Zakaria Zubeidi: The freed resistance icon from Jenin and occupation’s worst nightmare

By Maryam Qarehgozlou

In a triumphant moment for the Palestinian resistance, Intifada icon Zakaria Zubeidi, a former leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, was released in the third round of the ‘Flood of the Free’captives-abductees exchange deal between Hamas and the Israeli regime on Thursday.

Emerging in his prison tracksuit, the 49-year-old iconic freedom fighter, gaunt and emaciated, his head shaved, defiantly raised two fingers in a victory sign as he was carried on the shoulders of jubilant supporters chanting his name in occupied Ramallah upon his release.

Zubeidi’s release, alongside 109 other Palestinians unlawfully held in Israeli jails, was a result of a ceasefire agreement reached on January 15 between Hamas and the apartheid Zionist regime, ending Israel’s 15-month genocidal war on Gaza which resulted in the killing of more than 47,000 Palestinians.

A symbol of resistance, leadership, and cultural pride, Zubeidi endured numerous hardships and losses in his life but stood firm in his stand against the decades-old occupation of his homeland.

Once hailed as one of the “most powerful men” in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, he faced multiple attempts on his life and spent years in the prisons of both the Israeli regime and the Palestinian Authority.

Zubeidi’s resilience and sacrifice are exemplified by the tragic loss of his family members – including his mother, brothers, and son – as well as the destruction of his neighborhood and home.

The heroic figure’s homecoming after nearly seven years in Israeli prisons serves as a rallying point for those who continue to fight for the liberation of their land from the Zionist occupation.

Who was Zakaria Zubeidi?

Zubeidi was born in 1976 into the family of Zubeidis, as one of eight children of Mohammed and Samira Zubeidi, in the Jenin refugee camp, occupied West Bank.

His family had been forcibly expelled from their village near Caesarea in 1948 when the Israeli regime first occupied Palestinian territories.

Zubeidi’s father was detained in the 1960s for being a member of the Fatah movement, founded by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

When Arna Mer-Khamis, a Jewish teacher and peace activist, established the Stone Theatre (later known as Freedom Theater) following the first Intifada (uprising) in 1987, Zubeidi’s mother, Samira, offered the top floor of the family house for rehearsals.

At the time, Zubeidi, then aged 12, his older brother Daoud, and four other boys around the same age formed the core of the troupe.

Zubeidi attended the UNRWA school in Jenin Refugee Camp and was an excellent student.

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In 1989, at age 13, he suffered a gunshot wound to the leg when he was throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, leaving him hospitalized for six months and undergoing four operations.

The grave injury left him with one leg shorter than the other and a noticeable limp.

At age 14, he was arrested for the first time, again for throwing stones, and jailed for six months. During this time, he became the representative for child prisoners before the prison governor.

A year later, he was re-arrested for throwing Molotov cocktails and imprisoned for four and a half years. In prison, he learned Hebrew and became politically active.

On 3 March 2002, Zubeidi’s life took a tragic turn when his mother, Samira, was killed during an Israeli military raid in Jenin. It was a big emotional shock for him.

She had taken refuge in a neighbor’s home and was shot by an Israeli military sniper as she stood near a window, bleeding to death. Zubeidi’s brother, Taha, was also killed by soldiers shortly afterward.

A month later, the Israeli military launched a full-scale offensive on the Jenin refugee camp, demolishing hundreds of homes, leaving 2,000 people homeless, and resulting in the killings of countless Palestinians.

Zubeidi bore witness to the destruction of his family home, along with much of the camp, by the Israeli occupation army.

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This event transformed Zubeidi’s life as he joined the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, eventually becoming a senior leader of the group.

After numerous successful resistance operations against the Israeli regime, Zubeidi was listed as one of Israel’s most wanted men in the occupied West Bank and the most powerful figure in Jenin.

Zubeidi survived four attempts by Israel to assassinate him, according to various accounts.

