issue no 131

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Issue No : 131 28th APRIL 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia | 1


Palestinian Cultural Organization MalaysiaMalaysiaM

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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Read in This Issue

Outrage after S African minister denied entry by Israeli authorities

Read in This Issue

Qassam Brigades, the Hope of the Palestinian People!

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Al-Aqsa Sheikh: Situation in the city is very dangerous

Will the next UK government support Palestine?

Palestinian resistance monitors Israeli infiltration attempt

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P 15

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Rafah crossing closed for 100 days now

FEATURED STORY P 4

Articles & analyses P 20

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CONTENTS

Articles & Analyses

News of Palestine

FEATURED STORY

Outrage after S African minister denied entry by Israeli authorities 4

Will the next UK government support Palestine? 5

I thought the boat was my only chance 6

US court rejects lawsuit against charity funding of settlements 8

Israeli forces open fire on fishermen, farmers in Gaza 10

Hamas supporters decry PA arrest of activist 11

Israel’s new method to eradicate Palestine 12

Zionist settler stabs Palestinian worker 13

Al-Aqsa Sheikh: Situation in the city is very dangerous 14

Palestinian resistance monitors Israeli infiltration attempt 15

Unity government won’t work without solving employee issue, insists Hamas 16

Hamas to Netanyahu: ‹Count your soldiers, stop misleading missing soldiers›

families› 17

Palestine›s youngest political prisoner welcomed back to Ramallah 18

Rafah crossing closed for 100 days now 19

Qassam Brigades, the Hope of the Palestinian People! 20

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Featured Story

Outrage after S African minister denied entry by Israeli authorities

The government of South Africa has expressed outrage after Israel’s deci-sion to deny a visa to Higher Educa-tion Minister Blade Nzimande.Clayson Monyela, Deputy Director General of Department of Internation-al Relations and Cooperation, told Al Jazeera on Thursday the Israeli gov-ernment needed to offer a reason for the snubbing.“We are taking it up through the prop-er channels.“We need to receive a proper expla-nation for the denial of a visa to a sit-ting cabinet minister,” Monyela said.The minister was scheduled to travel to the occupied Palestinian territories from April 25-29. He was scheduled to secure further collaboration with the University of Johannesburg and insti-tutions in Palestine.Nzimande’s spokesperson told local media that the denial of the visa had caused a “serious diplomatic prob-lem”. Naeem Jeenah, Director of Afro-Mid-dle East Centre, based in Johannes-burg, described the snubbing as “sur-prising” considering the two countries’ growing trade relations.Jeenah said the Palestinian solidar-ity movement in South Africa “would be thrilled” with Israel’s decision “be-cause South Africa now has to re-spond to this matter”.Arthur Lenk, the Israeli ambassador in Pretoria, told Al Jazeera that South Af-rican officials routinely visit the West Bank through Israel.Lenk would not be drawn into discuss-ing why specifically Nzimande’s visa application was denied, though he de-

scribed the minister as being “very vocal on a range of issues connected to Israel, South Africa and my region”.The ambassador said the decision to deny the visa was made in Israel.“The decision came from Jerusalem,” Lenk said.Vocal critic of IsraelBut Jeenah said that anything the Israelis say on the matter “could really only make the situation worse”.The Palestinian embassy in South Africa described the decision as “racist”.“We take note by this aggressive action that Israel is trying to implement the same rule as in the previous apartheid regime of South Africa,” the em-bassy said in a statement.The Palestinian lobby group Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS-South Africa) released a statement saying it’s “more confident than ever that its time to expel the Israeli Ambassador from South Africa”.“Israel cannot want to tell us who our friends should be, where we should travel and who we can speak with.” BDS said.Nzimande has been a vocal critic of Israel. His spokesperson said on Thursday the minister would call on all higher education institutions to cut ties with their counterparts in Israel.“We must just boycott Israel,” Nkwanyana reportedly said.South Africa currently has full diplomatic relations with Israel and recognis-es Israel within the borders demarcated by the United Nations (UN) in 1948.In 2012, Deputy Minister of International Relations and Co-operation, Ebra-him Ebrahim discouraged South Africans from visiting Israel.“We do not prevent them. We say we discourage them.”

