On 4 August 2024, Samidoun international coordinator Charlotte Kates was one of several international figures honoured with the 8th annual Islamic Human Rights and Human Dignity Award in Tehran, Iran.

During this year’s awards process, 42 human rights figures from 17 countries were nominated to the Islamic Human Rights and Human Dignity Award Committee, of which 6 people were selected as winners and three people given special honours on the occasion of the ceremony.

The awards were officially presented during an official ceremony in Tehran, Iran, in the presence of the head of the Iranian judiciary, representatives of non-governmental organizations, Kazem Gharibabadi, Secretary-General of the High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and ambassadors of multiple countries based in Tehran.

8th Islamic Human Rights Prize celebrates defenders of ‘Oppressed Palestinians’

Press TV’s @gisoumisha Ahmadi reports from Tehran pic.twitter.com/tnRYcbWeVj

— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) August 5, 2024

The recipients of the 8th annual Islamic Human Rights Award were as follows:

The three special honourees: the martyr Ismail Haniyeh, the chair of the Political Bureau of the Hamas movement; the martyr Hossein Amir Abdollahian, the 13th Iranian Foreign Minister, and his family; and the Major General of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Mohammed Reza Zahedi, and his family;

and the six awardees: Ziyad Nakhaleh, the General Secretary of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement; Siraj al-Haq, the former chair of the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JIP); Jaime Ermida, Permanent Representative of Nicaragua to the United Nations; Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network; Gilles Devers, French lawyer and human rights advocate; and Asadollah Asadi, the freed former Iranian diplomat.

“Many people in the world in different countries, even in countries that support the crimes of the Zionist regime, including the criminal United States, have realized the actions of the fake regime, but that is not enough and the defenders of Islamic human rights must take greater steps to expose the crimes of the Zionist regime,” said the head of the Iranian judiciary, Hojjatoleslam Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, at a ceremony marking the Islamic Human Rights and Human Dignity Day.

In turn, the Secretary of the Human Rights Committee and vice-president of the Judiciary for International Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazem Gharibabadi, considered that the commemoration of the Islamic Human Rights and Human Dignity Day this year is “a complete reflection of the oppression that the Palestinian people are subjected to.”

He added, “The spread of Islamophobia…incitement to hatred, and governments’ support for these measures under the pretext of freedom of expression is a dangerous phenomenon. Its spread and expansion increases hatred and violence against Muslims and is a threat to peace, security, and peaceful coexistence, and a threat to friendly relations between nations and followers of heavenly religions.”

Kates thanked the Human Rights Committee for the honor and award, emphasizing the role of the Islamic Republic in opposing American, Western and Zionist policies, and the support provided by the Iranian people to the resistance in Palestine, Lebanon and the region. In a video message played at the event, Kates noted that she and Samidoun are part of a global movement for justice in Palestine that has grown and blossomed as people everywhere fill the streets of cities and capitals for Palestine, demand to boycott the genocidal Zionist regime, take direct actions to shut down arms companies, and fill the lawns and halls of universities, and that this global grassroots movement firmly believes that the unified resistance forces of the region will take all measures necessary to hold the aggressors accountable for their assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, their violation of the sovereignty of Iran, and the past 76 years of genocide against the Palestinian people.

She dedicated the award to the Palestinian prisoners’ movement in Zionist jails, noting:

This award is truly for the martyrs and the prisoners of Palestine; to Walid Daqqah, the Palestinian freedom fighter, writer and revolutionary, imprisoned from 1986 until his martyrdom this year inside the occupation prisons, whose body remains imprisoned by the occupation. To Sheikh Khader Adnan, who won his freedom from the occupation prisons through hunger strikes on four occasions, who dedicated himself to supporting his fellow strugglers in the prisoners movement, who was martyred in May 2023 on his final hunger strike demanding freedom. For the prisoners of the high sentences, those the Zionist regime refuses to release, the leaders, the resistance strugglers who continue to fight for the liberation of Palestine every day behind bars. 