On July 15, 2007, Israel announced that Zubeidi would be included in an amnesty offered to fighters of Fatah’s al-Aqsa Brigades.

As of 2008, he was hired by Arna’s son Juliano Mer-Khamis as director of the Freedom Theater in the Jenin refugee camp.

In this role, Zubeidi utilized art as a method to denounce Israeli occupation and oppression of Palestinians, offering support to Palestinian youth through cultural resistance and providing them with an artistic way to express themselves amid the occupation’s violence.

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On December 28, 2011, Israel revoked Zubeidi’s amnesty, even though he maintained that he had not violated any conditions of it.

He was then detained without charge by the Palestinian Authority for six months and later held in a PA jail in so-called “protective custody.”

In 2018, Zubeidi began his master’s degree studies at Bir Zeit University. However, in 2019, he was arrested by Israeli forces and detained on charges of armed resistance to the occupation.

Despite his incarceration, he managed to obtain his master’s degree while languishing behind bars.

Zubeidi, the most prominent of the six Palestinians involved in the Freedom Tunnel Operation in September 2021, managed to escape from the maximum-security Gilboa detention facility by digging a tunnel with nothing but a spoon.

He was recaptured and returned to prison a week later, where he endured brutal torture that necessitated hospitalization.

Zubeidi’s life has been marked by loss and sacrifice for the Palestinian cause.

His 21-year-old son Mohammed, a young leader of the Jenin Brigade, was martyred when an Israeli drone struck the car he was traveling in last September.

In an undated video, a young Zubeidi is seen holding Mohammed as a toddler, expressing his hopes for his son’s future: “I want my son to be educated. I want him to live a better life than the one we’re living. I want him to obtain academic degrees, to become a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, whatever he wants.”

“That is my wish, and I will work hard for it. But that depends on whether the ‘Israelis’ will allow him the chance to grow up and achieve these things.”

Zubeidi also mourned the loss of his brother Daoud, who succumbed to his wounds after being shot by Israeli forces three years ago. Tragically, all three of Zubeidi’s brothers were martyred by Israeli forces during his time in detention.

He once said he learned of his father’s death through a mosque loudspeaker while imprisoned in Jenin and his incarceration prevented him from attending any of his family members’ funerals.

“My mother was martyred in the Jenin Camp Battle and buried by the Red Cross; we couldn’t reach her due to the intensity of the battle. [..] My brother Taha was buried while I was under the rubble of the camp and destroyed houses,” he shared after his brother’s martyrdom.

“Today, Daoud has joined them, and I was unable to say goodbye or perform the mourning rituals. I don’t know what it’s like; I’ve never experienced it personally.”

Several other of his family members have also been martyred or imprisoned, including Jibril, Mohammed (Al-Nish), and Naim Zubeidi.

As an icon of the Palestinian struggle, he selflessly offered to donate his bone marrow to Walid Daqqa, a leader and prisoner of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), before Daqqah’s martyrdom.

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Before Zakaria’s release, the Israeli military raided his home in the Jenin refugee camp, which has been the site of a major incursion by Israeli forces that began shortly after the Gaza ceasefire deal took effect on January 19.

During the raid, Israeli soldiers destroyed his house and harassed his family, handcuffing and blindfolding them, including his 14-year-old son.

In an attempt to stifle their spirits, the soldiers warned the family not to celebrate Zakaria’s release.

Upon regaining his freedom, Zubeidi expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people, invoking divine mercy for the martyrs of Gaza and wishing a swift recovery for the wounded.

He further prayed for the safe return of those displaced and extended his protection to the people of Jenin camp, as reported by local media.

Zubeidi was quoted as saying, “May God have mercy on the martyrs of Gaza, heal their wounded, return them to their homes safely, and protect Jenin camp.”

He referred to his book and thesis dissertation, The Hunter and the Dragon: Fugitive Existence in the Palestinian Condition, 1968–2018, as he proudly declared before a crowd of thousands, “The dragon is the owner of the land, and the hunter is an invader who must leave.”

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