By Iqbal Suleman
“They will say that this is the victory photo and the end of the battle and we have assassinated Sinwar.”
Just as Yahya Sinwar predicted, the Zionist Regime was euphoric about his death and could not contain their joy. In this state of colonial euphoria they released the photograph and video of Sinwar’s last moments. In doing so they exposed their own lies and depicted Sinwar as he was to the people of Palestine, a great freedom fighter and martyr in the struggle for self-determination. Israeli officials throughout the last year reported to mainstream media outlets that Sinwar was hiding out in a tunnel, using Israeli prisoners as human shields in order to protect his own life.
In the Islamic tradition, martyrdom bears witness and the martyrdom of Sinwar shattered all the lies of the well-oiled Zionist and Imperialist media. There was not a single Israeli prisoner with Sinwar. He was not dug out in any tunnel underground. He was out in the open in the frontlines of the battle with his comrades resisting the Israeli occupation soldiers. He stood shoulder to shoulder with his comrades defending Palestine and fighting for freedom. The Israeli Army came at him with merkava tanks, missiles and drones. Sinwar had only his gun. This was not a man fearful of death but rather exposed himself to death all the time. There were no Palestinian civilians near him or Israeli prisoners with him. His death was a rebuttal of Israeli propaganda that comes out of western media outlets accusing resistance leaders of hiding among Palestinian civilians and Israeli prisoners.
Yahya Sinwar grew up in a refugee camp in Khan Younis in Gaza. He spent 22 years as a political prisoner in Israel and upon his release he returned to fighting the Occupation. Sinwar’s end was an epic moment of defiance. He and his comrades first exchanged fire with Israeli soldiers and three of his comrades were killed whilst Sinwar was seriously wounded, he went into a dilapidated building. The video footage shows him wearing a Palestinian Keffiyeh, bleeding profusely in the ruined building, mortally wounded and with one hand amputated. Lean and lanky, bearded, a rugged looking revolutionary. His last weapon is a stick, red, drenched in his own blood, in his last moments, he still finds the courage to pick up the stick and throw it towards the Israeli drone. Mortally wounded and experiencing excruciating physical pain, his facial expression is one of a warriors rage shouting out loud “Screw you Zionist settler soldiers, I will not surrender to you, I will not bend, I will not beg, I’m going out fighting”. Sinwar does not scream or cry from the pain he experiences, instead his facial expression is that of a fearless defiance as he throws the stick at the Israeli drone. The final middle finger and expression of defiance towards Israeli Zionism.
There is potent memory that returns to the public consciousness, that of Abu Fadl Al Abbas, the great comrade of Imam Hussein, who keeps on fighting after the enemy cuts of his hand. Then the memory of the Prophets (p.b.u.h) comrade Jafar ibn Abi Talib who himself had his hands cut off but keeps on fighting in battle. Sinwar’s bravery also exposes the Zionist cowardice. Even though Sinwar was mortally wounded, outnumbered and alone in the dilapidated building, the many Zionist soldiers present were afraid to go into the building and take him on. Instead they had to use tank shells and drones to bomb the building with Sinwar in it. It demonstrates the fear that Zionist soldiers have in coming face to face with Palestinian resistance fighters.
Sinwar was a leader like Muhammad (p.b.u.h) who fought at the frontlines with his comrades. Sinwar fought like any other Palestinian freedom fighter and led from the front. This is eternally inspirational for the Palestinian Liberation Struggle. Unlike Netanyahu who extricates himself from the frontline, wears a war vest for the cameras and then runs back to his palatial villa, Sinwar lived and died like a Gazan. His dead body lay among the ruins of the Rafah rubble just like the approximately 180,000 other dead Palestinians.
Israeli media reported that “Sinwar died like a Gaza dog”. This should be no surprise as Israelis through their leaders like Yoav Gallant consider all Palestinians to be animals. More importantly it shows how differently the world is seen by the oppressor and the oppressed, the colonizer and the colonized, the occupier and the occupied. How do the people of Gaza see Sinwar’s death?
Adil, a sixty year old Gazan felt that Sinwar died like a working class hero, he said: “He died wearing a military vest, fighting with a rifle and grenades and when he was wounded and bleeding, he fought back with a stick. This is how heroes die.”
Rasha, a displaced poor Palestinian mother of four children explained: “This is how leaders go with a rifle in hand. I supported Sinwar as a leader and today I am proud of him as a martyr.”
Ali, a thirty year old Gaza worker said: “I had watched the video 30 times since last night, there is no better way to die. I will make the video a daily duty to watch for my sons and grandchildren in the future.
“I have well memorised this sentence from Imam Ali: ‘There are two days in a person’s life, the day when death is not your destiny and the day when death is your destiny. On the first day, no one can harm you and on the second day, no one can save you’.”
Sinwar lived his life according to this teaching of Imam Ali, fearless of death, consciously aware that he will one day die but until that day he fearlessly fought against his oppressors. Sinwar’s head had a large open wound as a result of the building falling down on him when the Zionist blew it all up. In this way he met death like most of the Palestinian people killed in the Israeli genocide with buildings crushing their bodies. There he lay dead, head cracked open in the rubble of Gaza. When Gazans see this, they see themselves, their children, their mothers, their fathers, their grandmothers and their grandfathers who all died amidst the rubble.
“I saw nothing but beauty,” said Zaynab bin Ali after looking at the shredded and mutilated bodies of the family of the Prophet after the resistance on the fields of Karbala. What is this beauty? The beauty of the human spirit in its insatiable thirst for freedom and justice. The refusal to submit or surrender to tyranny, occupation, injustice and colonialism. The oppressed masses see their freedom fighters as the most beautiful of human beings.
As South Africans, it forces us to particularly remember Griffiths Mxenge the iconic freedom fighter and human rights lawyer slaughtered in the most gruesome manner by the Apartheid Governments death squad. Griffiths was killed with three okapi knives, a hunting knife and a wheel spanner. There were 45 stab wounds on his body. They ripped his stomach open. Like the revolutionary Zaynab, the people in the global south see nothing but beauty in the martyred bodies of their freedom fighters like Yahya Sinwar, Griffiths Mxenge, Steve Biko and Che Guevara. The one thing that we have learnt from history is that we love and remember Che, Biko and Griffiths but does anyone remember or love the killers of Che, Biko and Griffiths?
Decades down the line, a little kid in a ghetto will wear a tee shirt with the picture of Sinwar and throw a stone at a soldier pointing a gun. Decades down the line, will anyone love or remember the killers of Sinwar?
* Iqbal Suleman is a social justice lawyer and former head of the law clinic for Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.