Izz al-Din al-Qassam

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Izz al-Din al-Qassam

Sheikh Izz Abd al-Kader Mustafa Yusuf ad-Din al-Qassam or Isaddin al-Kassam ( Arabic عزّ الدين القسّام, DMG ʿIzz ad-Dīn al-Qassām ; * 1882 in Jabla near Latakia , Ottoman Empire ; † November 20, 1935 in Palestine ) was an influential Islamist clergyman during the period of the British colonial mandate in Palestine after the First World War. He was a militant opponent of the British colonial power and the Zionist movement in Palestine.

Life

Syria

Al-Qassam was born the son of a teacher in the village of Jabla near Latakia in the Ottoman province of Syria. He graduated to the Muslim scholars at al-Azhar University in Cairo . He returned to his village and took a position as imam of the local mosque .

In 1911, Italian troops invaded Libya in the Italo-Turkish War to wrest the area from the Ottoman Empire. The Arabs who lived there did not regard the Italians as liberators, but instead offered resistance together with the Ottoman troops. Italy responded with mass executions and atrocities against the Arab civilian population. In this situation al-Qassam proclaimed holy war on the side of the Ottoman Empire. However, the Turkish authorities refused to allow him and his followers to travel to the war zone in Libya. During the First World War , Al-Qassam volunteered for the Ottoman army. He served as a chaplain in an army camp in Syria.

When the collapse of the Ottoman Empire became foreseeable for Al-Qassam, he withdrew to his home village. There he tried to move the villagers to armed uprising against the European powers Great Britain and France. These powers had divided parts of the Middle East among themselves in the Sykes-Picot Agreement , with France being assured of rule over Syria and Lebanon. The content of the Sykes-Picot Agreement contradicted the Hussein-McMahon correspondence between 1915 and 1916. In this correspondence the Arabs were promised the support of Great Britain in the event of a revolt against the Ottoman Empire and the prospect of recognition of a subsequent Arab independence. Al-Qassam tried to join the government of Faisal I over Syria. After the defeat of the Kingdom of Syria by France and Faisal's emigration to Iraq, Al-Qassam and his family settled in the British-controlled Mandate Palestine .

Palestine

Al-Qassam settled in Haifa and quickly became an imam at the Istiqlal Mosque. He also received a formal appointment as a Muslim registrar, which brought him many social contacts. He was also the co-founder of a local organization of young Muslim men of which he became president. Al-Qassam preached violent resistance against the colonial powers he called the new crusaders and called for holy war. He also turned against the materialism of the upper classes which was detrimental to holy war. His activity led him above all among the poor and failed of the society which he saw as most enthusiastic about his ideas. During the 1930s he made contact with fascist Italy . The hoped-for help did not materialize. An attempt to get help from Germany after 1933 met with no interest. Eventually he forged a political alliance with the Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Amin al-Husseini .

In the 1930s, tensions between Jewish settlers, Palestinians, and British increased. During these years he began to implement his five-step plan for the expulsion of the Jews, which he had already developed in 1925. For this purpose he formed underground cells of five members each. In April 1931, they killed three members of a kibbutz . Two other Jews were killed in January and March 1932. In December 1932, a farmer and his eight-year-old son in the Jezreel Valley were the other victims of their attacks. On October 18, 1935, Arab dock workers in Haifa discovered a large load of weapons and ammunition on a Belgian ship, which Jewish smugglers had identified as cement. Palestinian workers announced an immediate general strike and Al-Qassam called on the Arabs to take an armed struggle against the Jewish settlers and the British mandate. His underground organization “Black Hand” is said to have had 600 members at the time, but only 12 men accompanied him on his further actions. One of them was the killing of the policeman Moshe Rosenfeld on the mountain Gilboa on November 7th, 1935. After Al-Qassam had been put out to be wanted by the mandate authorities, he withdrew with seven men into the hills around Jenin . After an exchange of fire between his followers and the Mandate Police, he was tracked down by British soldiers within a few days and shot in a firefight. After his death, strikes and solidarity rallies took place in several cities in Palestine and Syria by the Arab population sympathizing with him.

reception

The Izzedine tomb

Al-Qassam is buried in the Islamic cemetery in Balad al-Sheikh or Nescher, a suburb of Haifa .

Al-Qassam's funeral attracted thousands of people and turned into a political demonstration. As a result, Al-Qassam was stylized as a national hero and Muslim martyr within Palestinian society .

The Qassam Brigades and the Qassam rockets of Hamas are named after him .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Jump up ↑ Terror: Libya, Promised Land . In: The time . No. 21/2003 ( online ).
  2. ↑ a b c d Tom Segev: Once upon a time there was a Palestine , Munich, 2006, p. 290 - p. 295
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Ari Shavit : My promised land - triumph and tragedy of Israel . 1st edition. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-570-10226-8 , pp. 91–94 (original edition by Spiegel & Grau, New York 2013).
  4. ↑ a b Sami Moubayed : Steel and Silk - Men and Women who shaped Syria 1900-2000 , Seattle, 2006, pp. 390-392.
  5. ↑ Elie Kedourie (1982): Zionism and Arabism in Palestine and Israel . Routledge. P. 69. ISBN 9780714631691 .
personal data
SURNAME Qassam, Izz ad-Din al-
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kassam, Isaddin al-
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Islamic cleric
DATE OF BIRTH 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Latakia , Syria
DATE OF DEATH November 20, 1935
Place of death Palestine