Black Hand (Palestine)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Black Hand (Arabic: (transliteration) al-Kaff 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.
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] In one attack three members of kibbutz Yagur were killed, and in another a father and son were murdered in Nahalal. The group also vandalised Jewish-planted trees and British laid railroad tracks.[2]
Al-Qassam justified violence on religious grounds. After the 1929 Hebron massacre, he intensified his anti-zionist and anti-British 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.
On November 20, 1935, after killing a Palestine police officer, al-Qassam was surrounded by British police in a cave near Jenin and killed in a gunbattle along with three of his companions. Some of the Black Hand veterans participated in the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine of 1936-1939.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Lozowick, Yaacov (2003). Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars. Doubleday, 48.
- ^ a b Segev, Tom (1999). One Palestine, Complete. Metropolitan Books, pp. 360-362. ISBN 0805048480.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Legacy of Jihad in Palestine By Andrew G. Bostom
 |
This Palestinian-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
