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The Combatant Muslim Scholars of Palestine
Compiled by: Syed Muhammad Bokreta
Algiers, Algeria
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin
Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Yassin was born in the village of Al-Jora, Majdal district, in 1938 and sought refuge alongside his family in the nearby Gaza Strip following the 1948 Nakba or the usurpation of most of Palestine at the hands of Zionist gangs.
The Sheikh was paralyzed in his youth as a result of an accident while exercising on the beaches of Gaza, moreover he worked as a teacher of Arabic language and Islamic religion then as a Khatib (preacher) and teacher in the Gaza mosques. He turned into one of the most vociferous and most famous Khatibs in the Gaza Strip following its occupation in 1967.
He also worked as a chairman of the Islamic Complex in Gaza before his arrest in 1983 for possession of weapons, establishing a military organization and championing the annihilation of the Hebrew state. The Sheikh was court-martialed and the Israeli judges passed a 13 years prison term against him.
He was released in 1985 in line with a prisoners’ exchange deal between the Zionist authorities and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – The General Command after spending 11 months in prison.
The Sheikh founded the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, along with a number of Islamic activists in the Gaza Strip in 1987.
Zionist occupation forces broke into and ransacked his house in late August 1988 and threatened to push him along with his wheelchair across the borders into Lebanon.
On the evening of 18/5/1989 the occupation authorities arrested Sheikh Ahmed Yassin along with hundreds of Hamas activists in a desperate attempt to curb the armed resistance that started to take the form of attacks on settlers and soldiers.
On 16/10/1991 a Israeli army court passed a life sentence in addition to 15 years imprisonment sentence against Sheikh Ahmed Yassin after an indictment list leveled nine charges against him including inciting the kidnap and killing of Israeli soldiers and the establishment of the Hamas Movement’s security and military wings.
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, other than his complete paralysis, suffered a number of other disabilities and diseases including loss of eyesight in his right eye due to Israeli blows during interrogation in addition to weakness in his left eye. He also suffered from chronic inflammation in his ear, lung infection and other diseases in his abdomen.
The detention of the Sheikh in jails further worsened his health conditions, which necessitated carrying him to hospital on numerous occasions.
On 13/12/1992 a commando cell affiliated with the Qassam Brigades, military wing of Hamas, kidnapped an Israeli soldier and offered to set him free in return for the release of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and a number of other detainees in jails including sick and elderly and Arab captives. However, the Israeli government refused the offer and stormed the house where the soldier was held leading to his death along with commander of the attacking unit and two other soldiers before the martyrdom of the three members of that cell in Bir Nabala near occupied Jerusalem.
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was released on 1/10/1997 in accordance with an agreement between Jordan and the Israel that stipulated the release of the Sheikh in return for delivering to Tel Aviv two intelligence agents, who were arrested in Jordan following an aborted assassination attempt of Khaled Mishaal, political bureau chief of the Hamas Movement.
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin survived a assassination attempt on 6th September 2003 when Zionist army choppers fired missiles at a house in Gaza. He was only lightly injured in his right arm.
Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at Hamas' spiritual leader, Shaikh Ahmed Yassin, as he left a mosque after performing the Monday dawn prayers, killing the Hamas leader and six other worshippers. A reporter who rushed to the scene after hearing three loud explosions found the blown-up remains of Yassin's blood-soaked wheel-chair.
Al-Manar TV reported that the Israeli Prime Minister, Sharon, personally supervised the assassination of Shaikh Yassin, whose death may be an attempt by Sharon to distract public attention from his personal scandals.
Dr. Abdul al-Aziz Rantisi was appointed head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip following the assassination of Ahmad Yassin on 22 March 2004.
Dr. Abdul Aziz Rantisi
The Great Martyr Abdul Aziz Rantisi was the co-founder and principal spokesman of Hamas. Became Hamas' leader in the Gaza Strip on the assassination of Ahmad Yassin, 22 March 2004. Married with six children; his base is the Shaykh Radwan area of Gaza City.
Rantisi was born October 1947 in Yibna, a small town between Ashkelon and Jaffa. When he was 6 months old, the family were made refugees from the 1948 war. They fled to Gaza , expecting to return at war's end. Settled in Khan Younis Refugee Camp (second largest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
Grew up in extreme poverty, lived with parents, 8 brothers and 2 sisters in a tent for four years, then in an abandoned school building, before moving into an UNRWA mud house. Started working at age 6 to supplement father's income. An uncle was killed when "Israel" shelled Khan Younis Refugee Camp in the Suez crisis of October 1956.