24 Apr 2015 Source: Al Jazeera

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The British General Election will take place on May 7 and all the political parties are lobbying for the votes of those who are concerned about events in the Middle East.It seems that most of the mainstream political parties in the UK are pro-Israel despite the fact that when it comes to public opinion there is widespread support for the Palestinian cause. The Conservative Party is a staunch ally of Israel and says it is committed to Israel’s security. The main opposition party Labour also takes a similar stance.The Scottish National Party (SNP) has expressed soli-darity with the Palestinians and its former leader Alex Salmond has recommended an arms embargo on Israel.The SNP are likely to be the third biggest party in parlia-ment after the election so they may be able to restrain the excesses of the major parties if they are the junior partners in any future coalition.The Liberal Democrats claim to be equally supportive of Israel and the Palestinians although there seems to be a split between the pro-Israel leadership and the pro-Palestinian grassroots. UKIP is a right wing party that stands with Israel.

Will the next UK government support Palestine?

News of Palestine

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I thought the boat was my only chance

About a year ago, I planned to pay a smuggler to get on a boat to Europe.A lot of people in Europe think that we refugees don’t know that we can die at sea, that we have not seen the horrific pictures of refugees’ dead bod-ies, that we don’t know that tens of thousands of people have been buried on Europe’s shores.But I do watch the news every day, and I had seen how more than 500 people had died a few kilometres from the Italian island Lampedusa in October 2013. I knew the statistics, I knew the risks. I had even lost friends of mine, who are some of the “refugees without a face and without a name”, as the

media refers to them. But, in the same way as many Syrian refugees who, together with Eritreans, made up about half of the refugees crossing over to Europe by boat in 2014, I thought this was my only chance.I am a Syrian refugee from the Palestinian al-Yarmouk camp in Damascus. When I was small, my grandmother used to tell us how she felt when she was forced to flee to Syria from her home in Palestine in 1948, and how she hoped that her children and grandchildren would never have to experience what it feels like to be a refugee. But we did. I was born a Palestinian refugee, and almost three years ago I became a refugee once more, when my family and I had to flee the Syrian war to Lebanon.Our home, the Palestinian camp, had been under the hard-est siege one can possibly imagine. I am still in touch with family and friends who could not leave Yarmouk camp. In a cruel absurdity, they sometimes have internet, but they don’t have food. Many of them have starved to death or died be-cause they do not have access to medication or treatment.Many of the refugees left in Yarmouk have starved to death or died because they do not have access to medication

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My friends and family have al-ways known me as a very opti-mistic person. I love life, I love people. I had worked in Cyprus, and even when I could not re-turn home to my beloved Syria because the war had already started, giving up was the last thing I had in mind. In Leba-non, I started supporting my fellow Syrians and Palestinian-Syrians. They needed me, and their smiles and appreciation kept me going. I woke up ev-ery morning to volunteer with DPNA (Development for People and Nature Association), a part-ner organisation of CARE.But about a year ago, I could not bear the situation any more. I felt the refugees’ suffering – that of the Syrians, the Palestin-ians, the Syrian-Palestinians. I felt their misery, their destroyed hopes and dreams. And I also thought about my own life, my future. I had lost hope. Before the war in Syria started, I had my whole life ahead of me. But then, at 27, my life as it was suddenly took a break. I could not work legally in my profes-sion as an engineer any more. I had studied, I had money, a good job. Suddenly, I stood there with nothing at all. Being a refugee also means losing your future, your dreams. I did not get on the boat to go to Europe. After long discussions with my family and friends, I am still in Lebanon, and I am still supporting my fellow refugees.I am leading a project to train other volunteers now. Refu-gees are in need of humanitar-

ian support. The refugees I work with have been en-gineers like me; they were doctors, teachers, farmers and workers. We had normal lives, and, as much as we refugees appreciate Europe for what it is, it’s not “heaven on earth” for us.Like me, most refugees dream about going back home, going back to Syria. But if peace is not restored and neighbouring countries continue to struggle with the burden of hosting 4 million Syrian refugees, Europe for some seems to be the only option to live a life in dignity. We humans are all quite similar: we love our friends, our families, our home. We do not give this up easily. But bombs and bullets keep us away from the place we love most.I follow the news, I follow the discussions. I hear politi-cians talk about the necessity for the EU to resume its rescue missions; about issuing asylum to Syrians and other refugees before they have to travel on unsafe waters.I am truly touched that so many people around the world cry out about our suffering, that people around the world care. They understand that I have not cho-sen to be born as a Palestinian Syrian, as you have not chosen to be born as a European. I do not wish my situation on anyone.But I would hope that we could make this time in his-tory a time of change. Europeans have gone through similar pain, just a few generations ago. Europeans too have been refugees ; they were the reason why grand international law projects like the Universal Dec-laration of Human Rights and the 1951 refugee con-vention were drafted in the first place. I really hope that people in Europe can remind themselves of the bond of humanity that connects us all and that remains the strongest medicine against desperation and power-lessness.But more than anything I hope that European and other leaders around the world resume their efforts to push for peace talks. In the end, most refugees hope that they can cease to be called refugees, that their countries will restore peace and that they can return to the places they love most: their homes.• Ali Sandeed is a Syrian-Palestinian refugee liv-ing in Lebanon. He works with CARE’s partner organ-isation, Development for People and Nature Associa-tion, to support fellow refugees