For Abdullah Barghouthi, serving the longest prison sentence in history for his role in leading the Palestinian armed resistance. For Ahmad Sa’adat, imprisoned first by the Palestinian Authority under US and British guard, and then by the Zionist occupation regime. For Marwan Barghouthi and Abbas al-Sayyed and Ibrahim Hamed. For the imprisoned students, for Layan Kayed and Shahd Asafra and Hadeel Shatara, imprisoned in the Zionist jails for their commitment to liberation in their studies and in their society. For every one of the over 10,000 Palestinians held in the occupation prisons and the thousands more detained in their military torture camps like the infamous Sde Teiman. This is not an honour for myself, but for all of the Palestinian prisoners and the entire Palestinian people struggling for liberation and return. 

During her visit to Tehran, organized by the Institute for the Protection of Women’s Rights, a non-governmental organization, Kates engaged in a wide range of media interviews with Iranian television programs and other media, including Al-Ofogh, Press TV, Mizan, Mehr News, Safir TV, IRNA, ISNA and a number of other outlets, including a special interview with Marzieh Hashemi of Press TV.

She also participated in a joint live interview with Gharibabadi on the evening of 4 August, in which she discussed both the condition of Palestinian prisoners as well as the repression targeting organizers for Palestinian liberation in a number of Western imperialist countries, including Germany, the United States, France and Canada, and in a special interview with “Foreign Affairs” on Safir TV, co-hosted by Elham Abedini.

 

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She also gave presentations at several meetings and forums while present in Tehran, including a meeting at the Iranian Parliament Research Centre on Islamic and Western principles of human rights, chaired by Elham Abedini of Samidoun Iran, and spoke at a meeting with women social activists on Palestinian women under attack in Gaza, where she spoke about the situation of Palestinian women detainees, the Dismantle Damon campaign, and the martyrdom of Wafa Jarrar, announced just that morning.

Her presentation at the forum is republished below: 

It is a great honour to be here with you today in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and specifically today and at this moment, amid the ongoing Zionist genocide in Gaza against the Palestinian people, and amid the heroic role of the Resistance in Palestine and throughout the region, standing on the front lines not only in defense of Palestinian lives but in defense of humanity itself, and specifically at this time only days after the criminal assassination of the great martyred leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and the attack on the sovereignty of Iran. It is more important than ever to be here at this time and to express the conviction and faith of the people’s movements of the world in the unified resistance forces of the region to hold accountable those responsible for these horrific crimes and for 76 years of genocide in occupied Palestine.

I speak today as the international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, an international network of organizers, committees and activists organizing for the liberation of Palestinian political prisoners as part and parcel of the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. From the inception of the Zionist project, political imprisonment has always been a colonial weapon used against the Palestinian people. For that matter, it was also used by the British colonial mandate over Palestine. When we look back to the uprisings of the Palestinian people in 1922, 1929, 1936-39: the British colonizer implemented arbitrary detention without charge or trial, what we know today as administrative detention in Palestine. They blew up the homes of resisting Palestinians and executed revolutionary leaders. And, of course, through the infamous Balfour declaration and beyond, supported, encouraged, armed and empowered the Zionist colonial project. 

Zionism in Palestine has always been a partner and a weapon of imperialism and imperial powers: then, the British empire, and today, the U.S. empire. So when we speak of the war crimes and the crimes against humanity of the Zionist regime; when we speak of the violations of Palestinian rights, when we speak of the genocide currently being carried out in occupied Palestine, let us be clear, this is a US-Zionist genocide, a joint project aimed at the dispossession and eradication of the Palestinian people in order to set up a firm basis for control and domination of the peoples of the region. And – yet – it remains a failure, despite the billions of dollars in weaponry, despite the mass slaughter, the destruction of every university in Gaza, the bombing of schools, mosques, hospitals and refugee camps, of residential buildings, the deadliest aggression on journalists on record. It remains a failure because the Palestinian people continue to resist and to strike severe blows against the colonial occupier, because, despite the devastation, Palestine is closer to liberation than it has been at any time since 1948. 

We speak today amid the ongoing extreme and severe war crimes in Gaza. As at least 39,000 Palestinians and likely many more, with credible estimates of up to 186,000 Palestinians martyred by the occupation forces according to a report in the respected medical journal, the Lancet, with over 95% of the 2.2 million people of the Gaza Strip displaced, it is clear what we see in Gaza, and for that matter, what we have been witnessing for over 76 years throughout occupied Palestine: genocide. 

