Izz al-Din al-Qassam
c. 1880 - 1935
Islamic militant who fought the French in Syria and the British in Palestine.
Izz al-Din al-Qassam was born in Jabla, near Latakia, Syria. He studied in Cairo at al-Azhar University and reportedly came in contact with Rashid Rida, the precursor of Arab nationalism. Following the French occupation of Syria, he participated in guerrilla activities (1919 - 1920) in the Alawiya region of Jabal Sahyun, for which he was sentenced to death by a French court-martial. After the French suppressed Syrian resistance, Qassam escaped to Palestine. He was hired to teach at an Islamic school in 1921, and a year later was appointed by the Supreme Muslim Council as a preacher at the new Istiqlal mosque in Haifa. He preached a puritanical way of life that alarmed some people enough to seek his dismissal. He was appointed marriage registrar in the shariʿa court at Haifa in 1929, which enabled him to travel throughout Palestine.
Qassam became convinced that Britain's support for Jewish immigration and land purchases, which ultimately lead to a Jewish state. He therefore began to advocate a popular uprising against the British once the Palestinians were united and organized. In 1928 he was a founder of the Young Men's Muslim association, which with the Boy Scouts, organized military drills and the stockpiling of arms, and initiated violent attacks on Jewish settlements (1931 - 1933). According to Subhi Yasin, his contemporary (and the source of much of our information about Qassam), Qassam sent a follower to the mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Amin al-Husayni, suggesting that he start a revolt in the south while he (Qassam) started one in the north. The mufti reportedly declined, stating that he was seeking a political solution. While Qassam believed that a revolt should take place, with only 200 recruits and insufficient arms and training, he felt the Palestinians were not yet ready. Two factors made him change his mind: the discovery, on 18 October 1935, of an arms shipment destined for Jewish forces, and the immigration that year of the largest number of Jews (almost 62,000) to Palestine. On 21 November he left Haifa with ten of his followers to attack a police arsenal to acquire its arms, but an unplanned clash, in which a police sergeant was killed, alerted the police. Hundreds of police chased and caught up with the group; rather than escape or surrender, Qassam and his men fought it out. He and two of his men were killed.
Qassam became a symbol of martyrdom for Palestinian youth groups such as Ikhwan al-Qassam (Qassamite Brotherhood), which formed resistance cells to take up the mantle of Qassam. The Qassamite attack in which two Jews were killed on 15 April 1936 was a catalyst for the most violent uprising against the British, the Palestine Arab Revolt (1936 - 1939).
Half a century later, the legacy of Qassam inspired another generation of Palestinians. Shortly after the Intifada began in 1987, an Islamic fundamentalist group, HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement), was established to resist Israeli occupation through its military wing, Kataʾib Izz al-Din alQassam, which conducted terrorist attacks against Israelis.
Bibliography
Mattar, Philip. The Mufti of Jerusalem: Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Palestinian National Movement, revised edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
Porath, Yehoshua. The Palestinian Arab National Movement:From Riots to Rebellion, 1929 - 1939, Vol. 2. London: Frank Cass, 1977.
— PHILIP MATTAR
