Izz al-Din al-Qassam: Difference between revisions

al-Qassam achieved his wish after a few years of living in Haifa and formed an underground group. The two principles of this group were that each member had to provide his weapon and that he had to contribute financially to the group as much as possible. The sparks of al-Qassam's struggle against colonialism, along with his pursuit of knowledge, also paid special attention to the freedom movements and because of his mastery of Islamic sciences and his independent and anti-colonial views, he gained a high reputation and credibility among the people of [[Syria]], [[Egypt]], [[Lebanon]] and [[Palestine]] and had extraordinary power and influence among the people of the [[Middle East]]. For this reason, France and England, which were the colonial powers of that days and had divided the countries of the Middle East among themselves by a treaty, regarded him as their enemy. In Egypt, al-Qassam became acquainted with the British colonization and its authority over the nation and the national resources of the country, and at the same time, he was thinking about the necessity of fighting against the colonial forces. Organizing the Qassamites and the tasks and affairs, that he was in charge of in Haifa, gave him the opportunity to have more contact with the masses of people, especially the committed and enlightened groups. and in 1925 AD, he achieved his goal, which was to form an underground group or the "revolutionary core " with the motive of fighting against colonialism and Zionism. While he was working as a lawyer in Haifa, he visited the villages of Palestine and in his contacts with the farmers in the villages and the worshipers, he was able to attract some of the revolutionary forces and organize them in secret groups. Al-Qassam carried out all his activities, which was fighting against the formation of a Jewish state, in complete secrecy and only those who had been tested by him for years and had proven their integrity and secrecy were aware of his activities and organization.

These operations against the Zionist settlements continued constantly. The events of 1933 and 1934, which resulted in the acceleration of the migration of Zionists to Israel, the tendency of Zionists to form terrorist groups with the help of Israel, and also the expansion of Israeli lands, forced Qassam to start military operations before the availability of facilities and forces. The massive migration of Jews was accompanied by terrorist acts by Jewish groups against the Muslim and Arab populations of Palestine. The goal of the Zionists was to drive away the Palestinian Arabs and replace them with new Jewish immigrants. By Qassam's order, a chain of military operations against the Zionist areas and the patrols of the British army and police took place. These operations were carried out in a guerrilla and surprise manner and the form of hit and run. These revolutionary actions caused a lot of damage to the agricultural lands and assets of Zionists and several British and Zionist forces were killed in these operations. The armed operations and terror of the enemies increased day by day, but it did not take long for Qassam and his comrades to decide to reveal their movement, which in 1935 came in the form of an armed and bloody struggle against the British colonizers and Jewish terrorists. Izz al-Din Qassam's uprising against the French colonization, along with the formation of the Islamic uprising of the Shiites of Iraq against the British colonial forces in 1919, launched a movement in northern Syria along with Sheikh Saleh Ali, one of the militant scholars of Syria, against the French colonial forces. In this one-year uprising, led by Izz al-Din and the late Omar Baytar,  inflicted considerable casualties on the French occupiers.

Qassam's supporters, who were mostly from the working class, farmers, and merchants who also attended his lectures, were introduced by Qassam to the necessity of jihad and preparing for armed struggle at the time of popular uprising. As time passed, the revolution core formed rapidly around Qassam. He also led new people into his organization with amazing ability. He formed small groups, consisting of a leader and five members. The members of each of these groups only knew each other and the leader (Qassam) and had no knowledge of the members of other groups. He formed leadership cadres, mostly from prominent people of the organization.

When Qassam issued the order for armed operations against the enemy, none of the people, the British or the Zionists knew anything about his organization. Because he was busy doing his daily works in Haifa and everyone saw him. Qassam's revolution organization had only two hundred fighters and eight hundred supporters. By Qassam's order, a chain of military operations against the Zionist areas and the patrols of the British army and police took place. These operations were carried out in a guerrilla and surprise manner and the form of hit and run. These revolutionary actions caused a lot of damage to the agricultural lands and assets of Zionism and killed several British and Zionist forces. The armed operations and terrors of the enemies increased day by day, but it did not take long for Qassam and his comrades to decide to reveal their movement. Their goal of this decision was to express their divine goals, raise the spirit of militancy among the people, and neutralize the enemy's propaganda that tried to tarnish the goals and nature of the Qassam's group and claimed that the attackers' goal was to loot properties and disrupt the people's comfort. Finally, increasing the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine and the arming of the Zionists in 1935 had made the situation so critical that it was no longer possible to keep the movement secret. Therefore, it was decided that the operations would start from the mountainous areas of northern Palestine.