- The Guardian

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US court rejects lawsuit against charityfunding of settlements

The US Court of Appeals in New York has rejected an appeal from a group of 13 Palestin-ians seeking damages for alleged “terrorist attacks” by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reported Friday.The complaint was filed against US-based charities that financially support settlements, al-leging that such support leads to terrorist activity and is in violation of US anti-terrorism laws, reportedIsraeli news source Jewish Telegraphic Agency.The USA Patriot Act enacted in October 2001 prohibits citizens from “knowingly providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.”Plaintiffs in the case argued that charities were financially supporting terrorist activity by funding settlers who have carried out acts of violence against Palestinians and their land, and desecrated houses of prayer.Charities accused in the case included Christian Friends of IsraeliCommunities, the Hebron Fund, Central Fund of Israel, One Israel Fundand American Friends of Ateret Cohanim.After District Judge Jesse Furman initially rejected the case last year, the appeal was re-jected again this week by a panel of appellate judges.“American federal judges recognize the difference between the financing of murder and violence… and legitimate bona fide financial support of the daily needs of peaceful Israeli settlements over the Green Line,” Israeli Haaretz quoted attorney Nathan Lewin, who repre-sented the charities in the trials.

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Privately funded violenceThe dismissal of the case is a setback for those fighting to shed light on private US funding that is currently helping to sustain illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, as well as the violence that results from it.While the U.S. government has condemned ongoing settlement expansion, its citi-zens have been able to freely donate millions to the illegal enclaves.The New York Times identified at least 40 American groups in 2010 that had col-lected over $200 million in tax-deductible gifts for Jewish settlement in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank over the last decade.Israeli watchdog Americans for Peace Now have long fought against tax-exempt donations to settlements.Among other criticisms, the groups point out that IRS regulations exempting charities from tax deduction define a charitable organization as one that “includes relief of the poor and distressed or of theunderprivileged; advancement of religion; advancement of education or science; erection or maintenance of public buildings,monuments, or works; lessening of the burdens of government; promotion of social welfare.”Such a definition does not extend to charities funneling funds to the Jewish-only settlements of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the group argues, and such donations should not be tax-exempt.The court ruling on the 13 Palestinians’ appeal is only the latest example of a num-ber of cases in which Israeli settlers have gained legal backing from the US govern-ment for illegal practices.Attacks carried out with impunityHuman rights groups in Israel and the Palestinian Territories have long fought for ef-fective Israeli law enforcement against the type of violent acts committed by Israeli settlers that the 13 Palestinians were drawing attention to.Such acts are often termed “price-tag attacks,” and are carried out to retaliate per-ceived pressure from both Israeli and foreign governments against settlements, most often with Palestinian civilians as their victims.They are nearly always carried out with impunity from the law.Followingprice-tag attacks on Vatican-owned offices in occupied East Jerusalem in May 2014, Israeli Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said the govern-ment planned to begin using administrative detention against suspected extremists.Although Israeli police had made scores of arrests before that time, there had been few successful prosecutions for price-tag attacks and the government was facing mounting pressure to authorize the Shin Bet internal security agency to step in.The US State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism discussed price-tag at-tacks for the first time in 2013, citing UN figures of some “399 attacks by extremist Israeli settlers that resulted in Palestinian injuries or property damage.”The report said such attacks were “largely unprosecuted.”

