Freed Terrorist, Zakaria Zubeidi, Admits Failure of Armed Struggle for Palestinian State

Zakaria Zubeidi, the 49-year-old former leader of the Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Jenin, admitted in a New York Times interview on August 12, 2025, that decades of Palestinian violence and cultural campaigns against Israel have utterly failed to achieve statehood. Yet, his audacious claim that “there is no peaceful solution” because “the Israelis don’t want to give us anything” is a blatant distortion of history, ignoring Israel’s repeated offers for peace and exposing the hypocrisy of a convicted terrorist whose actions fueled bloodshed. Released in February 2025 as part of a hostage deal, Zubeidi’s freedom remains a sore point for many Israelis, including Bella Avraham, whose husband was killed in an attack he allegedly orchestrated. She declared, “I expect the state to hunt him down until his last day.”

During the Second Intifada, Zubeidi’s leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade contributed to the deaths of approximately 1,000 Israelis through suicide bombings and shootings, including an attack on a political party office. Charged with 24 violent offenses, he once boasted, “I’d never give myself up. I’d rather die.” His 2007 amnesty deal led to co-founding Jenin’s Freedom Theater, which he claimed was not a shift from violence: “The media said Zakaria moved from armed struggle to cultural struggle. But it’s not about being one thing or another. How did I open the theater door? I broke it with my rifle.” This admission underscores his unrepentant stance, despite his claim that “we tried shooting. There’s no solution.”

Zubeidi’s 2021 prison escape, celebrated by Palestinian media, only worsened conditions for security prisoners after his swift recapture. “The prisoner who does not think about escaping prison does not deserve freedom,” he said, yet admitted, “I always knew it would end in death or recapture.” His assertion that cultural efforts like the theater “did nothing” and his rejection of Israel’s legitimacy, “It’s impossible to uproot us from here, and we don’t have any tools to uproot them”, ignore Israel’s multiple peace proposals since 1948, including the 2000 Camp David Summit and 2008 Olmert plan, all rejected by Palestinian leaders. The October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, killing 1,200 Israelis, further proves the refusal of groups like Hamas to seek peace, instead prioritizing terror and holding 50 hostages in Gaza tunnels, 20 believed alive.

Now pursuing a Ph.D. in “Israel studies” at Birzeit University to “better understand the complexities of the conflict,” Zubeidi’s unchanged anti-Israel rhetoric reveals his true intentions. His lies about Israel’s unwillingness to negotiate dismiss the sacrifices Israel has made for peace, including territorial concessions and prisoner releases, while Palestinian leadership continues to glorify violence and reject coexistence.