The Secret of the Rise.. How did the Hamas movement and the Izzed al-Qassam Brigades emerge?

In a sense, the Islamic movement in Palestine is an extension of its counterpart in Egypt, which was born in protest against the British occupation and the fragmentation of Arab states after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The Mufti of Jerusalem was a student of Sheikh Mohammed Rashid al-Rida, one of the leading pioneers of reform in Egypt, and was educated at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. The movement, considered the mother movement of many of Palestine's current resistance factions, including Hamas, was driven by immense anger over the Jewish occupation of Palestine, led by Britain, France and the United States. state.

But before we understand how Hamas emerged on the surface of events and declared its presence during the first intifada against Israel in 1987, we must go back a bit to identify the historical reasons that led to the emergence of a movement that is as closely related to ideas There is contact on. and sought organizational help from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood

Researchers agree that the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood reached Palestine in August 1935, when the first two envoys of the Egyptian Brotherhood came to Palestine and then to Syria, namely Hassan's brother Abdel Rahman. Al-Sa'ati Al-Sa'ati and Mohammad Assad al-Hakim. They arrived in Jerusalem, where they met Haji Amin al-Husseini and began calling for the formation of the Brotherhood. Although there is no indication that the Brotherhood formed an organizational entity at the time, they became significantly involved in the Palestinian Revolution in the intervening years. (1936-1939). Then the doors opened wide to their magazine Nazir, which fiercely attacked the British occupation of Palestine and attracted the attention of the Palestinian people in the West Bank in particular. Thus, we see that the years 1939 to 1945 were the real beginning of large numbers of Palestinians joining the Muslim Brotherhood and opening their own centers and magazines (1).

(In the three years from 1945 to 1948, the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood continued to grow in strength and expanded to Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Qalqiliya, Lourdes, Tulkarm, Mejdal, Sir Sir Wad, Hebron, Gaza, Beersheba, Nazareth and Acre. Banner mentioned in a letter that “the Palestinian Brotherhood has more than twenty branches in the north, center and south” (2) .

This phase of the Muslim Brotherhood's activities included the Haifa Conference in 1946, where Lebanese and Jordanian representatives attended and announced their goals. For example, considering the Palestinian (British) government's responsibility for the country's turbulent political situation, supporting the Arab League's decision to declare Palestinian independence, and supporting the evacuation of Egypt and the demand for the reunification of the Nile Valley, rather than recognizing Jewish immigrant groups. At a conference held in Haifa in October 1947, they declared their determination to defend their country by all means and lacked confidence in the Security Council or the United Nations, while calling for the liberation of Palestine (3).

The Muslim Brotherhood in the 1948 War

The partition resolution announced by the United Nations in November 1948 shocked all Arabs, especially the Palestinians, as the Supreme Arab Council, headed by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haji Amin al-Husseini, was established to lead the 1936 Revolution against the British and Jews, announcing the establishment of the “Holy Jihad Army”. Led by Abdul Qader al-Husseini, we discuss his outstanding role in the 1948 war He died at the Battle of Castal. Before and after the war broke out in 1948, the Muslim Brotherhood and its various branches in and outside Palestine joined the fight together with the Jihadi Army led by Husseini.

Until then, the Brotherhood in Palestine remained smaller in numbers and equipment than its counterparts in Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq. They formed irregular forces from the beginning of the war and fought in northern and central locations under the command of the local Arab leadership, which was established under the leadership of Abdul Qadir al-Husseini. under the command of the “Jihadi Army”. As for Gaza and southern Beersheba, many Brotherhood members were joined by Brotherhood volunteers from Egypt, led by Kamal Sharif, who stated that Palestinian Brotherhood forces were estimated to number around 800 people (4).

The fighting in 1948 culminated in a Zionist victory and the declaration of statehood, with the displacement of large Palestinian populations in the north and center to the East and West Bank areas and Palestinian areas. In the south, only the Gaza Strip remains.In this field he can Egyptian Major General Ahmed Fouad Sadiq As we saw in the previous article, we need to do our best to preserve and protect it so that it does not fall into the hands of Zionist gangs. The Egyptian and Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, led by Kamal Sharif, played a crucial role. In 1950, Major General Sadiq called on the Egyptian government to issue them certificates of appreciation, provide suitable jobs for those who were alive, and provide them with pensions and financial support for those who died or were injured and had their limbs amputated during this war (5).

Therefore, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian rule from 1948 until the three-party invasion of Egypt in 1956, when Israel occupied the area for four months. In 1957, Egypt again resumed rule. This state lasted for ten years until the defeat of Israel in 1967. , the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula have all been affected. It is worth noting the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza during the Egyptian monarchy, and the republican rule from the Nasser era until 1955, before the Egyptian authorities raided them from 1954 and arrested many people, and what happened after the decision to disband, They have a constant presence in Gaza. The group was under the control of President Gamal Abdel Nasser,…the remaining members were forced to work underground, similar to the situation with the West Bank Brotherhood during the same period(6).

The rise of Hamas, led by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin

Due to this strong blow, the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza was weakened from 1957 to 1967. During this period, nationalist movements led by the Fatah movement began to rise and expand in Palestine. But Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank united all Palestinians in an overarching vision of resistance to the Israeli occupiers, and the Gaza Brotherhood is making a comeback after years of persecution during the Nasser era. They met in September 1967 to formulate their plans and plans. This is the first basis for the emergence of the Islamic resistance movement “Hamas”. “Twenty years after this meeting.

