EXITING LAW

AND ENTERING
REVOLUTION

by Basel al-Araj
(trans. Bassem Saad)

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Exiting Law and
Entering Revolution

by Basel al-Araj
(trans. Bassem Saad)
Foreword

“The assassinarion of Basel al-Araj in 2017—caught on camera and shared, proudly;
by the official Twittr account of the IDF—silenced one of the most fearlss, inve
tive voices on the Palesinian radical lfe. He was dhirty-one. A write, teacher, and
militant opponent of the Zionist sate, he'd been in hiding for six months when Is-
raclisoldiers stormed the house where he'd taken shelcr in al-Birch, on the ourskirts
of Ramallah. Al-Araj and five comrades had already served half a year in Palestinian
Authority detention, during which theyd gone on hunger serike in protest of their
orture. After public demonstrations, the men were releaseds but they knew their
freedom” wouldsit st for long

Among the handful of al-Arajs possessions found in his hideout—veapons, a keffi-
yeh, books by Antonio Gramsci and the Lebanese Marsist Mahdi Amel, and a stack
‘o his own unpublished writings—was a leter, to be publicized in the event of his
Killing, Te placed his sacrifice squarely within the history of Palestinian resistance. °I
have read for many years the will of martyrs and have always been puzzled by thenn:
quick, brief, short on cloquence and without satisfying our search for answers t our
questions about martyrdom,” he wrote. *T am now on the path to my fate sacsfed
and convinced that I have found my answers.”

1 Hase Found My Answers: Thus Spoke the Martyr Basel al-Ara, a collection of al-Arafs
wiitings, was published in Arabic in 2018. The volume collects previously published
pieces, tributes to al-Ara, social media posts, as well a  selection of the writing
found aier his death. (There s currently an efort o translate these texts into English;
the complete works will be published by Maqam Books later ths year) The texts
testfy to the dynamism of al-Arajs inellectual mission, and ogecher execute  brisk,
impressive synthesis of manifesto, conjunceural analysis, and politcal education. The
seyle s frank, iere; it isn't surprising that this author gave radical walking tours and.
taught ac the actvist-run Popular Universiy in the West Bank. Subjects range from
episodes in Palestinian history to speculative, even psychological investigations into.
the meaning of resistance. Theres also a work of historical iction, writien from the
perspective of a member of the al-Araj family born before the Nakba. The picces
share an absolute commitment to Palestinian freedom—and suggest a supple, even
Iideological approach. Despite his vigorous defense of armed struggle, al-
Araj never joined any faction and aimed, in his life and writing, to provde a shrewdly
capacious sense of what Palestnian resistance is and can achieve.

We are publishing the below transation of “Exiting Law and Entering Revolution’
for three reasons. The first i to express,in our capacity as a group, our longstandin
deeply held soldarity with the struggle for Palestinian frecdom and roor.
opposition to the Zionist project, one whose latest episode has amounted to the
genocidal offensive on Gaza by the sate of Israel. As we write, the mainstream media
reports that over 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed; the real number is
likely much higher, amounting to more than 41,000 when those missing under the
rubble are accounted for. Our second reason fllows from the first: we find it crucal,
in the current profusion of reporting, diplomacy; debate, and lis, to translae an
publish insurgent Palesinian writing. The decades-long assault on Palestine—by the
various, interlocking means of genocide, ecocide, and politcide—has always includ-

Lbr:

i
ed an element of “scholasticide” This is an incelectual culture under fre; that every.
universiy i Gaza has been blasted to pieces in the last seven months i only the latest
hateful proof of the colonial drive to murder knowledge.

Our third reason corresponds to the essay iself. As the tile suggests, “Exiting Law
and Entering Revolution’ inquites into the link beween the figure o the outlaw or
bandit, and the subjectivty of the evolutionary. We won't summarize the picce here:
al-Arajs own exposition islucid, and anyway proceeds by the suggestive juxtaposition
of pardcular fragments and figures instead of cleaving to an explicit thesis. Among.
the allusions to the Palestinian revolutionary Sheikh lzzad-Din al-Qassam, the Syrian
witer Hanna Mina, and the Algerian rebel Ali La Pointe (whose death, reproduced
at the end of Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Bastle of Algiers, bears a suiking resemblance to.
al-Arajs own) there are also references to Malcolm X and Eric Hobsbawm—militant
intllectuals of the Global Norch. Which is t say that as the Gaza carastrophe sends
shack waves shooting actoss the world, compelling us to renew our essential commit-
ment to lberation, we are not simply looking at Palestine; Palestine looks back at us

