the idealist, the icon, or the martyr. Che first gained fame as a guerrilla fighter during the Cuban Revolution of 1956-59 and died fighting after the CIA located him and bribed Bolivian soldiers who executed him on October 9, 1967.
In 1959, the freedom fighter Che visited Gaza and transformed the Zionist colonization of Palestine into a global struggle for freedom against colonialism. The Gaza Strip, just 1.3 percent of Palestine, became the symbol of Palestine to the international community.
Che came to see for himself the Gaza refugee camps which bore witness to the effects of ethnic cleansing. Just three years before his visit, on November 3, 1956, Israeli soldiers entered Khan Younis rounded up all males aged 15 to 50, and executed 520 Palestinians.
The Palestinian resistance leaders in Gaza warmly welcomed Che as he toured Gaza and met with refugees. He told them they must continue to struggle to free their land. He said there was no alternative other than the resistance to occupation.
Che recognized the need for training camps for fighters, factories to manufacture arms, and mobilization centers for the population. While his hosts were explaining their poverty and needs in Gaza, Che demanded to know of them, “What actions have you taken to free your people from occupation?”
Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India, also visited Gaza after the long struggle for independence in India was won in 1947. Years of violent uprisings and armed resistance activities paid off for the Indians as they established their freedom from Great Britain. Nehru served as a symbol of hope for freedom, as did Che, to the Palestinians of Gaza.
Sinwar was repeatedly arrested in the 1980s while being an activist at the Islamic University in Gaza. He joined Hamas after its founding in 1987, and the next year was arrested and sentenced to four life sentences. He spent 23 years in an Israeli prison and was freed in 2011 in a prisoner swap.
Nelson Mandela served 27 years in prison for violence against the apartheid South African government. He was offered release if he would denounce violence, and he refused. Mandela was released in 1990, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, and became President of South Africa in 1994. Mandela said during the struggle for freedom, that violence is to be used when no other means is available.
In a 2021 interview with Vice News, Sinwar said, “For long periods, we tried peaceful and popular resistance. We expected that the world, free people, and international organizations would stand by our people and stop occupation from committing crimes and massacring our people. Unfortunately, the world stood by and watched,” and added, “Does the world expect us to be well-behaved victims while we are being killed, for us to be slaughtered without making a noise?”
Sinwar saw the world was ignoring the Palestinian quest for freedom, and some Arab countries were making normalization deals with Israel under the Trump-led ‘Abraham Accords’.
Sinwar succeeded in bringing the Palestinian quest for freedom and independence to the forefront of global attention, although critics of the deaths of Israeli civilians saw his strategy as excessive. The Geneva Conventions guarantee any occupied person may use arms to resist occupation, but civilians are to be spared. Islamic law also excludes innocent people from being targets.
The brutal response to October 7, 2023, carried out by the IDF upon millions of unarmed civilians, resulting in the deaths of over 43,000 people, with more than 90,000 injured, mainly women and children, has succeeded in demonstrating to the world the crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide carried out by Israel and their ‘forever occupation’ policy.
The international community, the UN General Assembly, and University students worldwide recognized the war crimes committed by the IDF. Israel became an isolated, rogue nation but their support from the US never faltered. As the atrocities and genocide grew worse by the minute, the weapons and cash kept flowing from Washington to Tel Aviv.
October 7, 2023, succeeded in putting the brakes on several Arab-Israeli normalization plans, such as Saudi Arabia, which demanded an independent Palestinian state as a prerequisite to a deal.
What happens next?
Netanyahu gave a speech celebrating the assassination of Sinwar, but the Israelis must recognize that assassinating resistance leaders will not stop the resistance movement in the region. The Israelis have assassinated Abbas Mousawi, Ahmad Yassine, Dr. Abdul Aziz Rantisi, Hassan Nasrallah, Yahya Sinwar, and others.
Even Israeli security experts have said that Israel is not safer after attacking Gaza for over one year. Killing innocent civilians in Gaza or the Occupied West Bank will not make Israeli civilians more safe.
Despite the numerous assassinations, the resistance movement gains strength and supporters. Hamas, Hezbollah, and other similar groups are willing to die for their cause. This is a concept that some Westerners find difficult to understand. However, the American patriot, Patrick Henry, said in 1776, “Give me liberty, or give me death.”
The face of Che Guevara is everywhere and instantly recognized even though he died 57 years ago. There is a statue of Nelson Mandela in Ramallah in the Occupied West Bank. Mandela said, “But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians. “
Freedom fighters may die, but if their cause is just, their fight will be continued by those who follow to pick up the torch and go forward.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist.
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