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Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian fishermen and farmers in the Gaza Strip Sunday morning, with no injuries reported.Witnesses reported that Israeli naval forces fired on fishing boats four miles off the coast, re-sulting in damage to the boats that forced the fisherman to return to land.Meanwhile, Israeli border forces fired smoke bombs at farmers’ land east of Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on Palestinian fisherman and farmers since the ceasefire agreement signed Aug. 26, 2014 that ended a devastating 50-day war between Is-rael and Hamas.In March alone, there were a total of 38 incidents of shootings, incursions into the Strip, and arrests, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR).That was up from 26 incidents through February, and left seven Palestinians injured and one dead.The attacks come despite Israeli promises at the end of the ceasefire to ease restrictions on Palestinian access to both the sea and the border region near the “security buffer zone.”Israel promised to expand the Palestinian fishing zone to six nautical miles, falling far short of the 20 nautical miles initially agreed under the Oslo Accord.According to PCHR, the “buffer zone,” which Palestinians are prohibited from entering, “is il-legal under both Israeli and international law.”The group said: “The precise area designated by Israel as a ‘buffer zone’ is not clear and this Israeli policy is typically enforced with live fire.”

Israeli forces open fire on fishermen, farmers in Gaza

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Hamas supporters decryPA arrest of activist

Supporters of Hamas movement on Sunday staged a rally in Gaza City to protest the arrest of a student mem-ber of the group by the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) security forces in the West Bank.“Fatah is trying to uproot Hamas po-litically in the West Bank,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said dur-ing the Sunday rally.Abu Zuhri also accused Fatah of “complicity” in an eight-year Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.On Saturday, Hamas said that the PA’s security forces detained Gehad Selim, a student activist who repre-sents the group’s bloc in the West Bank’s Birzeit University.Selim’s arrest came three days after

his bloc won the university’s student union elec-tions for the first time since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.The student bloc has condemned Selim’s “polit-ically-motivated” arrest, describing the incident as the “latest in the West Bank’s security forces’ repressive practices.”Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation deal al-most one year ago aimed at ending seven years of divisions.That division had led to two rival seats of Pal-estinian government – one in Gaza and one in Ramallah– after Hamas routed pro-Fatah forces in 2007 and took control of the Gaza Strip.The Ramallah-based unity government, howev-er, has yet to assume full political responsibility for the blockaded Gaza Strip amid an ongoing war of words between the rival factions.

World Bulletin

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Israel’s new method to eradicate Palestine

Palestinian farmers in the Gaza Strip have accused Israel of using “incendiary pesticides” to destroy their farmland near the border with Israel.“Israeli planes have sprayed our fields with mysterious chemicals and pesticides,” farmer Essam Abu Muhareb, 42, who owns farmland in the Gaza Strip’s town of Deir al-Balah near the border, told on Tues-day.“The following day we found that a large part of our maize crop had been damaged,” he asserted.Farmer Mohamed Abu Gabal gave a similar account, saying his maize crops had been damaged after being sprayed by Israeli pesticides.“I have incurred $15,000 in losses as a result,” he told.According to Gaza Agriculture Ministry official Wael Thabet, nearly 91 dunams of farmland have been damaged by Israeli pesticides. (One dunam is roughly equivalent to a quarter acre.)“The Israeli pesticides have damaged seeds and trees,” he said, going on to warn that Palestinian farmers would incur heavy losses due to the Israeli chemical spraying.Thabet said his ministry had urged both the Red Cross and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to pressure the Israeli authorities for information about the pesticides.

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Zionist settler stabs Palestinian worker

Israeli sources said that an extrem-ist Israeli have stabbed a Palestinian worker after he shouted “Death to Ar-abs,” then fled the scene.The victim, who works for the Her-zliya Municipality, said the settler had approached him shouting “death to Arabs” in Hebrew – with a Russian accent – before stabbing him in the shoulder, according to police spokes-person Luba Samri.The Arab man was injured slightly and taken to hospital for treatment, she added, noting that police were current-ly investigating the incident. The as-sailant was arrested a short time after.

World Bulletin

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Al-Aqsa Sheikh: Situation in the city is very dangerous