And the mass imprisonment of Palestinians and the struggle for their liberation is part and parcel of that genocide and of the resistance to it, for return, liberation, self-determination and sovereignty.  Palestinian prisoners are men and women, children and elders, workers and farmers, teachers and students, community organizers and freedom fighters. They are imprisoned by the Zionist regime because the Zionist project seeks to isolate these Palestinian leaders from their people and deprive the Palestinian cause of their leadership – and because they seek to impose that isolation on our global movement as well. Palestinian prisoners are being subjected to severe torture and abuse. They are being starved, deprived of medical treatment and subjected to military interrogation. We know of 21 prisoners who have been martyred in the prison system and at least 38 in the military detention camps, and in many of these cases, the Zionist regime is imprisoning their bodies, alongside the bodies of hundreds of other martyrs of Palestine, in an attempt to hold them hostage to use against the resistance. And yet, the Palestinian prisoners, including 88 women, hundreds of children, nearly 4000 held without charge or trial under administrative detention, are not merely victims of the crimes against humanity imposed upon them. They are also leaders, resisters, strugglers and freedom fighters. They turn the dungeons of the Zionist colonizer into revolutionary schools of resistance and liberation and come forward time and again to advance the struggle forward.

It has been proven time and again that the Zionist regime will refuse to release the Palestinian prisoners unless it is compelled to do so by the resistance. Similarly, the Zionist regime will never relinquish land nor recognize the rights of Palestinians until or unless it is compelled to do so. The Palestinian resistance has seen clearly that the only effective way to release their prisoners in the dungeons of the occupier is to carry out a prisoner exchange. Prisoner exchanges have been powerfully effective mechanisms to liberate imprisoned leaders. The great prisoner exchange of 1985 paved the way for the great popular Intifada of 1987; the great Wafaa al-Ahrar exchange of 2011 paved the way for the exceptional development of the resistance in Gaza. And in the meantime, Zionist officials will compete to declare their clear intentions to torture, starve and even kill the prisoners. The so-called “Israel” Prison Service is directed by the notorious fascist Itamar Ben-Gvir, who declared his intention to execute Palestinian prisoners, and in the mean time, “feed them as little as possible.” This does not even address the thousands held in the infamous Sde Teiman military detention camp, subjected to the most horrific forms of torture and abuse, to the extent that Zionists recently rioted across occupied Palestine to demand the so-called right of Zionist soldiers to torture and rape Palestinian detainees. Their names and identities are withheld, they are subjected to even more extreme treatment than the Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails. 

This – all of this – the leadership of the prisoners, the fact that they are a compass and a conscience of the Palestinian cause, the torture and abuse that is systemic and routine, and the love and dedication to their freedom that is deeply rooted in the resistance, is why the Palestinian people and their armed resistance are prepared to pay enormous sacrifices in order to win the liberation of their prisoners – because the liberation of Palestine requires their liberation. This is why, despite the genocide, the Palestinian people and their Resistance remain fixed upon liberation, dedicated to achieving their goals, with the prisoners at the heart of the struggle for a liberated Palestine. 

When we speak now, after 300 days of genocide, and after 300 days of resistance, we must be clear: October 7, the great Al-Aqsa Flood, changed the world, irreversibly. This day made clear before the world that it is quite possible to envision a Palestine free of Zionism and a region free of imperialism. And every day since then, the unified Resistance has continued to defend and uphold humanity against genocide. The unified resistance front, stretching from Palestine to Lebanon, where the Lebanese Resistance clears northern occupied Palestine of occupation soldiers and settlers; to Yemen, where the Yemeni people, government, armed forces and AnsarAllah movement have shut down the supply lines of genocide in the Red Sea, causing the port of Eilat to declare bankruptcy; to Iraq, to Syria, to right here in Iran, in the beating heart of the Resistance, and stretching around the world to all who confront imperialism, Zionism and reaction. 

There is a great global Intifada today, rising and inspired by the horrors of genocide and by the strength and determination of the Palestinian people and their resistance, and all of the forces of resistance of the region, a great unity of fronts that points to the defense of humanity from plunder and exploitation, from sanctions and siege, from the theft of land and labour, from Zionism and imperialism. Millions upon millions of people march, demonstrate and take direct action in the heart of the imperial core. Students build encampments on campuses to demand an end to the complicity with genocide of the imperialist university. 

