The legacy of Ziad Abu Helaiel – peacefully resisting Israel in West Bank

Ziad Abu Helaiel – political activist and social reformer – was best known for his defiant phrase “Bihimmish!” (“doesn’t matter”, in Arabic).

The phrase was delivered brazenly, dismissively even, to Israeli soldiers who were trying to scare him as he stood in their way, often using just his body to prevent them from shooting solidarity demonstrators in the West Bank during the 2014 war on Gaza.

To say Abu Helaiel, who was beaten to death at his home near Hebron by Israeli soldiers on October 7 this year, was well known would be an understatement. He was famous in the West Bank for the peaceful protests he led against the Israeli occupation, never armed and often standing as a human barrier between protesters and Israeli soldiers.

Thousands of people attended his funeral in the West Bank. Several thousand more tried to attend but were stopped at roadblocks manned by Israeli forces.

Among his many acts of resistance, he led a demonstration of more than 10,000 people in front of the Israeli checkpoints in Hebron to demand the return of the bodies of Palestinians who were killed by Israel in 2016. The demonstration resulted in the return of 17 bodies.On another occasion, says Muhammad Kamel Nassar, 69, a vendor, Abu Helaiel intervened when Israeli soldiers attempted to arrest a young man during one of the recent incursions into Dura, south of Hebron.