Who is Izz al-Din al-Qassam, whose name inspired the military wing of Hamas?

From Jableh to Palestine

Izz al-Din al-Qassam was born in the Syrian town of Jableh, south of the port city of Latakia in 1882. He obtained a Quranic education at local classes taught by his father and, at 14, moved to Cairo to complete his studies at al-Azhar, where he met and was inspired by the great reformist Sheikh Mohammad Abdo.

He returned to teach at his father's kuttab in Jableh and was appointed imam of the local al-Mansouri Mosque. When the Italian Army invaded Libya in 1911, ostensibly to liberate it from Ottoman rule, Sheikh Qassam rose to the pulpit of the al-Mansouri Mosque, calling for holy jihad.

He would soon recruit tens of young Syrians to fight in Tripoli, led by a young Damascene prelate named Sheikh Abdul Qader Kiwan (who would be killed by invading French troops in Syria in 1920).

Qassam then formed a small militia to fight the French after their occupation of Syria, joining forces with the rebels of Omar al-Bitar in Latakia and Sheikh Saleh al-Ali in the Alawite Mountains. Months after the French Mandate was imposed on Syria, a warrant was issued for his arrest, forcing him to flee to Haifa in December 1920.

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Qassam and Hajj Amin

Qassam taught at the al-Burj school and the Istiqlal Mosque of Haifa in his new homeland, which would also become his last. In 1928, he joined the Sharia Court while establishing and heading a group called al-Shabab al-Muslimeen in Palestine, inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood that Imam Hasan al-Banna had just founded in Egypt.

All his religious posts in Palestine needed approval from the country's prime religious and political authority, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem.

Contrary to what was later said by those who lionised Qassam, the mufti was never threatened by him and saw no harm in appointing him to positions of religious authority in Palestine. Husseini hailed from one of the most influential families in Jerusalem.

He was wealthy, well-connected, and well-established within Palestine and beyond. Only one person stood on par with the Mufti: Ragheb Bey al-Nashashibi, another Jerusalemite notable who headed the city's municipality during Qassam's stay in Palestine.

Qassam's real problem was that he chose to operate independently of both men, leading them to consider him as an outsider and an outcast eventually.

His followers, who were plenty, were mainly members of the poorer communities, who looked up to him for inspiration and leadership. They saw him as a Muslim hero, bent on combating European influence in Palestine and throughout the Muslim World.

He was never able to penetrate the old Palestinian notability, nor did he hide his criticism of how Husseini and Nashashibi were handling Palestinian affairs, considering them too conciliatory towards the British. He called on them to join forces and take up arms against the British, demanding nothing less than total militarization of Palestinian society.

Jewish emigration to Palestine was at its zenith, having risen from 175,138 in 1931 to a whopping 355,157 in 1935. Before Qassam made his call to arms, a militia would emerge to attack both British and Jewish installations in Palestine, headed by a certain Ahmad Tafesh.

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Named al-Kaf al-Akhdar (The Green Hand) it staged a series of amateur raids in October 1929, supported by Druze warriors coming from Syria whose own revolt against the French had just been crushed.

Qassam was inspired by Tafesh's humble successes, and in 1930, he obtained a religious edict (fatwa) from Sheikh Badr al-Din al-Hasani, the supreme Islamic leader of Damascus, for a holy jihad against both the British and the Jews.

Some would later claim that the Qasssamists numbered 800 warriors in 1935. This is far-fetched and grossly exaggerated, since such a major force would have undoubtedly raised the ire of Great Britain, especially that it was keeping Qassam under 24-hour surveillance. A closer assessment, as found at the British National Archives, points to anywhere between 50-200 warriors, hailing mostly from Haifa and its environs.

Qassam confided to his friend, Rashid Hajj Ibrahim, that he was planning to go to war before winter crept in 1935. He then sent his assistant to Jerusalem to call on the mufti and ask for his support.

Amin al-Husseini declined, saying that the time was not right for a popular revolt. Ever the dreamer, Qassam fled with a small group of followers to the mountain caves close to the village of Nawras, after which they divided into two groups.

He headed one group, composed of 20-25 warriors, towards the town of Ya'bad in the northern West Bank, between Jenin and Tulkarm. And on 20 November 1935, he was killed in the very first battle with the British police, which lasted for six long hours.

His death would soon inspire the Palestinian Revolt that was headed by none other than Mufti Amin al-Husseini. It would last from April 1936 to August 1939. Many years later, it seems to have inspired young militants from Hamas to establish a militia carrying his name, in 1991.