“Brother Abu Mazen has 24 hours to produce a clear position, announcing full confrontation with the occupation,” a statement by the ‘Sons of Abu Jandal’ group read.
“Oh our heroic people, oh sons of resilience and sacrifice,” is how a new Palestinian group in the West Bank began its ‘statement number one’, issued on Sunday, November 5.
The group is calling itself ‘Sons of the Leader Abu Jandal’ and claims to be members of the Palestinian group Fatah who belong to the various Palestinian Authority security branches in the occupied West Bank.
A new shadowy group has apparently emerged, calling itself the "Sons of Abu Jandal".
In the statement below released an hour ago, they claim to be members of the PA security apparatus in the West Bank, and have given Mahmoud Abbas an ultimatum of 24 hours to declare an "open… pic.twitter.com/T9Mgxr379D
— روني الدنماركي (@Aldanmarki) November 5, 2023
“There is no time for many words at the time of (Israeli) occupation massacres in the Gaza Strip. There is no time for many words at the time of spilled blood in Gaza. There is no time for many words at the time that our children and our women in Gaza are being killed. There is no time for many words as our youth are being killed in the West Bank,” the statement read.
Indeed, the statement was brief, mostly containing a 24-hour ultimatum to “Brother Abu Mazen”, a reference to PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
“We have remained patient with the crimes of the occupation. We have remained patient with our own silence and helplessness .. With taking (official) orders while we are torn every day and every minute by images of mutilated children and women (in Gaza).”
And finally, the ultimatum:
“We announce, starting today, that the Palestinian leadership is facing a historic responsibility to declare full confrontation with the criminal (Israeli) occupation.
“Brother Abu Mazen has 24 hours to produce a clear position, announcing full confrontation with the occupation, using all means, and to denounce statements made by the criminal (Antony) Blinken. Then, he has no authority over us, and no (PA security) branch (will follow orders and receive instructions).”
The group identified itself as “scores of individuals from Palestinian security branches”.
The statement also pledged to announce all the names of those participating in this initiative.
Who is Abu Jandal?
The group is calling itself Sons of Abu Jandal, in honor of Yousef Ahmed Raihan, a PA officer who led the fight in defense of the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002.
Raihan’s nom de guerre was Abu Jandal, and the Battle of Jenin was fought under his leadership alongside Mahmoud Tawalbeh.
Hundreds of Palestinians were killed and wounded in the Israeli invasion of the Jenin refugee camp during the Second Intifada in 2002.
The spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, Asraf al-Qudra, said on Monday that the death toll of Israel’s aggression on the Gaza Strip exceeded 10,000 and that Israel carried out 19 massacres in the last few hours.https://t.co/v3yuaX1pWV pic.twitter.com/ORCetGwxhv
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) November 6, 2023
The legacy of that battle continues to define the resistance in Jenin and its environs.
This is a developing story.
UPDATE: 13 names have already been released from the list of dissenting PA officers
EDITOR’S NOTE: To learn more about the Jenin Battle and about Abu Jandal, make sure you read Ramzy Baroud’s ‘Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion’.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