Rantisi attended the UNRWA secondary school in Khan Younis. Graduated top of his class in 1965. Egypt at that time offered university education to exceptional Gaza students who were too poor to pay tuition, and Rantisi began studying pediatric medecine at the University of Alexandria that fall. Professed no political or religious interests at that time, his main interest was in becoming a doctor. At Alexandria, he ran into a familiar face, Sheikh Mahmoud Eid, who had been imam of the mosque in Khan Younis when Rantisi was a child. Eid introduced him to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Eid introduced him to the works of two Islamic scholars, Sheikh Hassan Banna, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1929 and was its "Supreme Guide" until he was murdered 20 years later, and Sayyid Qutb, a theoretician and writer who was hanged in 1966 for allegedly plotting to assassinate "Nasser".
Rantisi completed his degree and returned to Gaza in 1972, founded the Gaza Islamic Centre in 1973. The Strip was by this time under "Israeli" occupation, its refugees camps provided thousands of recruits for Fatah and the PFLP, and anarchy ruled on the streets, with PLO activists targeting"Israeli "soldiers and local Palestinian collaborators. In 1974 he returned to Alexandria for his two-years Masters in Pediatrics. He formally joined the Muslim Brotherhood on his return to Gaza in 1976. At that time he took up an internship at Nasser Hospital, the main medical facility in Khan Younis Refugee Ccamp. He was dismissed as head of Pediatrics there by the Israelis in 1983. He also joined the Faculty of Science at the Islamic University of Gaza, on its opening in 1978, teaching science, genetics and parasitology there.
The Camp David Accord of 1978 left the Palestinians under "Israeli "occupation with a toothless automony. Sadat sealed the Egypt/Gaza border, where there had previously been free passage, cutting Gazans off from higher education and employment. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood opposed the Accords, and Sadat expelled those who were known troublemakers into the sealed-off Gaza Strip. A number of them approached the Israeli administration there in 1978 for licenses to open a jama'ah (Islamic association), to build kindergartens, improve literacy, open stores. The movement began to flourish and branched out into building mosques.
Chief architect of the Islamic revival was Sheikh Ahmad Ismail Yassin, a Muslim scholar who did not disguise his belief that "Israel "was an illegitimate state, but urged his followers not to rush into a jihad before they could win. Instead he urged them to pursue (tarbiyeh) education and (da'wah) preaching. So when he approached the Israeli authorities, as the supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza, to register charitable organizations to propagate Islam and to recruit supporters for the faith, the Israelis provided the appropriate tax-free licences.
A series of Islamic societies was licensed in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the most important of which was Yassin's "Islamic Assembly" in Gaza, which had 2,000 members and effectively controlled Gaza's mosques. Within a decade, Yassin built the assembly into a powerful religious, economic and social institution in the Gaza Strip. He developed a welfare network around the mosques, many of which served also as community centres. The number of mosques in the Gaza Strip tripled from 200 to 600 between 1967 and 1987, while the number of worshippers doubled. In the West Bank, the number of mosques went from 400 to 750 in the same period.
In 1984, Israelis discovered the largest cache of weapons yet uncovered in the Palestinian Territories, in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood. The weapons had been bought on the Israeli black market. The interesting thing from the Israeli perspective was that they had been in the Brotherhood's hands for over a year and not used. The entire Muslim Brotherhood leadership was jailed for lengthy terms, Yassin got 13 years.
In Yassin's absence, Rantisi stepped up to organise the Muslim bloc in student council elections at the Islamic University, where they won 80% of the vote. In Spring 1986, he launched largely successful campaign to rid the university of the PLO supporters.
With the eruption of the first intifada erupted on 9 December 1987, it was apparent that quietist Islamization first, resistance second, was not a philosophy that appealed to the Palestinian street. On the first day of the intifada, Rantisi and six others (Yassin, 'Abdel Fattah Dukhan, Mohammed Shama', Dr. Ibrahim al-Yazour, Issa al-Najjar and Salah Shehadeh) established an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood to join in resisting the occupation. They named it The Islamic Resistance Movement (Harakat al Mukawwamah al Islamiyya), known by its acronym HAMAS, meaning "zeal". The intention in creating Hamas was to show that the Muslim Brotherhood was one of the initiators of the intifada.
