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. The British authorities regarded it a terrorist group.

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-Semitic 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.

According to Shai Lachman, between 1921 and 1935 al-Qassam often cooperated with Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Mohammad Amin al-Husayni:

During the (nineteen) twenties, both were on good terms, their understanding probably based on identity of views and mutual esteem. It was then that al-Qassam was appointed imam of the al-Istiqlal mosque and Sharia register - appointments which required the Mufti's prior consent and approval and were financed by the awqaf administration. The cooperation may well have increased as a result of the 1929 riots. One source claims that al-Qassam's men took an active part in the bloody riots... Later towards the mid-1930s, there was a falling out between the two men. The reason for this is unknown, but it seems to have been closely related to al-Qassam's independent activity... As long as the terrorist activity was directed only at Jewish targets, the Mufti saw nothing wrong with this. On the contrary, it fell in line with his own anti-Jewish policy; he secretly encouraged it and apparently extended financial aid to al-Qassam and his organization.^[3]

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]

References

See also

• Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni
• Jihad

External links

• The Legacy of Jihad in Palestine By Andrew G. Bostom