“Adam’s Story: From Armed Militant to Mechanic”

Adam, the choice of weapons: “I wanted to show that we were strong”

It’s a well-kept secret, even his family doesn’t know about it. In the 2000s, Adam* (name changed) was a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed faction associated with Fatah, the West Bank ruling party founded in 1959 by Yasser Arafat. One of the most active militias of the second Intifada, placed on all lists of Western terrorist organizations.

“I never wanted to kill anyone. I wanted to show that we were strong, that we existed”, he sums up, huddled in a smashed black leather armchair, in the small shed where he works. We are in a town in the West Bank whose name will not be mentioned. At 47, even if “these stories are behind him”, he does not want to be noticed.

The first time Adam was arrested by Israeli forces, he was still a teenager. He and his cousin are suspected (rightly) of having thrown stones and Molotov cocktails at soldiers, without hurting them. His cousin spent a year in Israeli jails, but was released after 18 days due to serious health problems. Following this episode, he stopped high school to become a mechanic.

“At the beginning of the second Intifada in 2000, I was active in politics, I went to see my acquaintances and asked Fatah to integrate me into the brigades for the love of our land.

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