The Hamas covenant (i.e. founding charter), published in August 1988, was a blend of nationalism and religion. It called for an exclusively Islamic Palestinian state, repudiating the PLO's formulation of a democratic secular state as anti-Islamic, and made territorial nationalism into a religious mission or jihad. It called for the destruction of the state of Israel. The charter explicitly rejected direct confrontation with the PLO, but refused to recognise the "sole representative status" of the PLO, positioning itself instead as an alternative leadership of the Palestinian people. To this end, Hamas organised independently of the intifada's unified leadership, issued its own leaflets, and called separate strikes, often on holy days.
Rantisi had been arrested in January 1988, accused of authoring Hamas' street pamphlets inciting support for the intifada. He was sentenced to 2 ½ years, which he served at Ansar III (Ketziot), Gaza Jail and Kfar Yonnah. He was released on 4 Sept 1990, and effectively led Hamas (with Zahhar) until rearrested for incitement in November 1990. He was sentenced to 12 more months, which he served at Ansar III, first in isolation with Yassin and subsequently in solitary. Released from jail, 12 December 1991. Joined Gaza Medical Association, February 1992. Represented Hamas in the July 1992 reconciliation accord that brought an end to intra-Palestinian infighting in the Gaza Strip. (Haider Abdel Shafi signed for the PLO).
In December 1992, Hamas killed six Israeli soldiers in one week. Israel responded by expelling 416 alleged Islamists to Marj al-Zuhur in south Lebanon, including Rantisi who acted as spokesman for the deportees. On his return, Rantisi was rearrested by Israel (in December 1993) and held until April 1997.
Relations between Hamas and the PLO deteriorated after the 1991 Gulf War. Hamas took an unequivocal stand against US/Soviet-sponsored peace negotiations and mounted several well-supported actions against the Madrid Conference, including shutting down Gaza with a three-day strike. Rantisi himself expressed doubt that the Oslo process would amount to anything, on the grounds that Israel would never allow through negotiations genuine Palestinian independence or statehood, only an autonomy that would perpetuate Israeli rule. He therefore opposed any negotiation with Israel. In 1994, Hamas allied with the Popular and Democratic Fronts to form the Damascus-based Palestinian Forces Alliance, an anti-Oslo coalition of 10 opposition groups. In 1993, it participated with these opposition groups in the Birzeit University student elections and defeated the pro-Oslo ticket.
Hamas was divided over whether to participate in the first PA elections of January 1996. Sheikh Yassin supported participation because it would "reassert the strength of the Islamist presence", but other members argued that participation would legitimise Oslo. Hamas did not stand in the end, although some Islamists did stand and win independently. Hamas indicated that it would stand however in local elections, which probably explains why local government minister Saeb Erekat declined to organize them.
In April 1998, Rantisi was arrested by the PA, after calling for the resignation of its leaders. He was held in custody without trial, for 20 months, accusing of involvement in the killing of Mohieddin Sharif. He was arrested again in July 2000, after calling the Palestinian participation in the Camp David talks an act of treason, but released in December 2000. Intermittently rearrested, e.g. April 2001, and in December 2001, when after public opposition the PA settled for holding him under house arrest.
Rantisi opposed the June 2003 hudna (one of the Phase One Road map obligations), although Hamas eventually joined it under Yassin's influence. Rantisi subsequently defended the hudna as a means to prevent the US forcing the PA into a civil war with Hamas.
On 10 June 2003, he survived an Israeli assassination attempt, which killed two bystanders and left 27 wounded (including one of Rantisi's sons, who was paralyzed). Rantisi himself was wounded by shrapnel in the chest and leg.
Following the attempt on his life, and the assassination of the leading Hamas Ismail Abu Shanab, Rantisi opposed attempts to bring Hamas into a second hudna. And as recently as January 2004, he spoke against Hamas joining a new Egyptian-sponsored ceasefire.
Rantisi was appointed head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip following the assassination of Ahmad Yassin on 22 March 2004. He knew that he was a marked man as soon as he took office, but declined to go underground and was philosophical about the prospect of assassination, It's death whether by killing or by cancer, it's the same thing."
Rantisi was assassinated in an Israeli helicopter missile strike, as he returned from a visit to his family on 17 April 2004.
