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Sheikh
Yassin…Symbol Of Occupation Resistance
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A file photo of Sheikh Yassin and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (AFP)ý
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By
Maha Abdul Hadi, IOL Correspondent
OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, March 22 (IslamOnline.net) - Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the founder
and spiritual leader of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, was born
in the village of Al-Joura south of the Gaza Strip in 1938.
His
family was one of the numerous Palestinian families expelled from their
homes in what is today Israel during the first Israeli-Arab war in 1948.
He
moved to the Gaza Strip with his family after their village was
destroyed.
Yassin
taught Arabic and Islamic education and was a prominent preacher in Gaza
mosques.
He
was confined to a wheelchair due to a childhood injury at the age of 12
that left him paralyzed to the day of his
assassination.
After
completing secondary school, Yassin left for Cairo where he spent a year
studying at Ein Shams University.
A
lack of money forced him to cut short his studies and return home, but
his year in Cairo was decisive since it was there that he became
involved with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Sheikh
Yassin was arrested in 1983 and sentenced to 13 years in prison by an
Israeli military court on charges of weapons possession, forming an
underground militant organization and seeking the destruction of Israel.
He
was released in 1985 as part of a prisoner swap between the Israelis and
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
In
1987 and in collaboration with other Islamic activists, Sheikh Yassin
founded the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
He
was at the time the Gaza-based leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Sheikh
Yassin was rearrested by the Israeli occupation authorities in 1989
along with hundreds of his followers.
He
was sentenced to life in prison for his role in founding Hamas and
inciting the killing of Israeli soldiers.
Father
to 11 children, Yassin was finally released in 1997 in a deal between
Jordan and Israel in exchange for Israeli assassins arrested in Jordan.
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A rare picture of Sheikh Yassin inside an Israeli courtroom ý
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During
his years in Israeli jails, white-bearded Yassin lost vision in his
right eye and had very little vision in the left one.
He
also suffered from a number of chronic respiratory diseases, muscular
deterioration and hearing loss incurred while in Israeli detention.
Yassin's
emblematic image is ubiquitous throughout the Gaza Strip, and adorns
Israeli prison cells of many Palestinians.
He
frequently said Hamas was willing to stop its operations if Israel
ended the occupation of Palestinian territories and stopped killing
Palestinian women, children and innocent civilians.
Yassin
played a key role in the recent years at the Palestinian political
landscape.
He
helped hold on the fires of Hamas activists and fighters and strike the
right balance between the resistance factions and the Palestinian
Authority.
On
September 6, an Israeli F-16 fighter jet fired several missiles at a
three-story building at Al-Rimal downtown neighborhood in Gaza City
where Sheikh Yassin was but he survived
with just a small wound to his hand.
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