From Sheikh Jarrah to Gaza to inside Israeli prisons, Palestinians are increasingly embracing collective resistance.
By Omar Zahzah, In These Times
In 2021, Mohammed El-Kurd, a Palestinian writer from Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, published a poetry collection, Rifqa. The poem, “Fifteen-Year Old Girl Killed For Attempting to Kill a Soldier (With a Nail File), Or Context,” captures a theme that animates newer generations of the movement for Palestine’s liberation. It is an angry rejection of the apologia and destructiveness of the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (Oslo Accords), which were officially signed into law in 1995 and created the Palestinian Authority (but not a Palestinian state).
“Running to catastrophe with context, / commissioning compassion, turning / heroes into humans,” El-Kurd writes, “This is a refuted revolution.” The poem continues, in a modified refrain, “Solidarity often is a refuted revolution.”

The poem’s accomplishment lies in its ability to relay the inherent injustice that the West inflicts on Palestinians, telling us to make our anti-colonial struggle more “palatable” by presenting what Dalya Al Masri terms “the perfect Palestinian victim: innocent but not defiant.” She writes, “This is the same dialogue that created the Oslo Accords and the subcontractor of Israeli occupation, the Palestinian Authority. It also reinforces the both-sides narrative popular in the West that helps legitimize violence against Palestinians.”
Recent Posts
Watch This New Hollywood Movie About Gaza
May 30, 2025
Take Action Now At 178 at the time of publication — and now higher — the count of journalists and media workers killed by the Israeli…
Israel Is Losing Americans’ Support. Will Democrats Take Notice?
May 29, 2025
Take Action Now New polls show broad opposition to Israel’s genocide — and that Democrats’ intransigence on Gaza greatly reduced turnout…
Ukrainians Need (And Want) An End To War
May 28, 2025
Take Action Now It would be tragic to give up on negotiations now.By RJ Eskow, The Zero Hour Report Donald Trump’s expressed exasperation over…
Cuomo Hopes Phony Antisemitism Charges Can Beat Zohran Mamdani
May 28, 2025
Take Action Now Zohran Mamdani is closing the gap with Andrew Cuomo.By Theodore Hamm, Drop Site In the summer of 2024, Andrew Cuomo announced the…