Exiting Law and Entering Revolution

On Bassel al-Araj, Outlaws and Revolutionaries

Artwork from the Palestine Poster Project - Link in Picture

Morning Comrades.

Todays subject is in reference to a text from Palestinian writer Bassel al-Araj, known for his writings about revolution and Arab nationalism, who was killed on 6 March 2017 by a unit belonging to Israel’s Yamam police force, after a gunfight lasting nearly two hours broke out as they attempted to raid his home. He is known as "the educated martyr" among some Palestinian activists and the text that will hopefully be published at some point in book form is called: “Exiting Law and Entering Revolution”.

The essence of the text is one of great importance and eerily relatable, relevant to parts of my own past that I will never commit to paper and essentially shares one extremely profound insight that we all need to internalise. No one is born a fighter, a revolutionary, if you will, it’s a journey of many small steps combined with training, discipline and doubts.

“A writer, teacher, and militant opponent of the Zionist state, he’d been in hiding for six months when Israeli soldiers stormed the house where he’d taken shelter in al-Bireh, on the outskirts of Ramallah. Al-Araj and five comrades had already served half a year in Palestinian Authority detention, during which they’d gone on hunger strike in protest of their torture. After public demonstrations, the men were released; but they knew their “freedom” wouldn’t last for long.

Among the handful of al-Araj’s possessions found in his hideout—weapons, a keffiyeh, books by Antonio Gramsci and the Lebanese Marxist Mahdi Amel, and a stack of his own unpublished writings—was a letter, to be publicized in the event of his killing. It placed his sacrifice squarely within the history of Palestinian resistance. “I have read for many years the wills of martyrs and have always been puzzled by them: quick, brief, short on eloquence and without satisfying our search for answers to our questions about martyrdom,” he wrote. “I am now on the path to my fate satisfied and convinced that I have found my answers.” -

Basel al-Araj’s essay, Exiting Law and Entering Revolution, emerges as a profound commentary on the Palestinian liberation movement, wherein the rejection of colonial legality becomes a prerequisite for revolution. His discussion of historical revolutionary figures—such as Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, Ali La Pointe, and Malcolm X—underscores how anti-colonial movements often necessitate a transition from being "outlaws" within the legal framework of the oppressor to leaders of transformative resistance. Situating this text within the broader historical context of the Palestinian liberation movement and evaluating it through a Marxist generational framework allows us to further interrogate the relationship between colonial law and revolutionary praxis.

You can find the entire text here and if you read one piece this month, make it this one.