West Bank resistance fades amid fears of the 'next Gaza'

Once known as the 'martyrs' capital', Jenin is now patrolled by Israeli soldiers as weary residents seek quiet life

- By William Christou and Sufian Taha JENIN

Shadi Dabaya's body bears the scars of the Israeli occupation. The 54-year-old proudly stuck out his jaw to show the chunk of his cheek torn away by Israeli fire and traced the zigzag scar on his arm, the raised flesh marking the bullet's path. “I got these in the second intifada,” said Dabaya, beaming. He pulled up a video of himself a year earlier confronting an Israeli personnel carrier in the Jenin camp, wielding only a flip-flop.

As he spoke, an Israeli military truck rumbled by. This time he only stared, not daring to approach it.

Israeli soldiers have occupied the Jenin camp in the West Bank since January, expelling all 14,000 residents from their homes and erecting earth berms, raised barriers, to cut it off from the rest of the city. Though the military operation – “Iron Wall” – has crushed Palestinian militants there, the soldiers remain.

Jenin was once known as the “martyrs’ capital” of Palestine. The Jenin battalion, a militant group unique for its alliance of fighters from different Palestinian factions, resisted Israeli incursions. It was said Jenin and Gaza were the two places Israel could never conquer.

Gaza is now in ruins and the martyrs’ capital is silent. Israeli soldiers patrol Jenin’s streets freely and conduct near-daily raids. The resistance fighters who gave Jenin its reputation are now only a memory, their faces fading from the posters lining the streets under the unrelenting sun.