And so, we see the thousands of students arrested across the United States. German police invading Palestinians’ homes, ransacking mosques, banning Samidoun, banning Islamic centres, banning the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” British police interrogating children about their support for Palestine. France prosecuting hundreds of people for expressing their support for the Palestinians’ unequivocal right to armed resistance and true self-defense. Georges Abdallah and the Holy Land Five, imprisoned in France and the United States. Resistance organizations, from Hamas to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to Hezbollah, to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are labeled as “terrorist” and criminalized, when Palestinians have the unequivocal right to resist through armed struggle under international law and in all senses of human dignity. It is clear who the violators of human rights are, and who defends humanity. It is the heroic resistance on the front lines of the defense of humanity, everywhere in the world, and it is clear that the Zionist project is a temporary project. It is clear that liberation is coming. 

Today, in the south of Lebanon, the horrific Zionist prison of torture for decades for those who resisted their occupation, Khiam prison, is a museum. It is a museum where the Lebanese resistance liberated the prisoners, part and parcel of the liberation of Lebanon from Zionist occupation. That museum honours the survivors, the martyrs, the memory, and it serves as a landmark of the liberation brought by the Resistance. One day, and one day soon, every one of the prisons we speak of in occupied Palestine will be dismantled and serve only as a museum to honour the victims and remember the horror of Zionist occupation, and the leaders of our global movement will return home in victory, freedom, glory and dignity, in a free Palestine, from the river to the sea.

9 August marks the second anniversary of the martyrdom of the Lion of Nablus, the ghost of the mountain of fire, Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, and his fellow fighters, martyrs and prisoners of the Lions’ Den.

Two years after his martyrdom, Nabulsi and his comrades remain symbols of courage, resistance, pride and combativeness for an entire generation of Palestinians but also for all supporters of the Palestinian resistance throughout the world.

Nablus: From the Mountain of Fire to the Lions’ Den

Since the period of the British Mandate, Nablus has played a central role in Palestinian political life, and therefore in the resistance of the Palestinian people.

It was in Nablus that the great strike of 1936 was declared. By 1936, Palestine had been under the British colonial mandate for 20 years. In 1917, the Balfour Declaration promised that the British Empire would support the creation of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Mandatory Palestine. In a few years, aided by a British colonial policy of land grabbing and confiscation, expulsion and a discriminatory and racist tax policy, the Zionist colonial project developed rapidly in Palestine. On the side of the indigenous Palestinian people, who suffered the full brunt of this colonial policy, anger was growing.

On 19 April 1936, in a family-run soap factory in Nablus, the newly founded Arab National Committee declared a major general strike. It called on Palestinians to withhold tax payments and boycott Zionist settler products in protest against British colonialism and increasing Zionist immigration. Within days, national committees were formed in all major cities and some large villages to strengthen the strike. Under pressure from the rank and file, which seized upon the movement with force, the five largest Palestinian political parties created the Arab Higher Committee and took charge of the strike.

The strike grew and blossomed throughout Palestine, and in other countries in the region support movements were organized. A real popular movement was being built and in the countryside peasants took up arms to fight the colonial troops, with Syrian sheikh Izzedine al-Qassam playing a leading role in mobilizing the peasantry for armed struggle. A few months later, in October 1936, faced with diplomatic pressure, the Arab Higher Committee decided to end the strike.

This general strike is a central event in the history of Palestinian resistance. It will serve as an impetus for another major event in the history of Palestine: the Great Arab Revolt of 1936-1939. The fellahin – the peasants – who played a central role in the 1936 strike and constituted at that time the heart of the Palestinian armed resistance, targeted Zionist and British interests. In response, more than 25,000 British soldiers were sent to Palestine to crush the rebellion. The colonial empire also provided weapons to the Zionist militias that were formed and served as auxiliaries to the colonial army. After a bloody repression, the Great Revolt gradually stopped, when the British Empire promised to significantly reduce Zionist immigration. It is estimated that in three years, 5,000 Palestinians were killed, 15,000 to 20,000 injured and 5,600 imprisoned, or a total of 10% of the population.

