82. Who was Izz Adin Al-Qassam?

During the 1930s, secret societies were formed in Palestine that promoted the armed conflict against the British and the Jews like the “Green Hand” group, which actively participated in the hills near Safe and was eliminated by the British in 1931. Another one was the Holy Fight Organization, led by Abed Al-Kader Al-Husseini, which operated in Hebron and would later play a more important role in the 1948 war and the Young Rebels, which acted in the Tulkarem and Kalkiyah zones in 1935. In 1930, the sheikh Izz A-Din Al-Qassam (born in Syria) organized and established the “Black Hand” (Al-Kaf Al-Asuad), an anti-Zionist and anti-British military organization. During his trips throughout the area, he gave extremist political and religious speeches, encouraging the farmers to form into gangs and attack the British government and the Jews. After the Jewish massacre in Hebron in 1929, their activities increased and received a fatwa (permission) from the sheikh Badr al-Din al-Taji al-Hasani, Mufti of Damascus, allowing the attacks. Al-Qassam recruited and organized the military training of farmers and by 1935 he had between 200 and 800 men who destroyed the trees planted by other farmers and the railways built by the British. In November 1935, two of his men murdered a police officer in a confrontation, which provoked the human hunt of Al-Qassam, who was shot and killed in a cave near Ya’bad. His grave is in the abandoned village of Balad As-Sheikh, the modern Israeli city of Nasher. His influence is currently relevant. Hamas’ rockets fired against Israeli civilians from Gaza are known as “Qassam” and the terrorist groups of Hamas are named after this Arab military leader Izz Adin Al-Qassam Battalion.