Al-Qassam Remembered ﺗﻴﺪ ﺳﻮﻳﺪﻧﺒﺮﺝ /Author(S): Ted Swedenburg Source: Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, No

ﻓﻲ ﺫﻛﺮﻯ ﺍﻟﻘﺴﺎﻡ /Al-Qassam Remembered ﺗﻴﺪ ﺳﻮﻳﺪﻧﺒﺮﺝ /Author(s): Ted Swedenburg Source: Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, No. 7, The Third World: Literature and Spring, 1987), pp. 7+9-24) ﺍﻟﻌﺎﻟﻢ ﺍﻟﺜﺎﻟﺚ: ﺍﻷﺩﺐ ﻭﺍﻟﻮﻋﻲ /Consciosness Published by: Department of English and Comparative Literature, American University in Cairo and American University in Cairo Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/521853 Accessed: 11/08/2009 21:08 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. 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Their ex- ample inspired others to step up the struggle against the British mandate- -the sponsor of the Zionist colqnization movement in Palestine. Within a few months, the battle at Ya'bad forest had helped ignite the 1936-39 revolt--the greatest anti-colonial rebellion in the Arab East between the world wars. Shaykh al-Qassam rapidly became a popular hero the subject of legends and stories. His likeness was hung in Arab public build- ings and carried at demonstrations; his tomb--iike that of a modern-day saint--became a site of pilgrimage. Several of his surviving followers, known as Qassamites, achieved high positions of leadership in the armed revolt. And in the course of the rebellion, Qassam was constantly invoked as an exemplary symbol of struggle. But while Palestinians agreed on Qassam's national significance, they differed on how to interpret him. Qassam's meaning, as a symbol of struggle and as a guide for political action was in no way fixed; instead it was the subject of controversy within the national movement. The two separate public meetings held in Haifa on January 5, 1936, to com- memorate Qassam's arba'in(40 days after his death) illustrate this di- vision. One gathering, organized by the Young Men's Congress (Mu'tamaral-Shabab) and supported by the political parties which represented the interests of the traditional Palestinian leadership, was at- tended by 500 persons who listened to the "moderate speeches" of political notables. The other, organized by the Young Men's Muslim Association and supported by the radical nationalist Istiqlal Party, was 9 attendedby 1000 personsof the "lower classes." Middle-classradicals deliveredspeeches which, British intelligence sources noted, were "strong in their tone.''l This split betweenthose who evokedQassam's memory in "moderate"and in "strong" tones, was a significantdynamic in the revolt that broke out a few months later.2 The revitalizationof the Palestiniannational liberation movement in the late 1960s also involved a resuscitation of Qassam's memory. Qassam is hailed as the originatorof armed resistanceto Zionism and imperialism,and as the forerunnerto the contemporaryfedayeen. And just as Britishauthorities once designatedQassam an "outlaw," Israe- li authoritiesdo theirbest to discredithis memory.But whilePalestinian nationalistsagree on his significance,the variousPalestinian political cur- rents within the movementassess it in different ways. As in the past, Qassam is not an historicalsymbol svho carriesa unified messagebut is a pointat whicha numberof interpretationscollide. The "open"historical status of Qassamis furtherenhanced by the absenceof a Palestini- an state and the "historicalapparatuses" which could incorporatehim into a coherentnational historical narrative. Moreover, Qassam himself refashionedIslamic traditions for use in the struggleagainst Zionism and Britishimperialism in the 1930s.His own practicethereby authorizes rein- terpretationsof traditionsof the past for use in the present. All these factors make Shaykhal-Qassam a figure particularlyavail- able for a varietyof interpretationsand symbolicuses. The recentoper- ation in whicha bombwas placedon a TWA flightand four U.S. citizens killed was carriedout by a group named after Shaykh 'Izz al-Din al- Qassam.3Still invokedto authorizeterrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, socialism, or nationalism,Qassam remainsa powerful historicalsymbol. This articleexamines the importanceof memoriesof Qassam to- day for Palestiniansliving under Israelirule. Historiographyof the liberationmovement I will begin by discussingthe varyinginterpretations of Qassam'ssig- nificancein Palestiniannational historiography produced in the context of the nationalliberation struggle in the diaspora.For the sake of argu- ment I have schematicallydistinguished various positions on Qassam which, in any particularhistorical work, might be combined. 1. Qassam as a Palestinian nationalist. This representsthe mainstream PLO position. In this view his primaryimportance is as the initiatorof armed struggleagainst Zionism and imperialism--aforerunner of the present-dayfedayeen. Qassam is taken to embody key symbols of the Palestinianmovement, such as sacrifice,martyrdom, struggle, and nationalism. Regardinghim as a symbol of unified national struggle,this tendencysets out his biographyin vague but hagiographicand heroic 10 terms.The aim is to reconciledifferences, to smootheover internalstrug- gles. Any hint of the split natureof Qassam's figureis coveredover as much as possible. 2. Qassam as Che Guevara. This interpretationwas common in left- wing Palestinian circles in the late sixties and early seventies. Here Qassam is representedas the organizerof "cells" among the workers and lumpenproletariatof Haifa and the peasantsof the Haifa, Jenin, and Nablus districtsand the lower Galilee. In November1935 he led a groupof followersinto the hills to starta "foco" and to raisethe peasan- try in revolt. 3. Qassam as a proto-socialist. This reading stresses that Qassam recruitedhis followers almost exclusively from among workers and peasants.It also assertsthat he associatedwith the lower classersto the exclusionof the middleand upperclasses because he felt the lattercould not be revolutionary.Occasionally it claims, more extravagantly,that he wanted to establish a socialist state in Palestine. 4. Qassam as a pan-Arab nationalist. As evidence, this-tendency recalls that Qassam was born in the town of Jabla, near Lataqia in present-daySyria, and that he led a guerillaband which fought against the Frenchoccupation of Syriafrom 1918-21.Sentenced to deathin ab- sentiaby the Frenchmandate authorities, he wentinto exile in Haifa and carriedon the strugglefor the liberationof the Arabnation in Palestine. It also claims that in Haifa he belongedto the Istiqlal party, a radical middle-classpan-Arab grouping. 5. Qassam as a Muslim mujahid. This interpretationemphasizes Qassam's descent from religious families on both his father's and mother'sside, his educationat al-AzharIslamic university in Cairo(where he may have studiedwith the famousIslamic reformer Muhammad 'Ab- duh),his workas a mosquepreacher in Jablaand in Haifa, and his leadership role in the Haifa Young Men's MuslimAssociation. He preached political strugglewhich took the form of a strictly Islamicjihad, and readthe Qur'an and the Istamictradition so as to give primacyto jihad over all else. This view generallyincorporates or subsumesQassam's (usually)acknowledged nationalism within the broadercategory of Islam. Qassam in Israeli history EdwardSaid's observationthat "Zionism came fully into its own by actively destroying as many Arab traces as it could"4 accurately describeshow the Israeli "historicalapparatuses", including scholarly writing,function to efface and to marginalizePalestinian history.

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