During the years following the Nakba and the establishment of the Zionist entity on the land of Palestine, Nablus remained a stronghold of the resistance. In 1967, with the defeat of the Arab armies and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the old city became a stronghold of the resistance and hosted cells of organized fighters. Significant armed actions were carried out and a number of them had a strong impact on the Zionist army. Shadia Abu Ghazaleh was one of these fighters. A member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, she led a network of urban resistance fighters in the city of Nablus at the time. Shadia considered education, knowledge and science as weapons in the struggle for liberation, and had participated in cutting-edge operations that inflicted significant losses on the colonial army. She fell a martyr in 1968, while preparing a bomb at her home, in a district of the old city. In tribute, Leila Khaled later took up her name as a nom de guerre during her external resistance operations. Several schools bear her name in the West Bank and Gaza — and both Zionist forces and European funders have repeatedly attempted to force Palestinians to remove her name, like those of other martyrs of the liberation movement.

From the beginning of the 1980s, a new generation of resistance fighters decided to rebuild Palestinian organizations and factions in the city and surrounding camps. This revitalization of resistance in the city and its outskirts would allow young people to physically and concretely oppose the Zionist army. And a few years before the first intifada, in Nablus and in the Balata camp, stones and Molotov cocktails were already raining down on the colonial soldiers. In 1987, when the uprising started in Jabalia camp in Gaza and spread throughout Palestine to break out in the West Bank, the city and its outskirts became a stronghold of clashes.

During the 2nd Intifada, the city was once again a center of resistance. Among its most ardent defenders, names recur like Nayef Abu Sharkh, Jaafar Al-Masri and Fadi Al-Bahti, and the two fighters of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, Yamen Faraj (Abu Nasreen) and his comrade Amjad Mlaitat. Pursued and hunted for years, they carried out a significant number of operations, before being assassinated on 6 July 2004, after a four-hour confrontation against Zionist soldiers.

Historically, the city of Nablus has been a stronghold of Palestinian resistance. The history of martyred fighters and prisoners is passed down from generation to generation, can be read on the walls, and through the discussions of parents or elders. Each Palestinian city has its history of resistance, and this history constitutes the foundations of the future of the revolution, whether it is the story of the battle of the Jenin camp during the second intifada or that of a prisoner fighter from a small village. Experiences complement each other, experiences respond to each other, the failures and successes of the elders are evaluated and liberation draws closer.

IBRAHIM NABULSI: THE LION OF NABLUS

Ibrahim Al Nabulsi is a child of Nablus. He was born there in 2003, during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. At that time, it was a city ravaged by raids and attacks by the Zionist occupation army. It painfully counts its inhabitants who fell as martyrs to defend the city, and notes the material damage left by tanks, bombs, bulldozers and other colonial soldiers.

At the age of 15, wanted by the Zionist state, he was arrested with two childhood friends, Muhammad Dakhil and Adham Mabrouka, by the Palestinian Authority. In detention, they suffered physical violence that would deeply mark them and develop their commitment to the resistance. Upon their release, they joined the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the city of Nablus. The group would join a larger coalition, the Nablus Brigade, a unified brigade that brought together fighters from various factions present in the city and its outskirts.

Very quickly, the group became a priority for the occupying forces. Operation “Break the Wave” was launched on the city at the beginning of 2022 to eliminate the brigade. A campaign of raids, murders and bloody executions then began. Because these resistance fighters, sons, fathers, cousins ​​and children of Nablus benefit from unwavering support from the population, a popular support that makes the colonial army tremble.

On February 8, 2022, the occupation forces, infiltrating the city of Nablus, ambushed a car carrying Ashraf Mubasalat, Mohammad Dakhil and Adham Mabrouka. A hail of several dozen bullets fell on the group of friends who died instantly. These three young men were resistance fighters, members of the Nablus Brigades. But above all, they were Ibrahim’s childhood friends, who were with him during his incarceration. After the murder of his three companions, Ibrahim learned that he too was actively sought by the occupation forces and that he had just narrowly escaped assassination.

After the murder of his three friends, Ibrahim became one of the main targets of the colonial army, which then launched a relentless hunt for the Lion of Nablus and his comrades. Despite everything, as usual and as he would do until his martyrdom, it was not uncommon to see him walking around the old city, taking the time to greet people and talk to them.

On the day of the funeral procession of his three friends, while he was actively sought, he broke through the crowd to salute his brothers in arms one last time. This public appearance, like a challenge to the colonial war machine and its secret services, further forged his legend.

