Black Hand (Palestine)
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- For other uses, see Black Hand (disambiguation).
The Black Hand (Arabic: (transliteration) al-Qaff al-Aswad) was an underground Islamist militant organization that operated in the British Mandate of Palestine. It was founded in 1930 and led by Syrian-born Shaykh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam until his death in 1935. The British authorities regarded it a terrorist group.
Al-Qassam justified violence by religious grounds. After the 1929 Hebron massacre, he intensified his anti-Semitic agitation and obtained a fatwa from Shaykh Badr al-Din al-Taji al-Hasani, the Mufti of Damascus, authorizing the use of violence against the British and the Jews.
After the failure of the 1921 Syrian revolt that he led, al-Qassam escaped to Haifa and engaged in recruitment and military training of Arab peasants. The clandestine cells had no more than five people. This organization became known as the Black Hand. In all, he had enlisted between 200 and 800 men. In various acts of violence they targeted Jewish civilians in northern Palestine between 1930 and 1935 and killed at least eight Jews.[1]
According to Shai Lachman, between 1921 and 1935 al-Qassam often cooperated with Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Mohammad Amin al-Husayni:
During the (nineteen) twenties, both were on good terms, their understanding probably based on identity of views and mutual esteem. It was then that al-Qassam was appointed imam of the al-Istiqlal mosque and Sharia register - appointments which required the Mufti's prior consent and approval and were financed by the awqaf administration. The cooperation may well have increased as a result of the 1929 riots. One source claims that al-Qassam's men took an active part in the bloody riots... Later towards the mid-1930s, there was a falling out between the two men. The reason for this is unknown, but it seems to have been closely related to al-Qassam's independent activity... As long as the terrorist activity was directed only at Jewish targets, the Mufti saw nothing wrong with this. On the contrary, it fell in line with his own anti-Jewish policy; he secretly encouraged it and apparently extended financial aid to al-Qassam and his organization.[2]
On November 20, 1935, al-Qassam was surrounded by British police in a cave near Jenin and killed along with three of his henchmen. Some of the Black Hand veterans participated in the Great Uprising of 1936-1939.
[edit] References
- ^ Lozowick, Yaacov (2003). Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars. Doubleday, 48.
- ^ Lachman, Shai (1982). Arab Rebellion and Terrorism in Palestine 1929-39: The Case of Sheikh Izz al-Din al-Qassam and His Movement. in "Zionism and Arabism in Palestine and Israel", edited by Elie Kedourie and Sylvia G. Haim, Frank Cass. London, 76.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Legacy of Jihad in Palestine By Andrew G. Bostom
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