JENIN, West Bank, 5 July 2003 — Seated in the courtyard of a house in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, local leader Zacharia Zubeidi insists there is no question of the militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades suspending attacks on Israeli targets. “What is the point of this ‘hudna’ (Arabic for truce) if the Israeli Army continues to kill our people?” demanded Zubeidi.
He was speaking to AFP after one of the group’s members was shot dead late Wednesday southwest of Jenin in a gunfight with Israeli troops. Another local leader was wounded and captured in the clash.
Zubeidi, in his mid-20s, bears the scars of injuries he says he suffered at the hands of the Israeli Army during bitter clashes in Jenin in April last year. His name and face are well-known to the Israeli authorities.
He presents himself as the leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades for the northern West Bank. The group is an offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement but Zubeidi himself described his organization as the military wing of the mainstream faction.
Many believe his leadership covers the whole West Bank and that his decisions will largely determine the future of the truce announced by the other factions. While four major Palestinian factions — including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah itself — agreed on Sunday to freeze anti-Israeli attacks for at least three months, the Brigades’ stance remains at best ambiguous.
Zubeidi said that his local branch of the Brigades had not even been consulted about the truce.
And he insisted that any cease-fire should be conditional on a complete Israeli withdrawal from territory occupied since 1967, the release of all Palestinian prisoners, and an end to Israeli operations and strikes. He said that he would be prepared to join the truce but only if Israel first made a similar declaration. “If there is going to be a truce, it must be on both sides,” he said, recalling how Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had reacted to the truce announcement by saying it was a domestic Palestinian matter and of no concern to Israel.
“It is for the Israelis to announce that they accept the truce and then we will stop” operations, he said. Zubeidi was careful not to criticize Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, a senior figure in Fatah and the driving force behind the truce as he forges ahead to revive peace talks with the Israelis. But he added he only took orders from Arafat.
Arafat may have approved the truce but his confinement in Ramallah by the Israeli Army means that his decisions cannot be seen as having been made of his own free will, Zubeidi argued. The killing on Monday of a Bulgarian construction worker, in an attack, which was claimed by the Brigades, was a perfect illustration of the confusion and divisions within the group which is largely autonomous and has a nebulous hierarchical structure.
