Death of Sinwar: A Boon or Bane for the Future of the Resistance?
The Israeli Occupation Forces have paraded to the world that they had murdered Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas’ political bureau and leader of the party in Gaza. Sinwar was not assassinated in a “targeted” military operation as the Israelis ostensibly performed with their assassination of Sinwar’s predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. He was just another casualty in one of the regular campaigns of indiscriminate violence that the Israeli forces have been committing in Gaza every day. Signs of life were spotted, therefore they fired; that’s all. Western media’s framing of Sinwar’s death is indicative of its endless efforts to delegitimise Palestinian resistance: Time Magazine released a cover of a red “X” over Sinwar’s face, a tradition reserved for “worst foes humanity has faced,” only used before after the deaths of Adolf Hitler, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and Osama Bin-Laden. What differentiates Sinwar from this unpleasant group of individuals (to put it mildly) is the fact that the violence that he supposedly masterminded is a response to nearly a century of settler-colonial violence and oppression, more specifically the deteriorating conditions from being sequestered for the last two decades in the world’s largest open-air concentration camp.
Israeli forces were rapid to release video and photo confirmation to the world of Sinwar’s last moments and maimed corpse, counteracting the image the West had been painting of Sinwar for the previous year. Before accomplishing Sinwar’s actual assassination, the last 12 months of attempted character assassination by Western governments and media were based on stories that Sinwar was a coward hiding in Hamas’ underground tunnel network, handcuffed to hostages, as he sent his lackeys to fight in Gaza. The truth, clarified by the evidence presented by the apartheid state itself, reveals something strikingly different to the audiences who initially bought this narrative. Sinwar was on the front lines, fighting for the freedom of his people until his final moments. Staring directly at the Israeli drone, his right arm torn in two, completely out of breath, aware that that would be the final breath he took, he still chose to resist. The circulation of these videos did not lead to widespread celebration, but rather mourning from the global majority. His martyrdom broadcasted to the world only garnered respect for a man who is quite controversial within the locus of regional and intra-party politics. To be clear, this piece isn’t to idolize Sinwar or an endorsement of Hamas’ ideological position, that is neither here nor there. However, despite one’s personal opinions on the man, they simply cannot be rooted in the American and Israeli narrative that he must be despised because he is a Palestinian, a member of Hamas, and a Muslim. His death has implications, and this article simply explores how profound they are.
It is important to reiterate that resistance isn’t a body, it arguably isn’t an ideology, it is a reality of the occupied. Being an active, constant reminder that the settler colonial account of history is false makes one a target. In essence, living is resistance. Particularly in Gaza, which has been under 17 years of constant bombardment, the only way for people to realize their humanity is to fight back. Western geopolitical analysts and Israeli genocide profiteers are partially correct when they say new generations of Hamas fighters are growing up in Gaza, they conveniently forget to mention why this may be the case. Palestinians don’t wake up on the wrong side of the bed one morning and decide to join the resistance movements, their lived experience of being born into violence (literally so especially when considering that half of Gaza’s population are children born after the blockade) leads them to take arms against colonisation. Every Palestinian– someone’s sibling, parent, or friend– murdered in illegal Israeli terror attacks is a reason to keep fighting.
Sinwar’s death will not be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Palestinian resistance movements have long had to deal with an enemy with greater technological and intelligence capabilities backed by global powers who could kill their leaders at any time. Consequently, in the context of regional and local instability, Hamas has pragmatically achieved its goals through an incredibly decentralised decision-making system. Moreover, Palestinian resistance comes in many flavours, not just Hamas– they are simply the easiest for Orientalist media to demonise. Other groups such as The Palestinian National Resistance Brigades of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and the Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades of the Popular Resistance Committees are all actively fighting and have unified despite decades of bitter political disputes to confront the Israeli occupation.
The characterisation made of a post-Sinwar Hamas as a chicken running with its head cut off is a fundamentally mistaken one. Rather it is more like a starfish with one of its limbs cut off: it will regrow. Insofar as the Israeli occupation exists, the Palestinian resistance will exist. Israel has made it clear that it will not stop until it has completely eradicated the Palestinian people, a tacit admission that resistance to its colonial project will not cease until the indigenous population is exterminated. The Palestinian people will not die, Palestine will not die. To end this brief thought in the words of James Baldwin, “The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.” Settler-colonial society needs to deal with its most dangerous creation: an entire people with nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Sources
[1] https://time.com/5917946/time-magazine-red-x-cover/
[2] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0377919X.2024.2380608
[3] https://www.newarab.com/news/four-other-armed-palestinian-groups-fighting-israel-gaza