At dawn on 24 July 2022, residents of the Al Yasmina neighborhood were awakened by intense gunfire. The colonial army had launched an operation against a house in the city that was said to be sheltering resistance fighters. For more than 5 hours, Zionist soldiers riddled the house with bullets and explosives. The resistance fighters held their own, aided by their network of tunnels running throughout the city. Despite everything, the occupying forces had the upper hand, and two prominent fighters from Nablus, considered the founders of the future “Lions’ Den,” fell as martyrs: Muhammad al-Azizi and Abdul Rahman Subuh. Ibrahim, who was present at the scene, managed to escape once again. His public appearance during the funeral procession had the effect of a thunderclap. Surrounded by his people, rifle in hand, he pierced the crowd to carry the shrouds of his friends.

On Tuesday, 9 August 2022, in the early morning, the Israeli army launched a new raid on Nablus. Clashes broke out with residents and several dozen of them were injured. At the same time, the occupation forces surrounded a block of houses in the old city. Inside were Ibrahim Nabulsi and a comrade, Islam Subuh. The two fighters refused to surrender, and chose to resist. The colonial army unleashed itself on the house, riddling it with bullets and finally destroying it with a missile launcher. The walls exploded under the violence of the shock. Despite their courageous resistance, the two brothers in arms fell as martyrs under the colonial bullets.

On the same day, 16-year-old Hussein Jamal Taha was shot in the heart by Israeli soldiers during clashes that broke out in the city.

“I love you so much. If I am martyred, guys: I love my mother. Take care of the homeland after I am gone, and my last wish for you, on your honor: do not drop the rifle – on your honor. I am surrounded and I am going to my martyrdom. Pray for me.”

These are Ibrahim’s last words, from a voice recording sent while he was surrounded by occupation soldiers. These words, “don’t drop the gun,” will resonate strongly with all Palestinian youth, in historic Palestine and in the diaspora.

The city was filled with people, with a dense and electric crowd accompanying the remains of the martyrs during the funeral procession. The mother of his comrade who fell martyr before him, Muhammad Al Dakhil, washes his face while addressing his last words to him. In the hubbub, his body is carried for a time off the stretcher. Ibrahim’s mother, splits the crowd and carries the shroud with her son’s companions. She pierces the crowd that clusters around the bodies of the resistance fighters, who sacrificed what was most dear to them for their collective liberation. Then Um Eyad, the mother of the Lion, seizes the weapon that her son was carrying.

Ibrahim Nabulsi was long considered a fighter of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Following his martyrdom, the Saraya Al Quds Brigades published a statement and a video from him, announcing that Ibrahim was also one of their leaders. He also had bonds of comradeship and alliance with the Izzedine Al-Qassam Brigades. In truth, Ibrahim Al Nabulsi and his companions were fighters of the Resistance. The creation of the Nablus Brigade, an informal alliance across political lines, is the most concrete expression of this. Previous generations have struggled to overcome intra-Palestinian divisions, and the project of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades during the second intifada in Jenin, to see the different brigades of the resistance unified under a collective command, was eventually realized in Gaza under the impetus, leadership and direction of Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Hamas and the Al-Qassam Brigades. For these young people from the Jenin, Lions’ Den, Tulkarem or Balata brigades, the question of factionalism does not arise. This post-Oslo generation has only known betrayal by the Palestinian Authority, continued colonization, the loss of momentum of the traditional parties, and has been directly confronted with colonial savagery. For them, the only way to defeat the Zionist forces, to be able to defend the camps and liberate their land is to unite the rifles without factional considerations.

Shortly after his death, his comrades announced the creation of a new group in Nablus: “Lions’ Den”. The culmination of this reflection on the unification of the brigades under a common banner, it is a group bringing together young people from different political families, united in the struggle for national liberation. Inside we find leaders and fighters belonging to resistance parties and their brigades, and others who are not affiliated and only active in the Den, all without distinctive signs. The only visible logo is that of the Lions’ Den. A white circle in which two rifles stand guard over Al Quds, placed on a black crescent on which the name of the group is written.