Grand Sheikh of Al-Aqsa Mosque Ekrema Sabri yesterday warned that the situation in Jeru-salem is “very dangerous” because of the continuous settler desecration of Al-Aqsa.Speaking to the Palestinian newspaper Al-Resalah, Sabri said that the situation in the mosque has been intensified by the “provocative” acts being carried out almost on a daily basis in the third most holy site for Muslims.He considered what is going on inside and around the mosque an “unacceptable aggression against Islam’s holy site and a flagrant violation carried out before the Arab, Islamic and inter-national communities, which do nothing to curb it.”Sabri said that these repeated aggressions aim to create a new Israeli “status quo and reality” in the holy city, exploiting the state of instability.The Sheikh, who delivers most of the Friday sermons in the mosque, called for Palestinian worshipers to remain inside the mosque all day in order to face the repeated settler aggres-sion –supported by the Israeli government – against the mosque.Israeli Jewish settlers storm the mosque almost daily. Extremist Jewish NGOs, rabbis and sometimes state officials have repeatedly called on settlers to storm the mosque and urged security officials to protect them.Early this week, Jewish rabbis and NGOs called on settlers to storm the most yesterday and today under the banner: “The Temple Mount is in our hands.” Israelis and Jews refer to Al-Aqsa Mosque as “The Temple Mount”.Meanwhile, Jewish NGOs called for hundreds of settlers to storm the mosque and raise the Israeli flag today to mark Israeli Independence Day.

23 Apr 2015 MEMO

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Palestinian resistance monitors Israeli infiltration attempt

Special Israeli forces tried on Tuesday night to infiltrate the eastern out-skirts of the province of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, security sources said.The sources told a Safa agency correspondent that the special forces that were monitored by the Palestinian resistance movements included 20 sol-diers on foot near the military location of Sofa, northeast of Rafah, at mid-night.The sources pointed out that “the resistance, in turn, had to set up many ambushes and be on alert to deal with them, but the force withdrew after it penetrated almost 50 metres into Gaza because it apparently felt that it was being monitored.”According to the same sources, the operation was accompanied by inten-sive and low-flying Israeli surveillance aircrafts which extended to cover the majority of the province’s areas, and continued until noon yesterday.This is not the first time Israel has entered the Gaza Strip using ground troops in direct violation of the Egypt-backed ceasefire agreement signed between Palestinian factions and Israel last summer, which brought the 51-day Israeli assault on Gaza to an end.

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Unity government won’t work without solving employee issue, insists Hamas

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement has insisted that the unity government will not work properly until and unless the issue of employees’ pay and status has been resolved, Quds Press reports. Hamas is demanding that the Prime Minister of the national consensus government, Rami Hamdallah should take his responsibilities seriously and resolve the matter of unpaid salaries and the integration of staff employed while the movement was the de facto elected government in the Gaza Strip.In a written statement, Hamas media spokesman Taher Al-Nunu said that the prime minister must show that he stands up equally for all of the Palestinian people. “The work of the consensus gov-ernment will not be efficient unless the staff issue is resolved radically and definitively,” he said.On Monday, a delegation of ministers from the government in Ramallah cut short their visit to the Gaza Strip. Although they were supposed to be in the besieged territory for 10 days to work on the staff issue, the ministers left after just 24 hours.Since it came to power in early June last year, the national consensus government has neither paid the wages of former Gaza government employees, nor integrated them into the Palestinian Authority based in the occupied West Bank.

22 April 2015 MEMO

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Hamas to Netanyahu: ‹Count your soldiers, stop misleading missing soldiers› families›

A senior Hamas official yesterday called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to count his soldiers and stop misleading the families of the missing ones, Safa news agency reported.In a statement broadcast by Al-Aqsa TV, Hamas said: “Netanyahu should closely check his soldiers. He should stop misleading the fam-ilies of missing soldiers.”Previously, the head of Hamas’s Political Bureau Khalid Meshaal said that his movement would nev-er hold any deal or swap with the Israeli occupation unless it com-pletely commits to previous pledg-es.In response to a question regarding whether Israel is forcing Hamas to give information about the soldiers

its military wing captured during last year’s Israeli war on the Strip, Meshaal said: “Your brothers are experts at ne-gotiating. Do not be worried about the details.”He added that his movement would double efforts to force the occupation to liberate the prisoners. “Hamas prioritises the issue of the Palestinian prisoners,” he said.Hamas member Khalil Al-Hayya added: “We will not give any information on the matter [of the captured soldiers]... Al-Qassam Brigades have the ability to free all of the pris-oners.”On Palestinian Prisoner Day last week, Al-Qassam spokes-man Abu-Obaida pledged to liberate all Palestinian prison-ers held in Israeli jails.During last summer’s Israeli offensive on Gaza, Hamas announced it captured an Israeli soldier in central Gaza, however Israel said another was missing in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.Netanyahu has since pledged to get the soldiers’ back.

