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Izz al-Din al-Qassam

Hamas' Izz ad-Din Al Qassam Brigades - and the Qassam missiles - are named after Syrian cleric and militant Izz ad-Din Al Qassam (1881/82-1935), and the name was appropriate. Al Qassam spent most of his fairly short life planning and fighting at least three colonial powers from Libya to Syria, before beginning his operations in Palestine, proving the seamless continuum of the Arab world and its politics.

Izz al-Din al-Qassam was one of the most prominent resistance fighters against the British occupation of Palestine. His martyrdom played a major role in igniting the Great Palestinian Revolt in 1936, and he became a symbol of Palestinian resistance. Izz al-Din al-Qassam was one of the most prominent resistance fighters against the British occupation of Palestine. Thanks to his abilities in mobilization, awareness, recruitment, and organization, he was able to ignite the 1936 revolution in Palestine, and he became a symbol of resistance after his martyrdom. The name of Izz al-Din al-Qassam, also known as the “Leader of the Mujahideen” among the Palestinians, still shines in the skies of the world through the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas.”

Muhammad Izz al-Din bin Abdul Qadir al-Qassam, nicknamed Izz al-Din al-Qassam, was born in the Syrian town of Jableh in 1883, and his grandfather immigrated from Iraq to that town. Izz al-Din al-Qassam spent his childhood in Jableh, where he was taught the Qur’an, reading, writing, and arithmetic in village schools. He also received religious education from his father, Abdul Qadir bin Mustafa bin Yusuf bin Muhammad al-Qassam, who was a member of the Qadiriyya order associated with Sheikh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani.

At the age of 14, Al-Qassam traveled with his brother Fakhr Al-Din to Al-Azhar to study Islamic sciences. After years of study, he returned with a certificate of eligibility. This period left a great impact on Al-Qassam’s personality, as he was influenced by Al-Azhar scholars such as Sheikh Muhammad Abduh, as well as the active national movement that was struggling against the British occupation and was present in Egypt after the failure of the Urabi Revolution.

After completing his studies at Al-Azhar Mosque, Izz al-Din al-Qassam decided to return to his hometown of Jableh, which he left in 1896. Shortly after his return, he decided to travel to Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Caliphate, to learn about the methods of teaching mosque lessons there. But he did not stay there long, and returned again to Jableh in 1903, which he decided would be his starting point.

There, Izz al-Din al-Qassam began teaching children in the morning and teaching adults in the evening. He founded a school in 1912 to teach children and adults alike. He also studied hadith and interpretation at Ibrahim bin Adham Mosque, after which he was appointed an employee in the recruitment division in Jableh. When he finished his work, he held educational seminars in mosques as much as possible.

Then Izz al-Din al-Qassam was appointed as a preacher at Al-Mansouri Mosque, which was one of the most prominent mosques in the center of the city. Thanks to his skills and new style of speaking, he attracted people to the mosque from everywhere. He encouraged them to change, as what he said from the pulpit was: “God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. Be proud and generous, and glory belongs to God and to His Messenger and to the believers. There is no faith for whoever accepts submission, submits to injustice, and finds servitude to humans.” He called on people to fight poverty, weakness and misery, and urged them to work, cooperate, love and sacrifice.

Resisting Italian colonialism in Libya and French colonialism in Syria was among the most important challenges that the region faced at the beginning of the twentieth century. Izz al-Din al-Qassam played a prominent role in these battles.

After Italy occupied Libya in 1911, Izz al-Din al-Qassam took to the streets to gather people and urge them to join the ranks of the resistance against the Italian occupation. He led popular demonstrations in support of Libya in cities such as Jableh, Latakia, the coast, and other villages. Izz al-Din al-Qassam was able to recruit hundreds of young men and collect the money and materials needed for the volunteer fighters and their families, and he succeeded in convincing the Ottoman authorities to provide them with transportation to Libya.

After that, it was the turn to resist French colonialism in Syria. After France occupied Syria in 1918, Izz al-Din al-Qassam called for raising arms and waging jihad against the French colonialists. He worked to spread awareness and urge people to resist in his sermons and lessons. He also bought weapons and trained the mujahideen.

In one of his sermons, Al-Qassam declared that the British were the cause of the calamity, and called for their resistance and expulsion from Palestine before they fulfilled their promise to the Jews. He warned the Palestinians against leniency regarding the immigration that the Jews were undertaking to Palestine.

Sheikh Al-Qassam fled to Palestine in 1921, with some of his companions, after his failure with Omar Al-Bitar in the Syrian Mount Zion Revolt (1919-1920). He was sentenced to death in absentia by the French occupation. Izz al-Din al-Qassam settled in the Istiqlal Mosque in the Old Quarter of Haifa, where he received poor peasants who had been displaced from their villages. Izz al-Din al-Qassam was active among them in an attempt to educate them and combat the illiteracy that had spread among them. He gave night classes and visited them regularly, and he enjoyed the appreciation and support of the people.