People ran at the sound of bullts. They partook in the iay, not askis
how. The countrymen against the French. All s clear and i takes pl:
the dispute is over a iviality o if the fight s becween drunkards. The French
colonizer is then an enemy, and reisting the enem s a duty. In those days, as
Imoved from one house o the next, | understood the meaning of brahim Al-
‘Shankal’s words abou resistance against the colonizer, about national spri
enthusiasm, initiative,solidarivy, about hateed n the eyes, mouths, and hands,
the hatred for everyehing that is French and anyone who cooperates with the
French, be they landowners or Aghas, commoners or those who are weak in
spiric and conscience. As for those who fought in battle and escaped artest,
they were honoted by the city and I was among them. 1, the one who had been
in one world and suddenly found himselfin another. 1, the one who became a
patriot without understanding the meaning of patsotism s the others whom

‘God had blessed with consciousness and courage had understood it

- The End of a Brave Man, Hanna Mina

why or
even if

In the lieratures examining peoples’revolutionary history, there recur some excep-
tional and divisive individuals who fuse revolution with heroism, crime and viols-
tions of aw with tradition and custom. The accounts of ther ives are ofien similar in
terms of origin, circumstance, tzjectory, and ending. Most cruciall, they are similar
in how they are received: in all of these cases, the public i divided over how to deal
with these accounts. Some consider these individuals to be petty criminals and out-
Taws, while others sce them as heroes

“The Arabs were familia with this phenomenon since well before Ilam, a it was rep-
resented by the groups of vagabonds known as Saalik, the most famous of whom was
Urwa bin al-Ward, nicknamed Prince of the Saalik. These groups of men who broke
with custom and tradition, confronting the economic, social, and political systems
of their wribes, were cither shunned by the tibe, or themselves fled the tribe. When
hard imes fel on the ribespeople, they would gather around the Saalik, who tended
o their needs. When normality was rescored, the tribespeople would again repudiate
the Saalik and forsake them.

“The similariy between the revolutionary and the outaw consiss in their decision to.
deviate from accepted “systems” and “laws.” The outlaw's transition to national or
political action—organized or spontancous—is 2 smooth one. It is not marred by
the same complexitics of the ansitions of members of the bourgeoisie, for example,
which require a ejction of their social class and of the ituals, customs, and maerial
comort it provides. The outlaw, by way of his experience in the fields of thefi and
fraud, masters ways of operating outside of that aw, acquires skils to deal with areest
and investigarion, and carris out operations that require high degrees of prior pla
ning. These experiences are similar in their practical ogic to reistance action, even
if the end goals differ.

Frantz Fanon was alert 1o this overlap and wrote the following about these outlaw
figues in The Wieiched o the Eartl
In the same way the people make use of certan episodesin the life of the com-
munity in order 1o hold themselves ready and o keep alve their revolutionary
2eal. For example, the gangster who holds up the police set on to track him
down for days on end, or who diesin single combat after having killed four or
five policemen, or who commits suicide in order not to give away his accom-
plices—these types lightthe way for the people, form the blucprintsfor action
and become heroes. Obviously, s a waste of breach to say that such-and-such
ahero isa thie, a scoundrel, or a reprobate. If the act for which he is prosecut-
ed by the colonial authoritis is an act exclusively dirceted against a colonialist
person o colonialist property,the demarcation line i definite and manifes.

As a crucial sign of his attachment and love for community, his sense of justice, and
his acquisicion of analytical tools which furnished him with a lucid and scrious
sion, the martyr Sheikh T2z ad-Din al-Qassam sad ofthe outlaws: “Let them do their
work because there s a manhood in that work which we will one day transform into.
holy struggle, and as long as the colonizer wans o kill our souls, these people are
closer to God and to the love of holy struggle than are those who submit.”

“The Marxit historian Eric . Hobsbawm understood the significance of the outaw
or “social bandit,” whose particularitis contradict the logic of l in modern liberal
states, which is based primarily on the “social contract” and the “nacural rights” of
man t© property, freedom, and life—as outined by John Locke. According o this
understanding, banditry is an assaule on private property; iminal” act in the
erminology of the state and the classes affected by said “eriminal” act

‘One of Hobsbawmis books is based on a long and mythologized history of what he
efers o as “social banditry.” traceable in the popular imay

and centered around the heroies of thieves and bandits such as Robin Hood, Rob
Roy MacGregor, and Jesse James. Hobsbawm addresses the phenomenon through its
social context, wherein the oudaw or thiefs social role is one of revenge, especialy if
he defrauds or seals from & member of the dominant and tyrannical clases i soci
ety. Hobsbawm labels this thief the “noble robber.” In other cases, such as the Mafia
in southern Taly, the ourlaw provides an alternative to the dominant socia order
and relaions imposed by the ruling class through the police and other forces of op-
pression and containment. Hobsbawm finds a similarity beween social bandits and
revolutionary heroes, such as Che Guevara, o Vo Nguyén Gidp and Ho Chi Minh in
Viewnam, orin the Arab and Islamic context,those such as Abdul Karim al-Khartabi,
Omar al-Mukhtar, Iz2 ad-Din al-Qassam, Wadih Haddad, and others.

