Freed Palestinian terrorist – ‘Our attacks failed to destroy Israel’

Once the commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, Zakaria Zubeidi now admits terror brought “no solution” for Palestinians.

By World Israel News Staff

An infamous Palestinian terrorist, imprisoned for more than a decade and freed in the most recent ceasefire and hostage deal, has admitted to The New York Times that Palestinian terrorism has failed to achieve its goals of destroying Israel securing an independent Palestinian state.

Zakaria Zubeidi, 49, once led the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade — a Fatah-affiliated terror group and rival to Hamas — during the height of the Second Intifada in the early 2000s.

While Zubeidi denies personally ordering terror attacks, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade claimed responsibility for multiple deadly bombings during that period.

In 2007, he accepted an Israeli amnesty offer and agreed to renounce violence. During this brief respite from terror activity, Zubeidi received international praise for establishing a theater in Jenin.

However, Zubeidi’s time away from terror was short-lived. He was later imprisoned by Israel for terror offenses and, in September 2021, briefly escaped from a detention facility before being recaptured.

In a lengthy interview published Tuesday, Zubeidi acknowledged that decades of violence had brought Palestinians no closer to their goal.

“We have to reconsider our tools,” he told The New York Times. “We founded a theater, and we tried cultural resistance — what did that do? We tried the rifle, we tried shooting. There’s no solution.”

Despite his admission that terror had failed the Palestinians, Zubeidi placed primary blame on Israel, while conceding that the Jewish state’s existence is a permanent reality.

“There is no peaceful solution and there is no military solution,” he said. “Why? Because the Israelis don’t want to give us anything.”

“It’s impossible to uproot [Palestinians] from here,” Zubeidi added. “And we don’t have any tools to uproot them.”

Zubeidi received a hero’s welcome in Ramallah after being released from an Israeli prison, in exchange for Hamas freeing Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

“It’s time for our Palestinian nation to achieve its freedom and the independent state it wishes for, with Jerusalem as its capital,” Zakaria told the crowd that came to greet him.