Izz al-Din al-Qassam also joined the Islamic School in Haifa and then the Muslim Youth Association there, and became president of the association in 1926. During that period, Izz al-Din al-Qassam called for preparation and readiness for jihad against British colonialism, and was active in his public advocacy among peasants in mosques in northern Palestine.

Since his arrival in Palestine, Izz al-Din al-Qassam realized the seriousness of the Zionist threat and the role played by the British Mandate authorities in strengthening it. In his speeches, he called for confronting Jewish settlers “as enemies and not as immigrants or guests,” and criticized brokers who sold land to Jews. Behind the podiums, Izz al-Din al-Qassam was preparing to lead more important and dangerous secret actions. In light of his experience in the Syrian revolution, he was aware of the importance of planning and tight organization, and the necessity of secrecy to avoid any early attacks from colonialism.

The Qassam Jihadi League was formed by Sheikh Izz al-Din al-Qassam in 1921 after his arrival in Haifa. Sheikh Izz al-Din al-Qassam began developing this idea after his return from his visit to al-Azhar al-Sharif, where he studied the people and their faith, as well as the plans of the Jews and the British to separate Palestine from the Islamic world. Al-Qassam strengthened the spirit of jihad among the people and built the base that would help them raise their organization and choose the appropriate members.

Izz al-Din al-Qassam did all this in secret to avoid detection from the British authorities and Jewish gangs. After selecting the members of his team and testing them well, he began carrying out individual jihadi operations before announcing their departure for jihad. Izz al-Din al-Qassam was able to form secret cells consisting of small groups not exceeding five individuals. In 1932, Izz al-Din al-Qassam joined the Haifa branch of the Istiqlal Party and began collecting donations from residents to purchase weapons.

The Qassam groups were characterized by precise organization, as there were specialized units for calling for jihad, political communications, spying on enemies, and military training. In 1931, the Qassam League began carrying out guerrilla operations such as attacks on Zionist settlements and preparing ambushes for settlers. The main goal was to stop Jewish immigration, as well as to hunt down agents who spy for British intelligence in order to take revenge on them. However, the group's activities stopped after a short period due to the leaking of some of the organization's secrets to the British, and this frozen state continued until the end of 1935.

In November 1935, Al-Qassam was forced to declare jihad, although his military preparations had not been fully completed. He was forced to do this due to the increase in Jewish immigration to Palestine at that time and their expansion into the lands they seized. The number of Jews in Palestine in 1935 reached about 62,000 Jews, and in the same year the Jews owned an area estimated at 73,000 dunums of Palestinian land. As a result of the British authorities tightening control over his movements, Al-Qassam decided to flee to rural areas.

On November 15, 1935, British forces discovered Izz al-Din al-Qassam’s hiding place in the rural village of al-Bared. However, Al-Qassam and 15 of his followers managed to escape to Sheikh Zayed Village. On November 19, British forces pursued them, surrounded them and cut off communication between them and neighboring villages. The forces demanded that Al-Qassam and his comrades surrender, but they refused and entered into a clash with them. During the confrontation, Al-Qassam killed more than 15 British soldiers, and a continuous battle took place for six hours between the two sides. At the end of the battle on November 20, Sheikh Izz al-Din al-Qassam and some of his companions were martyred, and the rest were wounded and arrested.

The martyrdom of Izz al-Din al-Qassam had a major impact on the outbreak of the Great Palestinian Revolt in 1936. This incident turned into an important turning point in the path of the Palestinian national movement later on.

Though Al Qassam's guerrilla operations had limited impact during his lifetime, his actions and his death were one factor in the outbreak of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine - one of the biggest headaches for the British mandatory authorities and leading to the realisation that their rule - amid resurgent Jews and increasingly aggrieved Arabs - would not be very tenable.

He could have renamed a footnote in the fractious history of the Middle East, but his legacy would endure. As displaced Palestinians sought to organise themselves in the 1950s following the debacle of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the fedayeen who emerged in the 1960s held Al Qassam to be their inspiration. The founders of Fatah, which, under Yasser Arafat, became the main constituent of the PLO, had initially considered naming their group the "Qassamiyun", as Al Qassam's followers had styled themselves in the 1930s.

Palestinian militant and place hijacker Leila Khaled, who became the face of the resistance after her iconic photo cradling a gun circulated, had noted her Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was continuing in Al Qassam's footsteps as his generation started the revolution, and her generation intended to complete it.

However, it was left to Hamas to revive Al Qassam's name.