From that time until his martyrdom in 2004, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's name became a household name in the Gaza Strip. He is known for his preaching and propaganda activities and is one of the most prominent members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza. Sheikh Yassin was displaced to Gaza with his family from southern Ashkelon. He lived through the British occupation, the Nakba and the years of Abdel Nasser's Egyptian rule. Facing the tripartite forces, he participated in demonstrations in support of Egypt's invasion in 1956. He came to Cairo in the late 1950s and 1960s, attended Al-Azhar University, and became an alcoholic. The Brotherhood believes he was arrested for this for some time.

Sheikh Yassin, who previously suffered from quadriplegia, became very active in advocacy, education and raising children and teenagers when he returned to Gaza to work as an Arabic and Islamic science teacher. By 1973, the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza established the “Islamic Commonwealth” and in 1976 established the “Islamic Association”. The “Islamic University” established in 1978 can also be considered one of the institutions currently supported by the Muslim Brotherhood (7).

Some researchers believe that before the emergence of the Hamas movement during the 1987 Palestinian uprising, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood went through a phase between 1982 and 1982 in which “political influence was established, equipment was improved, and strength was tested.” -year 1987. During this phase, relations between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank were established, and the group began collecting weapons and conducting training, leading to the arrest of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 1984 and the discovery of a group of the movement's members by the Israelis A military agency called the “Palestinian Mujahideen” and another security agency called the “Majid” were established (8).

The following year, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and more than 1,000 other Palestinians were released after a swap agreement was reached. Four years passed between these events and the spark of the first uprising on December 9, 1987. The day before him, Palestinian workers had been killed in a deliberate crush, so the Islamic movement, with the Brotherhood at its core, decided to organize mass demonstrations starting from the Jabaliya camp mosque. During these demonstrations, many martyrs such as Hatem Abu Sis and Raed Shehadeh fell, and after many years of the Palestinian liberation movement, the people of “Palestine Interior” For the first time, he began to actively participate in the struggle against occupation. A group led by Yasser Arafat led the fight in Jordan and Lebanon. The uprising lasted for six years until the announcement of the Oslo Accords in 1993, which was not recognized by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and many other Palestinian movements (9).

The founding of Hamas coincided with the beginning of the first intifada, and the movement issued its first statement on December 14, 1987, just five days after the uprising began, declaring itself a sectarian brotherhood of Muslims in its founding statement Friendship and its extensions. The movement was quickly successful and spread widely in Palestinian circles, which was evident, as researcher Mohsen Muhammad Saleh puts it, “with three gains in student elections and professional unions. One to one-half of the vote, as in the universities of Palestine. Anaja, Gaza, Hebron, Birzeit and Jerusalem, as well as the unions of engineers, doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, teachers and chambers of commerce” (10 ).

At the same time, the Hamas military wing known as the “Palestinian Jihad”, led by Sheikh Salah Shehadeh, began military operations against Israel and kidnapped in February 1989 and killed Israeli sergeant Avi Sasports, and in May kidnapped and killed soldier Ilan Saadoun. The military wing came under swift attack that same month, following a forceful Israeli-led operation targeting the military wing. The following year, in May 1990, Hamas formed its current military wing, known as the “Izzeddin Al-Qassam Brigades”, replacing the “Palestinian Mujahideen” Brigades.

Hamas' military operations continued in subsequent years. According to a study written by Ghassan Doar, Hamas carried out 138 operations in 1993, in which 79 people were killed and 220 injured, according to the Israeli entity. Despite the Palestine Liberation Organization's reconciliation with Israel, the announcement of the Oslo Accords that same year and the takeover of administration of the West Bank and Gaza Strip led to a sharp decline in Hamas's military pace. Operation; but this did not prevent the subsequent emergence of “Operation Martyrdom”, then the outbreak of the Second Intifada, then Hamas's independent rule of the Gaza Strip for sixteen years, until now Gaza has been completely genocide by Israel (11) .

This is the story of the rise of the Hamas movement from the womb of the Muslim Brotherhood, which moved into Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1930s and fought in the 1948 war, later giving rise to Hamas and its organization 's appearance. The military faction “Martyr Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades” is considered the most prominent of them. These factions still lead resistance to the Israeli occupation today.

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source

(1) Nuwayhid's Account: Political Leadership and Institutions in Palestine, 1917-1948, pp. 502, 503.

(2) Salah Shadi: “A Page from History”, page 62.

(3) Bayan Nuwayhid: Previous page, pages 503, 504.

(4) Mohsen Muhammad Saleh: The Islamic Movement in Palestine 1917-1948, pp. 464-466.

(5) Four senior witnesses at the criminal court Ahmed Fouad Sadiq Pasha.

(6) Khaled Nimr Abu Al-Omrain: Hamas, its roots – its origins – its political thought, pp. 97-101.

(7) Previous article, pp. 175-178.

(8) Previous article, page 179.

(9) Mohsen Muhammad Saleh: The Question of Palestine, p. 104.

(10) Mohsen Muhammad Saleh: Previous page, page 105.

(11) Ghassan Doar: A Date with Shin Bet, a study of the military activities of Hamas and the Qassam Brigades in 1993 AD.