In the Lion’s Den: What a new militia offers young Palestinians

Hamas, Fatah, the Palestinian Authority, and the PLO-affiliated organizations and movements that have dominated Palestinian politics for decades mean little to Aboud.

Instead, the Ramallah university student, who gave only one name out of security concerns, says his loyalty lies with a band of young militants unheard of just a few months ago.  

“The Lions are the ones who will save us,” Aboud says, holding up an image of a young fighter on his phone. “It is my generation’s turn to fight for our homeland.”

The Lion’s Den, a youth-led, nonpartisan, and nonsectarian militia based in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, is among several like it popping up across the occupied Palestinian territories.

The groups are capturing the imaginations and tapping into the frustrations of Palestinian youths amid an uptick in settler attacks and an Israeli military crackdown that intensified further this week with a deadly raid against the Lions in Nablus.

Their popularity marks a more militant turn for Generation Z Palestinians in the West Bank. With no peace process and facing an increasingly autocratic and corrupt geriatric Palestinian leadership, few job prospects, and the expansion of Israeli settlements and movement restrictions, young Palestinians who say they feel “pressured from all sides” are turning their backs on Palestinian civil society and its nonviolent approach.

Instead, young men and women with no political outlets and little memory of the second intifada’s carnage are demanding a “right to self-defense” from what they see as the encroachment of the Israeli military and settlers on their daily lives and communities.

If 2021 saw the TikTok protest intifada for Palestinians, 2022 has brought Telegram militias, with fears among the older generation over what may come next.

“Young people who are dying are saying, ‘This is my only way to be free, the only moment I had dignity,’” says Mohamed, a Ramallah-based human rights trainer. “And that one moment of dignity is worth dying for. That message has gone viral.”

Growing support

The Lion’s Den first emerged in February as the initiator of a series of shooting attacks on the Israeli military and settlers in and around Nablus.

The group of young men, consolidated within Nablus’ mazelike old city, used its stone alleys as its base and rejected ties to any known political group.

But it was Israel’s August assassination of Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, the 18-year-old and unemployed alleged ringleader of the militia, that brought it to national prominence for Palestinians, with support for the movement growing with each Israeli military operation.

Israel’s raid into the old city before dawn Tuesday targeted Lion’s Den leaders and what it said was a bomb-making factory, killing six people. It prompted a general strike across the Palestinian territories in protest.

Yet even as Israel continues a stifling, 16-day blockade of Nablus and night operations to dismantle what it describes as “terrorist” cells, the militia continues to address viewers directly via Telegram and other apps.

Youth support for the armed groups comes one year after popular protests, also youth-led, erupted across the occupied territories over the evictions of Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem.

Young Palestinians who took part in protests last year see no contradictions in the two phenomena.

“Young people are saying, ‘I don’t want to be a victim and oppressed. I want to stand up for myself,’” says Marah, a hoodie-donning journalism student in Ramallah. “Last year’s protests were the first steps, and these brigades are the next step; we are all finding different ways to resist.”

The nonpartisan militias also have filled a Palestinian leadership void created by increasingly unrepresentative parties and faction infighting.

Ghassan al Khatib, assistant professor at Birziet University and director of the Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre, a Ramallah public survey center, says, “99% of the population is identifying with this movement without knowing who they are, who is behind them,” or anything about their agenda and ideology.

“This tells you a lot about how desperately the public is actively searching for action and leadership,” he notes.

“After years of young people looking for hope or a cause, suddenly this came,” adds Nablus-based journalist Bassam Abu Alrub. “Each young person sees themselves in Ibrahim Nabulsi. It has woken up something inside of them, and it is spreading fast, like wildfire.”

At the same time, analysts say, Palestinian political factions and institutions are closed to young people, cutting off an outlet for their voices.

“There are no elections, not even within political parties. Youths who cannot find a role for themselves try to find things outside the political structure,” says Mr. Khatib.