In many cases, the outlaws become figures of agication in socieres that persist in 2
state of submission, a they are the most capable of existing outside of he system that
imposes humiliating conditions on the lving. They also possess suficient knowledge
o live and sustain themselves outside of the dominion of unjust law. They set for
themselves srit rules that organize their world with jus traditions, granting the hu-
man being heir digaity and the igh to live a decen lfe in return for fulilling one's
duties. For exampl, i one of the outlaws confesss to the authorities or informs on
one of his companions,this issuffcient to end his trajectory with the group.

n of various societes,

Because outlaws are ac the bottom of the social pyramid, their world is explici. They
are not fooled by authority’s ricks and lies, nor are they subject toits discourses, tools

.
of mediation, and manufacturing of public opinion. The world in which they find
themselves is one that s pristine i it raliy,with all i hardships, miserics, poverty,
and injustice. One thus finds that they hold justice i the highest regard and that they
are the most contempruous of s absence.

Itis important here to mention the enormous connection becween any covert move-
ment or revolution and the underground world which exists outside of che law. The
law is a tool for normalization and hegemony at the hands of povwer, which reserves
the right to interpret or revise said law. Therefore, revolutionary
exist on par with the outlaw “underworld.” Revolutionary movements have always
elied on this underworld to acquire know-how, logistics, and arms, as well s actics
of maneuvering and methods of sbuining financing, in order to confront the enemy:

Arab, Palestinian, and International Figures

“The figures that we will discuss al hail from the poorest and most oppressed clases in
society, which are subjected to the greatest degee of persccution. Mostof their stories
alio share similar sets of circumstances that lead to the creation of a new humanity
and to momens of birth and transformation

We are talking about individuals whose consciousness s formed by material expe-
rience and whose lfe begins with rejction by socicty. Yet they come o be heroes:
women sing of them at weddings and men hail their names and viruues, as they.
become models of heroism and rebellion. We are speaking here of individuals who
are nothing but revolutionaries from the first moment. In their qualites, virtues, and
psychological composicion, they are marked by courage, rebellion, boldness, and i

telligence. They are not deceived by embellishments nor are they ever domesticated.

Have you heard of Ibrahim, the boy who was killed in 1913, the one who loved
Fatima, daughter of the feudal lord, and who was chased and persccuted as a resule?
He realized the extent of th injustice and oppression impased by the state and feudal
lords on the peasants and the poor, so he formed a gang that robbed the rich and
gave the poor their rights. That boy was Hekimoglu Ibrahim, one of the most famous
dissenters in the Ouoman Empire, who became one of the most renowned icons of
popular epics, whom people sing of and whose story grandmothers retel o childen
in order to inscll in chem the highest values—depening their concepts of suruggle,
freedom, justce, equalicy and love

Hekimoglu bears some resemblance to the English folk hero Robin Hood or to the
Prince of the Saalik, Unwa ibn al-Ward, but he most closely resembles the Scortish
revolutionary William Wallace, depicted in the movie Brateheart, in whose case love
was also the engine of evolution. And jus as Hekimogs life inspired people, o did
his death. The picture of him as a dead man eradling his MartiniHeney rifle made
all the youths in the Ottoman Empire covet that same rife. To this day, our popular
songs and chants in Paletine recall Hekimoglu through that Martini rifle

These outlaw figues are distinguished from revolutionaries only by consciousness
and political mission. The later, whose social base and politcal projects ae created
by material conditions, become a nations hope and model. In-his book Guerrilla
Wanfire, Guevara noted this great similarity when he said

“The guerrilla fghter counts on the full support of the local people. This is

an indispensable condition. And this i clearly seen by considering the case
R nclispe g

of bandit gangs that operace i 2 region; they have many characterstcs of 2

guerrilla army, homogeneity respect for the leader, bravery; knowledge of the

According to Guevara, if the people rlly around these gangs, they will be trans-
formed into revolutionarics.

“This can be demonstrated by the story of the martyred raqi milicant Suwaiheb, the
peasant who was killed by gangs hired by feudal lords in al-Abwar, near the al-Kahla
River, n lraq in 1959. He was the fiest martyr afer the revolution of July 14, 1958,
commemorated by Muthaffar al-Nawab, in the poem Suwaiheb, sung by Sami Ka-
mal.