Hundreds of thousands of citizens, including prominent political figures, participated in the funeral procession of Hamas leader, Dr. Abdel Aziz Al Rantisi, and two of his bodyguards.
The body of the Hamas leader, who was extra-judicially executed yesterday night, was taken to the Al Omari Grand Mosque in the heart of Gaza City, where his body would be prayed on and sent to his final resting place.
During the procession, which started from the leader's home at the Al Sheikh Redwan suburb, citizens chanted slogans demanding revenge to Al Rantisi's killing and condemning the continuous Israeli military aggressions against the Palestinian people, as billowing banners of the different factions appeared throughout the procession.
The funeral procession witnessed also a massive attendance of representatives of national and Islamic factions, who expressed the unity of the Palestinian stance in the face of the Israeli conspiracies, asserting that the resistance would continue despite the Israeli strikes.
For that, the Geat Mudjahid Abdul Aziz Rantisi, certainly belongs to the higher class of Allah’s Servants who have attained the Best of both Worlds: “We gave him his reward in this world, and in the world to come he shall be among the Righteous”. Holy-Quran 29-27.
The Mass Deportation of 415 Palestinians
In the first two weeks of December 1992, six members of the “Israeli” security forces were killed by Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories, one of them was a Border Policeman, Nissim Toledano, who was kidnapped on the 13th of December 1992, by presumably Hamas Militants, after finding Toledano's body, Israel arrested some 1,600 Palestinians; and on the 15th of December, “Prime Minister Rabin” announced that the “Israeli” government intended to take severe action against Hamas.
On the morning of the 16th of December 1992, the government decided to order deportation for up to two years of “inciters, those inhabitants of the area who endanger human lives by their activities, or those who incite others to such actions.” The deportations were to be carried out “without prior notification” ; the security forces began carrying out the deportations that evening, while two deportation orders were being issued in the West Bank and three in the Gaza Strip. More than 400 Palestinians were put on buses and taken north, towards south Lebanon , handcuffed and blindfolded.
Most of the deportees were taken directly from prison facilities, where they had been held since the wave of arrests; the remainders were taken from their homes, the “IDF” censored publication of any information regarding the deportation decision and its execution, the idea being to move the deportees to Lebanese territory that night, before the matter could be brought before the High Court of Justice , still and in spite of the censorship, news of the intended deportations reached human rights organizations and attorneys, and that night, several petitions were filed with the High Court.
The deportation was carried out the same day, the 17th of December 1992, the hearing on the legality of the deportation was postponed, the deportees were transported to the Zumriyeh crossing point at the northernmost point of the so called “security zone”(cleaned on the 25th of May 2000 by the Great Warriors of Hizbullah) because the Lebanese army prevented the deportees from continuing north, and because “Israel” claimed that it was not responsible for the deportees on grounds that the deportees were in territory under Lebanese control, the deportees were left in no-man's land.
On the 28th of December 1992, the “IDF” Spokesperson announced than ten of the deportees had been deported by mistake and would be allowed to return to the Occupied Territories, on the 03rd of January 1993, Attorney General “Yosef Harish” informed the High Court that six additional Palestinians had been deported by mistake and would be allowed to return; five more deportees were allowed to return for health reasons.
On the 18th of December 1992, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 799 (1992), in which the Council strongly condemned “the action taken by “Israel”, the occupying Power, to deport hundreds of Palestinian civilians” and expressed its firm opposition to any such deportation by “Israel”, and demanded that “Israel”, the occupying Power, ensure the safe and immediate return to the occupied territories of all those deported.
The Council also requested the Secretary-General “to consider dispatching a representative to the area to follow up with the “Israeli” government with regard to this serious situation and to report to the Security Council, as well as informing the “Israeli” side that Collective punishment, i.e., the punishment of individuals or groups for actions not specifically attributed to them, is forbidden under “Israeli” and international law.
Moreover it is a clear stance in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states that: “No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed, collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited, reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited”. An examination of the facts reveals that, contrary to the contention made by the state, the deportation of 1992 was collective punishment.
On the 01st of February 1993, the Zionist Prime Minister announced “Israel’s” decision to allow 100 of the deported men to return and to reduce the exile period for the remaining 300 in half, to one year, in return, he stated, “Israel” had assurances from the United States that it would block U.N. sanctions, which had been proposed in response to “ Israel 's” continuing defiance of the demands of resolution 799 (1992). On that same day, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, while at the United Nations, stated that as a result of the above agreement that had been reached, he believed that further action by the Security Council would be necessary.
