A Former 'Terrorist' Speaks Out

JENIN, Northern West Bank, Apr 30 (IPS) - A former high-level Palestinian resistance fighter, who spent years on the run from Israel's security forces, has just been appointed to the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, and made honorary theatre director. Zacharia Zubeidi, 33, who survived six assassination attempts by the Israeli military's elite undercover units, was once labelled "one of Israel's most wanted men, dead or alive."

Zubeidi from the Jenin refugee camp, population 15,000, in the northern West Bank, an hour and a half's drive north of Ramallah, was a former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
The brigades were the military wing of the Fatah movement, affiliated with the Palestinian Authority (PA) which controls the West Bank.

The brigades were disbanded when PA President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, reached a deal with the Israeli government where brigade fighters would be given partial amnesties. In return they had to hand in their weapons and sign a pledge to give up the armed struggle. "I spent seven years in Israeli prisons under brutal conditions which included being beaten, tortured and deprived of basic rights," Zubeidi told IPS in an exclusive interview.

"I know what Palestinian prisoners are going through in Israeli and Palestinian jails. I know their needs and feelings, more than other people who never experienced this," said Zubeidi.