Inside the Den

In Nablus’ old city Monday, not a single sign or flag for the Palestinian Authority (PA), Fatah, Hamas, or Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was visible. Not even a Palestinian flag.

Instead, photos of Lion’s Den members were prominently displayed on every stone wall, hanging from coffee shacks and inside restaurants. “Lion’s Den” was spray-painted onto the walls in black.

Young men and women wore pendants with images of Mr. Nabulsi and other fallen militia members; one busy stand even sold mobile phone covers emblazoned with their photographs.

In one cafe, two 16-year-olds scroll their phones, looking at the latest Lion’s Den post: a TikTok montage of a recently killed brigade member set to a sorrowful ballad and emoji.

When asked about their ambitions, they shrug. On the subject of Lion’s Den, they become animated.

“For the first time in my life things are heading in the right direction,” says one. “Next, we need to form Lion’s Dens in the refugee camps and then in every town and village in Palestine to liberate our nation. That is our future.”

Challenge to Authority

The youth militias have become so popular that the PA and its dominant faction, Fatah, dare not publicly move against them.

That forces a difficult balancing act on the PA, which views the movements as a challenge to its control over the West Bank and as damaging to its credibility as a security partner for Israel and a reliable actor for the West.

In the past two weeks, the PA and Fatah have made multiple offers to the young men in return for laying down their arms: places in the security forces, jobs for life, perks for relatives, cash. The brigades have mostly refused, Fatah officials say.

Wednesday evening, four Lions turned themselves into the PA, a decision the group described as the fighters’ individual “choice.” But the group has so far insisted it would fight on.

Lion’s Den members, not PA security services, patrol Nablus’ old city, checking IDs and photographing strangers.

Their influence and celebrity were on display Monday when, as Israeli security drones buzzed overhead, neighbors, relatives, and Fatah representatives sat in a ring of plastic chairs for mourners of Tamir Kilani, a militia member killed by Israeli forces two days earlier.

As a delegation of PA government ministers walked in to pay their respects, mourners barely lifted their heads to make eye contact.

Later, when a group of 20-something young men wearing all black with black baseball caps walked in, suddenly, older men elbowed each other.

“It’s them, it’s them,” one whispered. “It’s the Lions!”

“People are being attacked by settlers, Israel is killing young people, checkpoints are erected everywhere, and the Palestinian Authority cannot protect us,” says a Fatah youth officer for Nablus and cousin of Mr. Kilani.

“By committing to peaceful resistance, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority have left us to defend ourselves. This is the result. Violence begets violence. For every action there is a reaction, eventually.”

Fad or turning point?

Despite the Lions’ viral popularity, older generations and Fatah loyalists dismiss the brigades as a “fad” and a “trend” that, without a formal political structure, will fizzle out within weeks as Israeli military operations against them intensify.

Yet the proliferation of the youth brigades continues.

In addition to Nablus, Jenin, and Balata Camp brigades, which predate the Lion’s Den, new militias have been announced in Tulkarm and Hebron.

Not all young Palestinians welcome the trend.

Mamoun Shaloub, an engineering graduate and resident of Nablus’ old city, says the crisis has negatively hit Nablus and thousands of households.

He had been commuting daily to Ramallah to launch an on-demand scooter rental app service, Yalla Scooter, when the current crisis erupted; he now rents an apartment in Ramallah, unable to return home.

“The second intifada was chaos. People used to steal and kill rivals without accountability,” he says from a Ramallah cafe. “People say we should support these militias to liberate our nation, but who are they, what do they have to do with us, and what can they provide for us?”

“Here in the West Bank, there are no jobs, insufficient salaries, and corruption. But my generation has solutions; we can make things a bit better for our society if we are given a chance.”

Yet more young Palestinians insist that chance is by taking up arms.

Spying reporters exiting the old city Monday, a teenager on a motorbike calls out, smiling, and points to the tattered Lion’s Den “martyr” posters on the opposite wall.

“Next time, God willing, you will see my face next to theirs,” he says.