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The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (Arabic: حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين, Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn) known in the West as simply Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a small Palestinian militant organization.[2] The group has been labelled as a terrorist group by the United States,[3] the European Union,[4] the United Kingdom,[5] Japan,[6] Canada,[7] Australia[8] and Israel.
[edit] History and background
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad was created after some members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood believed that the organization did not commit enough effort to prevent Israel from occupying Palestinian territories. They felt as if they were not helping the Palestinian struggle.[9] In 1979, after being inspired by the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Fathi Shaqaqi and Abd al-Aziz Awda founded the group to fight for the sovereignty of Palestine and freedom from Israel.[10] Shaqaqi and Awda conducted operations out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. The PIJ continued its work in Gaza until it was exiled to Lebanon in 1987. While in Lebanon, the group was able to receive support from Hezbollah and ultimately developed a close relationship with the Lebanese organization. While in Lebanon, the PIJ adopted any methods within reach to achieve their goals. In 1989, the PIJ moved to Damascus where it remains to this day.
The organization's banner leads from a verse in the Qur'an "And those who do jihad for Us, we shall guide them to our paths. And God is with those who do good."[11] In effect, outlining the goals of the movement.
The group is currently based in the Syrian capital, Damascus, but there are also offices in Beirut, Tehran and Khartoum.Its financial backing is believed to come from Syria and Iran. The group is primarily in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Its main strongholds in the West Bank are the cities of Hebron and Jenin. The PIJ has approximately 50 members as well as recruiting chemical engineers and volunteers. Because of its small size, the PIJ is unable to run large scale meetings to raise funds so instead they rely heavily on other organizations such as Hezbollah for financial support.
Islamic Jihad has much in common with Hamas, since both fight against the existence of the State of Israel. The distinction between the groups comes in the order of these priorities. Both groups were formed as offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood and receive a large amount of funding from Saudi Arabia. With similar goals, Hamas and the PIJ have worked together on a number of projects.
On February 20, 2003, University of South Florida computer engineering professor Dr. Sami Al-Arian was arrested after being indicted on a terrorism-related charge. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft alleged at a press conference that Al-Arian was the North American head of the Palestinian "Islamic" Jihad. On December 6, 2006, Sami Al-Arian was sentenced to 57 months in prison, pursuant to a plea bargain. [12] In November 2006 he was found guilty of civil contempt for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury. He served 21 months in prison on that conviction.
"Islamic" Jihad is alleged to have used minors as members of this committee. On March 29, 2004, 16-year-old Tamer Khuweir in Rifidia, an Arab suburb of Nablus, was captured by Israeli forces as he planned to carry out revenge on Israel. His older brother claimed he was brainwashed and demanded the Palestinian Authority investigate the incident and arrest those responsible for it.[citation needed]
After Shaqaqi's death, Palestinian Islamic Jihad has been led since 1995 by fellow founder Ramadan Shallah.
[edit] Activities
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for many militant activities over the years. The organization is responsible for a number of attacks including more than 30 completed suicide bombings. “On December 22, 2001, despite a declaration by Hamas to halt suicide bombings inside Israel, in response to a crackdown on militants by Yassir Arafat, PIJ vowed to continue its terror campaign. PIJ’s representative in Lebanon, Abu Imad Al Rifai, told Reuters, ‘Our position is to continue. We have no other choice. We are not willing to compromise.’”[13] The Palestinian Islamic Jihad have claimed responsibility for the following attacks:
- August 1987: The PIJ claimed responsibility for a shooting that killed the commander of the Israeli military police in the Gaza Strip.[2]
- July 1989: Attack of Egged bus 405 along the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway, at least 14 people killed (including two Canadians and one American) and dozens more wounded. Though intended to be a suicide attack, the perpetrator survived.[14]
- February 4, 1990: A bus carrying Israeli tourists in Egypt was attacked. The attack left 11 people, including nine Israelis, dead and 17 others injured.[15]
- December 1993: Killed an Israeli reservist, David Mashrati, during a public bus shooting.
- April 1994: A car bomb aboard a public bus killed nine people and injured fifty.
- January 1995: Suicide bombing attack near Netanya killing eighteen soldiers and one civilian.[16]
- April 1995: Suicide bomb in Netzarim and Kfar-Darom. The first bomb killed eight people and injured over 30 on an Israel bus. The second attack was a car bomb that injured twelve people.
- March 1996: A Tel Aviv shopping mall is the site of another suicide bombing killing twenty and injuring seventy five.
- November 2000: A car bomb in Jerusalem at an outdoor market killed two people and injured ten.[17]
- June 2001: Suicide bomb attack at a Tel Aviv nightclub killing twenty-one people.[16]
- March 2002: A suicide bomber killed seven people and injured approximately thirty aboard a bus travelling from Tel Aviv to Nazareth.[17]
- June 2002: Eighteen people are killed and fifty injured in a suicide attack at the Meggido Junction.[16]
- July 2002: A double suicide attack killed five people and injured 40 in Tel Aviv.
- May 2003: Three people killed and eighty-three injured in a suicide bombing at a shopping mall in Afula.
- August 2003: A suicide bomber killed twenty-one people and injured over one hundred on a bus in Jerusalem.[17]
- October 2003: Suicide bomber killed twenty-two and injured sixty at a Haifa restaurant.
- October 2005: A bomb detonated in a Hedera market was responsible for killing five people.
- April 2006: Suicide bomb in Tel Aviv killed eleven.