Although the people embraced these individuals s cons and heroes lluminating the
way, the state and it law were unable 1o account for the logic at work. Even when
the authorities used these icons as myths in their own state projects, they continued
o consider them outlaws. Here we may refer o the popular epic of the Egyptian folk
hero, the martyr Adham al-Sharqawi, whose memory the Egyptians still commemo-
ate in their popular songs to this day: about whose life two TV series were made. His
story was deployed during the Nasser ea, a the tide of sociaisc pan-Arabism swept
over, and a film abou his life was made, sarring Abdullsh Ghaith and directed by
Hossam El Din Mustafa, with Abdel Halim Hafez singing the flms mavil and folk
songs. And yet,the clothes of Adham al-Sharqawi, who was killed in 1921 at 23, are
sl displayed in the “Notable Criminals” section at the National Folice Muscun.

“The revolutionary mareyr and theorist Malcolm X is one of the most famous exam-
ples of the revolutionary oudaw. He was born to a small and impoverished Black
famly growing up undera raist system that no sound person could accepe. In 1931,
when he was si years old, his fther was killed by a white supremacist group. Four of
his uncles were then also killed at the hands of whites, without tial. His mother was
placed in a psychiatric hospital

Malcolms presence at  school for whites was sufficient to compel him to compre-
hend the extent of injustice experienced by Black people,even at the tender age of six.

“The sceds of rebellion and revolution were planted in him at  young age. He learned.
0 shout in anger, s did the character of Mufid al-Wahsh in Hanna Ming' novel The
End of a Brave Man. Malcolm X has said of this phase of his life: *So early in my lfe,
Thad learned that i you want something, you had better make some noise

As he reached puberty, these protestations took on a more violent and rebellious
form. He undertook burglary and thefi, and was imprisoned for i, continuing his
high school studies in prison. Afterwards, he lefe prison for Boston and New York,
where he dove into 2 world of iolence, crime, and drugs, before returning to prison.

His moment o rebirth took place in prison and he emerged a new human. His con-
sciousness about the injustice which Black people are subjected to across the United
States had expanded. The eruely of lfe in prison gave him the knowledge and arc
of interpreting society’s deviant behaviors as Fanon and Ali Shariati did, and not as
the half-educated people who considered them pathologies or genetic mutations do

0
Malcolm X forged his path towards becoming one of the most influenial Black lead-
ers, partaking as well in the sruggles of other nations, such as the Algerian Revolu-
tion. His was a ertical mind that could not accept e, deception, and quackery. He
mainained that thought and theory must be subjected to social conditions. Then
the hunt for his life began, and multiple assassination attemprs were made on him
unil one was successful on February 21, 1965.

As for the Algerian martyr Al La Pointe: born in 1930, he knew injustice, poverty;
and exploitation on the colonial farms in his town of Miliana in Algeria. Then he.
moved to Algiers, the capital, t pracice boing, soon stepping outside of the co-
lonial law and being thrown in prison. There, he was reborn. How many national
heroes were born in prison? Abu Jilda, Al-Armit, Farid AL°Asas, and Abu Kabari
were also prison births, ater becoming national symbols.

La Pointe: that name which attached iself to our hero, the hero of the Batde of the
‘Casbah, the arena over which he, Ali La Pointe, exerted his control before his rebirth,
he who led several operations against the French occupation in Algiers, aiding the
o the cities. On October 9, 1957, the
French blew up his hideout. He was martyred along with three other heroes: the
young woman Hassiba Ben Bouali, Talib Abdel Rahman, and the child Omar, who
also became one of the many symbols of he revolution.

tevolution in its move from the moun

And here we mention the martyr hero Hussein ALAL from the Arab Saqes of the
Beisan valley. He s one of the most important Paleseinian examples. ALAli killed a
cousin who had done him an injustice. (Most of the Palesinian examples similar to
Hussein AL-AI begin their stories in a clash with authority starting from the bottom
of the pyramid, such as the mukhar,then the feudal lord, and then the bourgeoisic
which takes on the face of the colonizer and its comprador) He was chased afier by
the Briish authorities and went underground undil the Great Revolt of 1936, then
becoming one of it leaders and most important symbols. Hussein was later martyred
in a crushing bacdle with the forces of the Britsh enemy. He was immortalized by
the poet Tawhq Ziyad in his epic Sarhun and the Pipelne, sung by the Ashiqin band.

The beginning of every revoluti n exit from the social order that power
has enshrined in the name of law; stabilty, public interest, and the greater good
Every so

political authority. This is how these heroic figures can be understood and appreci
ated by the general public, who are overpowered, a5 though by instince. From there,
we understand the hostiliy of social, cconomic, and political authoricy towards thesc.
figues, and s use of the law as 2 tol to tanish their image and criminalie them.
We therefore also understand the smooth transition from the outlaw into the revolu-
tionary—the one who resists.

and economic authority necessailyintersects with and s an extension of

— Translated by Basem Saad
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