(May Allah Bless him in the Eden Gardens), rejected the “Israeli” offer and said that no one would return unless all of them were allowed to do so, in addition, Palestinian leaders reaffirmed that the only way out is the full implementation of resolution 799 (1992) and that they would not attend the peace negotiations until a solution to the deportation crisis is found in accordance with the said resolution.
It would be worth mentioning in a brief manner, the very thorny and Godly rewarded path chosen by this great Mujahid who was born in the village of Yibna (between Jaffa and Askalan) in 1947, in what is now “Israel”, his family joined an estimated 750,000 Palestinians fleeing their homes to escape terrorist organisations such as Lehi, which was responsible for the Deir Yassin massacre on 9 April 1948.His family eventually settled at the Khan Younis refugee camp south of Gaza where, like other refugee families, it fell prey to abject poverty, especially in the years immediately following the events of 1948.
During his childhood, Al-Rantisi was so poor that he went to elementary school barefoot and had to work at an early age, while still in school, to help support his family, upon finishing high school in 1965, Al-Rantisi enrolled in the College of Medicine at the University of Alexandria in Egypt where he received a degree in medicine in 1972. A few years later, he obtained a Masters' degree in pediatrics from the same university, broad- minded; Al-Rantisi was exposed to the ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood which he continued to espouse until his Martyrdom, as he was deeply influenced by such popular Islamic revivalist preachers such as Abdul-Hamid Kishk and Al-Mahallawi.
In 1987, Al-Rantisi was one of seven co-founders of Hamas, along with such prominent figures as Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Salah Shehadeh and Ibrahim Maqadmeh, with the stated purpose of fighting the Zionist occupation under the banner of Islam., all these Three Mujahideen and co-founders were assassinated by “Israeli” missile strikes before him, Predictably, this soon put Al-Rantisi and his colleagues on a direct collision course with the “Israeli” occupation regime.
In January 1988, just after the outbreak of the first Intifada (1987-1992), Al-Rantisi was arrested for the first time by the Israeli army on charges of “endangering the safety and security” of the “Israeli” occupation forces and jailed for three weeks, after his release, Al-Rantisi was quickly jailed again on 4 March 1988, when he was sentenced to two years and a half in prison for “organising and leading an illegal group” and “involvement in preparing and printing anti- Israeli leaflets” it was later revealed that during his interrogation, Rantisi was subjected to physical and psychological torture at the hands of “Israel’s” Shin Bet.
Al-Rantisi was released from his prison cell in September 1990, but was re-incarcerated before the end of the year and placed under “administrative detention” for an entire year at the Ketziot detention camp in the Negev desert, one of the most crucial phases of Al- Rantisi's life began on the 17th of December 1992 (Subject of our Historic diary) when he and 415 other Islamic Militants were deported to South Lebanon in the village of Marj Al-Zuhour, Al- Rantisi for the first time rose to prominence outside of Hamas ranks as he became the official spokesman of the deportees.
When Al-Rantisi and the deportees were allowed to return, he was imprisoned by “Israel” for close to three years for “indulging in illegal activities” at Marj Al- Zuhour Al-Rantisi was finally released from “Israeli” prison in 1996 to become one of the most outspoken critics of the Oslo Accords, this invited the wrath of the Palestinian Authority whose various security agencies began hounding Al-Rantisi for his harsh criticism of the Oslo process and advocating Jihad instead.
This uncompromising stance made Rantisi a marked Man, as such and on the 10th of June 2003, he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when an “Israeli” helicopter gunship fired several missiles at his car, the attack failed to shake him as he emerged at a press conference an hour later more defiant, vowing to continue the resistance “until we earn our freedom from these criminal colonisers”.
Al Rantisi knew all too well he was likely going to be a Martyr of the Palestine’s Islamic Cause, in one of his last interviews with the BBC, he said he would rather go down fighting than die of natural causes: “If I were to choose between death as a result of a cardiac arrest and death in an Apache attack, I will choose the Apache.” and so it was , thus on the 17th of April 2004, Al-Rantisi was Martyred by “Israeli” jet fighters highly achieving the yearning desire of the lofty path of Martyrdom for the sake of the Good cause of Islam and Palestine.
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