- January 2007: Both the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the PIJ claim responsibility for a suicide bombing at an Eliat bakery that killed three.[16]
- On June 9, 2007, in a failed assault on an IDF position at the Kissufim crossing between Gaza and Israel in a possible attempt to kidnap IDF soldiers, four armed members of the al-Quds Brigades (the military wing of Islamic Jihad) and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (the military wing of Fatah) allegedly used a vehicle marked with "TV" and "PRESS" insignias penetrated the border fence and assaulted a guard tower in what Islamic Jihad and the army said was a failed attempt to capture an Israeli soldier.[19] IDF troops killed one militant, while the others escaped. The use of a vehicle that resembled a press vehicle evoked a sharp response from many journalists and news organizations. The Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, Sarah Leah Whitsonn, responded by saying, “Using a vehicle with press markings to carry out a military attack is a serious violation of the laws of war, and it also puts journalists at risk.”[20] The FPA responded by saying,
"Armored vehicles marked with TV are an invaluable protection for genuine journalists working in hostile environments. The FPA has long campaigned for the continued availability of armored vehicles for its members, despite official opposition in some quarters. The abuse of this recognized protection for the working journalist is a grave development and we condemn those that carried it out. Such an incident will reduce the protection offered by marked vehicles."[19]
During a press conference, an Islamic Jihad spokesperson Abu Ahmed denied that they had put press markings on the jeep used in the attack and said, "The Al-Quds Brigades used an armoured jeep resembling military armoured jeeps used by the Zionist intelligence services."[21]
- On March 26, 2009, two Islamic Jihad members were imprisoned for a conspiracy "to murder Israeli pilots and scientists using booby-trapped toy cars."[22]
Islamic Jihad has also deployed its own rocket, similar to the Qassam rocket used by Hamas, called the Al Quds rocket.
Islamic Jihad also control dozens of religious-based organizations in the Palestinian territores that are registered as NGOs and operate mosques, schools and medical facilities that offer free services.[23] Like other Islamic associations, these are heavily scrutinized by the Palestinian National Authority who have shut some of them down.[23]
[edit] Notable members
- Ramadan Shallah: founder, and current Secretary-General, lives in Damascus
- Fathi Shaqaqi: founder, assassinated by Israel
- Mahmoud Tawalbe: senior leader of Islamic Jihad In Jenin, killed during Operation Defensive Shield by an IDF Caterpillar D9
- Mahmoud Seader: leader in Hebron
- Hanadi Jaradat: female bomber, committed Maxim restaurant suicide bombing
- Tamer Khuweir: a 15-year-old suicide bomber[24]
- Mohammed Dadouh: senior commander in Gaza, assassinated by Israeli missile, May 21, 2006
- Mahmoud al-Majzoub: member of the Shura Council, killed by car bomb, May 26, 2006.
- Husam Jaradat: senior commander in Jenin, cousin of Hanadi Jaradat. Assassinated in the Jenin refugee quarters on August 30, 2006.[25]
- Ayman al-Fayed: senior commander of Gaza Strip, assassinated with most of his family in a blast in the Bureij refugee camp on February 16, 2008.[26]
- Ziad Abu-Tir: senior member of the military wing was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Khan Younis area on December 29, 2008.[27]
- Khaled Shalan: Senior commander killed by an Israeli missile strike on his car in Gaza March 4, 2009.[28]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Ben Gedalyahu, Ben (7 November 2011). "Iran Backs Islamic Jihad’s 8,000-Man Army in Gaza". Israel National News. Arutz Sheva. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/149498#.TrhgmnF4Vow. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
- ^ a b BBC Who are Islamic Jihad? 9 June 2003
- ^ US - Office of Counterterrorism
- ^ List of organisations recognized as terrorist groups
- ^ UK home office
- ^ MoFA Japan
- ^ Public safety Canada
- ^ Australian national security
- ^ Esposito, John, ed. (2003), "Islamic Jihad of Palestine", The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195125584, http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e1106
- ^ "Palestinian "Islamic" Jihad". http://www.cfr.org/publication/15984#8. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
- ^ Qur'an Soorah al-Ankaboot 29:69 وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا ۚ وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَمَعَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ(Arabic text)
- ^ St. Petersberg Times, April 23, 2006.
- ^ "Palestinian Islamic Jihad". http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/PIJ.html. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
- ^ "Palestinian Islamic Jihad". http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YaEHAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ljUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5436%2C971561. Retrieved 2009-06-18.
- ^ Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1990 Middle East Overview
- ^ a b c d "Palestinian Islamic Jihad". http://www.cfr.org/publication/15984#8. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
- ^ a b c "The Listing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)". http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/pjcaad/pij/report/chapter3.pdf. Retrieved 2009-03-08.
- ^ "Hebron ambush scene dubbed `Death Alley'". H. 17 November 2002. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/hebron-ambush-scene-dubbed-death-alley-1.28141. Retrieved 2011-09-17.
- ^ a b Press slams gunmen for using TV jeep | Jerusalem Post
- ^ Gaza: Armed Palestinian Groups Commit Grave Crimes (Human Rights Watch, 13-6-2007)
- ^ Journalists slam use of 'press vehicle' by Gaza militants
- ^ Stoil, Rebecca Anna. "Two Islamic Jihad conspirators jailed." Jerusalem Post. 26 March 2009. 27 March 2009.
- ^ a b Palestinian civil society: foreign donors and the power to promote and exclude. Benoît Challand. p. 67-69.
- ^ Brother slams Palestinian militants for luring teenager into suicide mission
- ^ SFT: Samtal med en terrorist
- ^ Blast kills senior Gaza militant BBC News
- ^ Senior Jihad man, 14 others die in IDF strikes, Ynet, 29-12-2008
- ^ IAF kills senior Islamic Jihad commander, JPost, 04-03-2009
[edit] External links
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Milestones (Qutb) · The System of Islam (Nabhani) · Islamic Government (Khomeini) · The Quranic Concept of War (Malik)
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