21 April 2015 MEMO

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Palestine›s youngest political prisoner welcomed back to Ramallah

Amongst a host of events to mark Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, families of political prisoners gath-ered outside the Ramallah offices of the International Red Cross to welcome 15 year old Khaled al-Sheikh back from prison.Khaled al-Sheikh was the youngest Palestinian locked up in the Israeli prison system following his arrest from his family home in the village of Anan on December 25th 2014. Al-Sheikh was just 14 years old when he was arrested and was sentenced in an Israeli military court to 4 months impris-onment and a 2,000 shekel fine on the charge of throwing stones.Following al-Sheikh’s arrest, Palestinian activists launched a campaign for his release amidst growing concerns from his family about his health. Al-Sheikh suffers from anaemia and his family say he received no medical attention whilst being held by Israel.Last week, on April 16th, Khaled al-Sheikh was finally released after completing his sentence. More than 6,000 Palestinians remain locked up in Israeli prisons today including approximately 160 children. 22 April 2015 MEMO

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Rafah crossing closed for 100 days now

Gaza Interior Ministry said Saturday, this has been the longest closure of the crossing since 2009The Rafah crossing on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has been closed for 100 days now, the Gaza Interior Ministry said Saturday.It added that this has been the longest closure of the crossing since 2009, calling on Egyptian authorities to reopen the border point to alleviate the suffering of the residents of the Gaza Strip.Around 60,000 Gaza residents have registered to get out of the blockaded territory from the crossing for medical and other needs since July of 2013, according to Gaza’s border crossings authority.Since October of last year, Egyptian authorities have been working to create a buffer zone in the border area between Sinai and the Gaza Strip.

World Bulletin

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Qassam Brigades, the Hope of the Palestinian People!By Muslim ImranEver since Palestine fell for foreign occupation, Palestin-ians took every effort to liberate their lands by all means possi-ble. Among these efforts were political and diplomatic efforts as well as civil resistance and armed struggle. Usually diplo-matic efforts were not fruitful due to the greedy and stubborn nature of the occupying authori-ties. Civil resistance and armed struggle were usually more ef-fective in delivering results.

This form of hard struggle was manifested throughout the 20th century in several uprisings and revolutions such as Alburaq Revolution in 1929, the Mass Strike of 1936, the Palestinian Revolution in the 1960s, the First Intifada of 1987, the Sec-ond Intifada of 2000, the three Gaza Wars in 2008/9, 2012 and 2014, and the Intifada of Jerusalem in 2014.

Hamas, (Hamas is acronym for Harakat al-Muqawamah Alislamiah, which means The Islamic Resistance Movement) which was established on 14-12-1987, has emerged as the latest manifestation of the Pal-estinian will to struggle for free-dom. The Movement made it clear since day one that Pales-tinians have the right to use any kind of resistance to free their

Articles & Analyses

land. Hamas favored armed struggle and therefore placed it on top of its agenda and formed its own military wing.

Izzudin Al Qassam BrigadesThe Qassam Brigades was founded in 1992 to replace two other Hamas military groups; Abdullah Azzam Brigades and Almujahidun Alfilistiniyun (Palestinian Mujahidin) group. Among the key Hamas activ-ists involved in the founding of

Qassam Brigades in the West Bank and Gaza were martyrs Imad Aqel, Salah Shehadah, Yahya Ayyash, and current Qa-ssam Brigades Commander-in-Chief Mohammad Deif.

The Brigades was established as an armed wing for Hamas and took the responsibility of carrying out military operations against the Israeli occupation of Palestine.Over the years, Qassam’s re-

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sistance activities underwent a long process of development. The Brigades started as a small group of military cells scattered all over Palestine. Each group included few Palestinian fight-ers (usually 4-5) who used sim-ple arms, such as knives and pistols, to attack Israeli soldiers and military targets.

One of the most notable Qas-sam fighters of this early stage (early 1990s) was Imad Aqel who was killed in combat in 1993 at the age of 22. Aqel car-ried out several successful op-erations against Israeli soldiers using a single pistol.

By the mid-1990s Qassam in-troduced detonated cars and other kinds of explosives into the struggle against Israel. One of the most notable Qas-sam leaders in this stage (1994 and 1995) was martyr Yahya Ayyash who was a professional Engineer. Ayyash was so good in making explosives that he earned the name “The Engi-neer” which almost all Palestin-ians still identify him with.

