لَن نَرفَع الأَعلَام البَيضَاء.. لَن نَرفَعَ سِوَى العَلمَ الفِلَسطِينيَّ لِحمَايَة المُخَيَّمات

We will not raise white flags. We will only raise the Palestinian flag to protect the camps.

They throw stones to refuse the occupation. And anyway, stones are not a big way to fight a tank, a cannon, and a gun. I mean, what would a stone actually do in front of a gun? [But] this is a way to refuse occupation. It’s unacceptable that the occupation’s jeep enters our territories and does what it wants. I mean, should we throw flowers at it? It comes in to kill children. It arrests siblings, friends, and loved ones. It tyrannises, throws gas, suffocates children, harms, smashes. I mean, how can I tell you? It’s the simplest way we can refuse the occupation. We don’t have the cannons and guns, so we refuse it this way. We throw stones at it, attack it with Molotov cocktails – whether they enter at night or in the day. If they enter at night, there is a [phone] application [and] the young men tell one another that the army is here. They are the occupation, and we are the hornets’ nest.  You find us popping out from here and there, from this alley [and] that one.  – Ahmed

My dad gave me land and I built on it. Now my sons were going to school. When they left in the morning, the home was standing. They came back and found the house demolished. They were shocked; there was no way to come back home. They’d gone up with bulldozers; they demolished the wall onto the street. We became like an exiled area. We couldn’t get out – there was no street to take. It was raining; the street was very messy. I was pregnant when they demolished this home. They came in March and it was foggy, very thick. They came early in the morning. They made like a wall [of] soldiers. They [blocked] the door of the house; it was forbidden to open the door. And they terrified us. I mean, unbelievable. You see, look how they destroyed our psychological state. They destroyed us.  

So I continued renting for a long time. [But] I built again, taking the risk. This land is from my dad. I mean, where else can I go? I can’t pay rent for houses. I lived in this house without windows or doors or anything. I mean, there was nothing in the house. But the important [thing] is that that I have a house. “How were you able to get up; how were you able to rebuild?” [you] didn’t ask me. “How, after you had seen your home demolished, how did you build again? How were you able to give birth after what happened to you? How were you able to educate your children in a bad economic situation?” you didn’t ask me. [When] a person sees their home being demolished before their eyes, it’s a catastrophe. How can they see again? I don’t know. – Um Ala’a  

These are the leaders here: Saddam, Abu Ammar and Abu Ali. Abu Ammar, may his soul rest in peace, was the Palestinian president before Abu Abbas. Abu Ali Mustafa was the secretary general and the most powerful of the National Front. He’s one of its founders. If I want to tell you about the powerful leaders, it’s these three. There is George Habash. We call him ‘Al-Hakim’, ‘the wise’. He was Christian, and one of the founders of the National Front. He died a natural death. After his death, Abu Ali Mustafa took over. [He] was abroad, so he came back, during the 2002 Intifada, [with] a slogan: ‘We came back to resist, not to negotiate’. He launched some operations and caused losses among the Israeli army, so they decided to assassinate him. Two missiles entered his office while he was working in Ramallah. The one who took over after him was Ahmad Sa’dat. He’s in prison now. I’ll tell his story. He was on television and he said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth… and three heads for one head.” Like a threat.

There was a National Front cell that snuck inside Israel, and they assassinated a big leader in the Israeli army, Rahba’am Za’ifi. There were five of them. They snuck into the hotel where he was living. Of course, they accomplished the mission, and they were able to return to the [Palestinian] Territories. It was perfectly organised by the secretary general. So, forty days after Abu Ali’s martyrdom, Ahmad Sa’dat had got the number one head. They were afraid of him and there was pressure on the [Palestinian] Authority. They captured him with the other five, and they tried them in our own Palestinian court for Za’ifi’s death, and imprisoned all of them for seven years at the Authority’s prison in Jericho, under American guard. In 2007, the Israeli army attacked the prison to restrain those five heroes who accomplished the operation with Ahmad Sa’dat. Of course, the Authority handed them over. They’re still in Israeli prison. Here, there was a letting down by the Authority, you understand? I mean, you’re resisting occupation and then your compatriots imprison you and abandon you.  – Ahmed

There are a lot of paintings on the camp’s walls. It’s us who drew these ones, me and a group of guys. We were an association. The one in front of you, it’s about Wadi’ Haddad; he’s one of the founders of the National Front. It’s him and the famous leaders. We consider them national figures. I’ll make a round now. The first one [on the right] there is Wadi’ Haddad. He adopted work that was international. Why? In order to transmit the Palestinian cause to all people. One time, Israeli airplanes were hijacked by the National Front. Their purpose wasn’t money; they wanted a prisoner exchange. [But] their goal from all these steps was to transmit the Palestinian cause to the world. The one next to [Haddad], she was with him. Her name is Laila Khalid. She’s alive, she’s in Jordan. She’s not allowed to come here. She’s old now. It’d be beautiful to meet and interview her because she knows lots of old things. The last one here is Ghassan Kanafani. They assassinated him. The occupation found that his writings were inciting [people to fight] occupation. His writings gave the young Palestinian men a motive to attack. ‘Incitement’.  

So they assassinated him, and his little niece was in the car. They killed him in cold blood. [But] “bodies fall, not ideas.” It’s not me who said this; [it was] Ghassan Kanafani. They were the honest view, let me tell you. They didn’t negotiate with the occupation. Their slogan was: ‘What was taken by force can only be restored by force’. They didn’t believe in negotiations; they believed in armed resistance. These personalities, we’re so proud of them. Some people are defeatist. They’re different because they carried thoughts and principles, and they didn’t renounce their principles. They didn’t negotiate over blood. They didn’t make conce… I mean, the blood that drains down from us is not wasted. They exploit the blood draining down to regain Palestine. The people [in power] today are those who negotiate [over] blood. It’s clear that they forgot the cause, and personal interests are put above the [public] interest. They’ve started to fill their own bellies. And they forgot the people. – Ahmed