The Lions’ Den: Prelude to the Flood

The success of the Lions’ Den lies in an effective formula: an ability to carry out a significant number of operations against Zionist interests and the occupying forces, impactful communication, and above all a limitless sacrifice for national liberation. The number of martyrs of the group is incalculable, all the leaders are either martyrs or in prison (those of the Zionist state but also those of the “Palestinian” authority). The tribute posters follow one another on the walls, and each fallen fighter leaves an immense scar in this landscape of white bricks.

The repression of the Zionist entity was brutal and merciless, it cut off the head of the brigade very quickly, in an ultra-violent manner, seeking to send a message: The person who chooses the path of arms in Nablus will end up riddled with bullets or dynamited. And the significant human toll paid by the Lions’ Den has impacted its military capabilities. The group is less visible and less active. But it has given impetus to other groups which, in turn, hold the occupation forces in check, as in Nour Shams, Jenin, Balata, etc.

The Lions’ Den played a key role in the revival of armed resistance on this scale in the West Bank. The lions of Nablus showed the way forward to Palestinian youth seeking liberation. There was a before and an after. And it impacted the entire Palestinian society, including Gaza, where tributes to the fallen fighters and congratulations for the group’s military actions were sent. After October 7, the Gaza resistance called on the whole of Palestine to stand by its side. The Lions’ Den was the first organization to respond with a statement encouraging all available forces to join the battle.

In short, while the Palestinian armed resistance was in a state of decline, denied even by components of the Palestinian “civil society,” a group of young people from the “mountain of fire” awakened a volcano. And recalled that the path of armed resistance was the path that would allow liberation.

Behind the Lions: The Popular Cradle

In early September 2022, less than a month after the martyrdom of Ibrahim, Islam and Hussein, the Lions’ Den organized its first meeting, for the 40 days of the martyrdom of the founders  Muhammad al-Azizi and Abdul Rahman Subuh . For the first time, the fighters of the Den went out in formation and presented themselves to their city. Dressed in black, a white headband with the image of the group, a red cloth tied around the barrel of the rifle to signify that these weapons are only intended to confront the settler, and that no bullet will be wasted by firing it into the sky.

Old Nablus welcomed them in the best possible way, the sons who grew up in its centre. They who know every nook and cranny of the old city, every underground passage, every back shop, every stone scarred by bullet holes, every leaf rocked by the morning breeze. Each time they appear, the streets are crowded, the whole city wants to greet the fighters, the children admire those they imitate during their games, the parents feel the pride of seeing their child be part of these proud resistance fighters.

This is the true strength of the Lions’ Den: it finds its source in every family, in every street. The city is the cradle of the fighters. More than once the population has massively supported the resistance fighters in a difficult situation (as we saw recently in Tulkarem where the population snatched Abu Shujaa, leader of the Tulkarem Brigades, from the clutches of the PA security services) by taking to the streets to face the bullets of the Zionist army.

The group’s flags flutter in the alleys and squares, the faces of the martyrs are enthroned on the walls or cover the walls of shops and street food trailers. Commemorations are regularly organized to keep alive the memory of the fallen fighters so that their struggle finds continuity in previous generations.

The group’s communication has also played a huge role in its success among the population. The official Telegram channel has reached more than 250,000 subscribers. Not to mention all the unofficial channels created to share content about martyrs and fighters.

The simple fact that in hiding, and hunted by the Zionist intelligence services, Ibrahim Nabulsi could walk around the old city and take advantage of that connection with the street, shows to what extent the city and its inhabitants were a protective veil that lovingly closed over the resistance fighters.

Faced with the ongoing genocide, and faced with the full alliance of imperialist powers with the Zionist regime, seeking to grant it total impunity, we must stand with strength and dedication alongside the fighters of the Palestinian Resistance. We can, through our mobilization in the imperial core, open a breach that can significantly weaken the Zionist genocidal regime and strengthen the Resistance! Through economic, sporting, and cultural boycott, by fighting for the release of prisoners of the resistance incarcerated in our countries like Georges Abdallah imprisoned in France for 40 years and eligible for release since 1999, the Holy Land Five detained in the USA for 16 years, or our comrades from Palestine Action! Through our mobilization, let us create an international popular cradle for the Palestinian Resistance and support the Palestinian resisters and fighters!

Glory to the martyrs, long life to the fighters, freedom to the prisoners!
Glory to the Palestinian Resistance!