In the late 1990s, Israel relied on the newly established Pal-estinian Authority (PA) to re-press Hamas and its armed wing the Qassam Brigades. Over the years, the PA carried out this task efficiently. Hun-dreds of Hamas and Qassam members were detained and interrogated. Dozens of them were killed in PA prisons due to harsh interrogation. This crack-down, however, failed to de-

stroy Qassam Brigades.

By the year 2000, the 2nd In-tifada broke out in the West Bank and Gaza. Qassam Bri-gades reflected the wish of the Palestinian people to escalate their struggle and advanced its tactics and capabilities.

One of the greatest achieve-ments was the introduction of the locally made Qassam rock-ets in 2001.

Qassam Brigades realized the need to introduce new effective means into their struggle and therefore tasked its engineers the responsibility of making small rockets and projectiles to hit Israeli targets. Of particu-lar importance here is Adnan Alghoul who helped advance these rockets before he was assassinated later (in 2002) by an Israeli airstrike.

As the second Intifada un-folded, Qassam Brigades af-filiates continued to diversify their tactics and advance their weapons. The Brigades also managed to recruit hundreds of young and energetic Pales-tinians to advance the struggle against Israel.

Throughout the years of the Second Intifada dozens of Qa-ssam leaders including some of its founding members, were killed by Israel. Salah Sheha-deh, a senior founding member was assassinated by an Israeli air force attack in 2002. The Is-

Qassam Brigades realized the need to introduce new

effective means into their struggle and therefore tasked its engineers the responsibility of

making small rockets and projectiles to hit

Israeli targets.

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raeli raid, which killed 17 others (mostly family members) along with Shehadah, used tons of explosives in its attack.

By mid-2005, armed resistance resulted in an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip making it the first Palestinian land to be liberated by the force of armed struggle.Over the following years, Qa-ssam Brigades managed to create an organized army of fighters that is estimated (by observers) to exceed 20,000 fighters.

Other resistance factions like Al-Quds Brigades and Naser Salahidin Brigades are also es-timated to have thousands of other fighters.

Since the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, Palestin-ians in Gaza continued to re-spond to the repeated Israeli attacks on them by firing rock-ets into Israeli settlements near Gaza.

The first real test of Qassam capabilities was the Israeli ag-gression on Gaza in 2008/9 in which the Israeli army failed to shake Hamas rule of the Strip.

In November 2012, the second Israeli War on Gaza proved that Qassam Brigades were well prepared. The war which was sparked by the Israeli assas-sination of Qassam Brigades

chief commander Ahmad Jabari did not last long mainly due to the political support Hamas re-ceived from Morsi’s Egypt.

Qassam Brigades revealed in this war its possession of the locally made M75 rockets (named after senior Hamas leader Dr. Ibrahim Maqadmah who was assassinated in 2004 by an Israeli air strike). The M75 rockets unprecedentedly hit hard in the heart of Tel Aviv city. Something that Israel had not encountered in decades.

Two years later, Israel exploit-ed the regional chaos (that followed the coup in Egypt in 2013) and started a new war on Gaza.

In this war, dubbed Al-Asf Al-Makul by Hamas, the Qassam Brigades surprised everyone by exhibiting some new ad-vanced capabilities. Among the weapons used by Qassam were some long range locally-made rockets like R160 rock-ets (named after late Hamas leader Dr. Abdul Aziz Rantisi who was assassinated by Isra-el in 2004) that hit Haifa in ad-dition to some other high-tech technologies like the Qassam-made Ababil drones.

Qassam Brigades also ex-celled in psychological warfare through an excellent use of Cy-ber warfare, Tunnel warfare, and Qassam frogmen.

By the end of the last war on Gaza Israel suffered hundreds of casualties especially of elite-unit soldiers from the Gi-vati and Golani Brigades.

This rapid development of the Qassam Brigades proves that if there is a will, there will be a way!

Although Qassam Brigades has scored some great military achievements in its struggle, the more important achieve-ment was its ability to produce and portray high moral stan-dards even during the tough-est times.

Qassam Brigades handled with care and professionalism the ex-Israeli captive soldier Gilad Shalit for five years and exchanged him for 1027 Pal-estinian prisoners. It also ex-hibited this high moral level in its targeting of military targets throughout the last war while Israel which has the most technologically sophisticated weapons killed civilians indis-criminately, and sometimes deliberately!

If the struggle of Qassam Bri-gades and other Palestinian resistance groups is to con-tinue, the free people of the world have to stand by it and protect it.

Muslim Imran is the director of the Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

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issue no 131

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