Adonis Diaries

Guevara the Arab: Al Kassam (1871-1935)

Have you heard of these homemade missiles Al Kassam that the resistance in Gaza launch on the nearest Israeli colonies? Particularly when Israel kill leaders using drones or fighter jets to bomb public institutions, schools, hospitals…?

Have you heard of the military wing of Hamas in Gaza called Al Kassam Brigade?

Ezzeldin Al Kassam was born in this small Syrian village of Jabli in the district of Lattakieh. In the last 20 years of his life, Al Kassam was leading groups of fighters against the colonial powers of France (in Syria), England (in Palestine) and Italy (in Libya) during the Omar Al Mokhtar mass uprising that started in 1911.

At the age of 14, Ak Kassam was sent by his father to Egypt to study at the famous religious university of Al Azhar. He witnessed the mass uprising lead by Arabi Pasha against the military occupation of the British of Egypt, and was immersed in the liberal interpretation of the Islam religion at that period.

He returned to his hometown a religious sheikh and Imam of the Mosque Al Mansouri and confronted the feudal landlords.

In 1912, Ezzeldin established a school, teaching kids in the morning and the adults late in the afternoon.

He assembled a  group ofSyrian revolutiopnaries, trained them and led them to fight the Italian occupiers in Lybia, alongside the national leader Omar Al Mokhtar.

When the French troops, mandated to occupy Syria and Lebanon, landed in 1918, Ak Kassam was ready to to engage in guerrila operations. He took refuge with his insurgents in the forteress of Zion in the Lattakieh district.

Between 1919 and 1920, Al Kassam allied with the resistance heros of Ibrahim Hanano, Saleh Ali, and Omar Bitar…The small Syrian army was defeated by the French troops at the battle of Maysaloun in 1920, and the Independence of Syria was shelved for over 15 years.

Al Kassam was sentenced to be executed in absentia, and he fled to Haifa in Palestine.

By 1925, Al Kassam became chairman of the Islamic Youth Association and the Imam of the Mosque Al Istiklal (independence) in Haifa.

In 1929, the Zionist jews were planning to burn down the Mosque, and Ezzeldin refused to demand from the British protection, stating: “This Mosque will be protected by our blood...”

The mass desobediance movement of Al Kassam was waged in two fronts: First, against the British occupiers, and second, against the increased immigration of the Jews into Palestine.

In August 1929, the Zionists tried to occupy the western wall (the lamentation wall) of the Mosque Al Aqsa in Jerusalem, called the Al Brak Wall (in honor of the name of the horse of Prophet Muhammad). This incident led to many casualties and more violent activities began at a wider scales.

From 1929 to 1935, Ak Kassam organized his insurgents into 5 secret branches: 1. The religious leaders with the task of connecting with the masses and peasants, 2. the branch for supplying arms and ammunition, 3. the branch for military training, 4. the branch for gathering intelligence on the movement of the british and the Zionists, and 5. the Foreign political communication branch…

On a December night of 1935, Al Kassam lead 25 of his fighters to the hills of Yo3bod in order to disseminate the spirit of mass uprising. The British were in waiting and ambushed the guerrilas and assassinated them. Al Kassam had warned the Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin Husseini of his intention and the reply was that “the conditions are not ripe for a mass disobedience uprising…”

After the killing of Al Kassam, a monster mass disobedience uprising engulfed all of Palestine against the British for 3 full years, from 1936-to 1939. The British Empire had to dispatch 100, 000 soldiers to quell this uprising, committing all kinds of atrocities and applying new torture methods that the Nazi in Germany emulated unchanged…