Author

Faris Giacaman

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Palestinians take control of an Israeli tank after crossing the border fence with Israel from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. (Photo: Stringer/ APA Images)

The Palestinian resistance in Gaza has shattered the Zionist state’s perceptions about itself and its enemies’ capabilities. To restore its deterrence, its slow strangulation of Gaza will no longer be enough.

2022 was a moment of truth.

The year laid bare the political reality in Palestine from the river to the sea, dispelling any illusions that we may have had about the nature of “the conflict,” as it has been glibly called by the mainstream media. Two such illusions can be discarded immediately — for Palestinians, that the Palestinian Authority’s collaborationism can be maintained indefinitely, and for the Israeli state, that Zionism is anything other than a settler-colonial project that must constantly be at war with the Palestinian people.

Udai Tamimi, the Palestinian resistance fighter responsible for killing an Israeli soldier at Shu’fat military checkpoint, conducted yet another shooting operation against Israeli troops before being shot and killed at the entrance of the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, after ten days on the run and evading capture by Israeli forces.

We are currently seeing an unprecedented moment of Palestinian resistance across the West Bank. It’s too early to tell where events will lead — whether it’s the historic turning point or the last gasp of protest before something even worse — but what’s certain is that Palestinians are on the precipice of returning to a state of refusal, if not full-fledged resistance, to the settler-colonial reality some would have them ignore. The current moment will ultimately be decided by militant mass support and the expansion of resistance activity to the rest of the West Bank.