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From : eaglevdl
Added: Jun 17, 2008
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Leader Zakariya Zubeidi has been taken off the Israeli wanted list now after his groups handed in their weapons, as part of the emerging, fragile peace process. He spends much of his time in Jenin's Freedom Theatre talking to young people there, encouraging them to resist the occupation through their art not through fighting. Zubeidi's Past: In the late 1980s and early 90s, during the first Intifada, Israeli human rights activist Arna Mer-Khamis opened a children's theatre in Jenin, "Arna's House", to encourage understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. Dozens of Israeli volunteers ran the events, and Samira, believing that peace was possible, offered the top floor of the family house for rehearsals. Zakaria, then aged 12, his older brother Daoud, and 4 other boys around the same age formed the core of the troupe. At 13, Zakaria was shot in the leg by an Israeli soldier for throwing stones. He went through four operations and six months in hospital, but still has one leg shorter than the other and a noticeable limp. At 14, he was sent to prison for 6 months, and became the representative of the other child prisoners to the governor. Soon after his release he was arrested again for throwing Molotov cocktails and imprisoned for 4½ years. In prison he was recruited to Fatah. On release after the 1993 Oslo Accords, he joined the Palestinian Authority's Palestinian Security Forces, but was discouraged by corruption in the PA. He worked briefly in construction in Tel Aviv, then as a truck driver in Jenin until September 2000 when the West Bank were sealed because of the Second Intifada. In 2001 he turned to militancy after he witnessed a close friend being killed by Israeli soldiers. Then, early in spring 2002, his mother was killed during an Israeli raid into Jenin. She had taken refuge in a neighbour's home, but was shot by an Israeli soldier when she looked out of the window, and bled to death. Zakaria's brother Taha was also killed by soldiers shortly afterwards. A month later a suicide bomber from Jenin killed 29 Israelis. The Israeli army then launched a full-scale offensive in the Jenin refuge camp, demolishing hundreds of homes, leaving 2,000 homeless. 10 days of fighting ensued after which 23 Israeli soldiers and 52 Palestinians were dead. On top of his grief for his family and friends, Zakaria was greatly embittered by the fact that none of the Israelis who had accepted his mother's hospitality, and whom he had thought were his friends, tried to contact him. In a 2006 interview he stated, "That is when we saw the real face of the left in Israel". Losing hope in the Israeli peace camp, he joined the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
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