Abdul al-Aziz Rantissi
Yibna,
Palestine
(1947 - 2004)
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,
at that time under Egyptian rule), where their neighbors were the family
of Mohammed Dahlan.
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.
With the Egyptian border sealed, only route out of the Occupied
Palestinian Territories after 1967 was via the West Bank and the Abdullah
Bridge into Jordan. The Muslim Brotherhood increasingly came into contact
with, and under the influence of, Jordan instead of Egypt. They were
courted by King Hussein because they were a counterbalance to the PLO. The
Brotherhood used the money that flowed in from (primarily) Saudi Arabia
and now the Jordanian monarchy to build up its network of mosques,
cultural organisations and welfare services that were to provide a
lifeline to the impoverished Palestinians.
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. In the mid 1980's the al-Jihad al-Islami
(Palestinian Islamic Jihad) became active in a different direction. They
were opposed the Muslim Brotherhood's priorities, i.e. Islamization of
Palestinians before the national liberation struggle. They felt that the
Brotherhood was wasting its time fighting for control among Palestinian
factions, that the priority was the liberation struggle and that Islamists
should follow the example of the PLO's armed resistance, and even
coordinate with them.
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
˝ 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 clandestine visit to his family on 17 April 2004.
In a statement, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) called on
Saturday the international community to move immediately to protect the
Palestinian people and his leaders from the state terrorism practiced by
Israel in order to “blow a deadly strike to the Palestinian people’s
steadfastness and oblige it to surrender to the Israeli occupation,
settlements and arrogance."
The Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei' said that Rantisi's
assassination was a "direct result" of encouragement from the United
States.
"The Palestinian cabinet considers this terrorist Israeli campaign a
direct result of American encouragement and the complete bias of the
American administration towards the Israeli government," he said.
Dr. Sa’eb Erekat, Minister of Negotiations Affairs, condemned the killing
of the Hamas leader as "state terrorism".
The Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Nabil Sha’th, also attributed the
assassination of Rantisi to the forgiving American attitude toward Israel.
"Israel has been given a free hand [by the United States] to continue its
policy of destruction, of siege, of assassination," said lawmaker Hanan
Ashrawi.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned Israel's killing of Hamas leader
Abdel Aziz Al Rantisi on Saturday, saying the assassination could lead to
more violence in the Middle East.
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.
Meanwhile, symbolic funerals have been made for Dr. Al Rantisi throughout
the cities, towns and villages of the West Bank, protesting such a
horrendous crime, as leaders called to a three-day general strike, in
which all shops, universities, schools and institutions would close its
doors in mourning for the killing of Hamas leader.
Al Rantisi's car was pounded by an Israeli combat helicopter Saturday
night, wounding him very seriously and instantly killing his two
bodyguards. He was rushed to the local Al Shifa hospital, where he was
pronounced dead shortly afterwards.
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), named late at yesterday night
secretly its new leader in Gaza Strip , following the extra-judicial
execution of Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Rantisi by an Israeli combat helicopter.
A statement issued by Hamas,confirmed that the movement named a
replacement secretly after its Hamas' Damascus-based leader Khaled Mash’al
, had instructed that, in light of heightened Israeli escalation against
the movement’s operatives, the Gaza leadership to keep the identity of the
new appointee secret
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Added: May 2006