Israel's
Islamic movement & Hamas
YEDIOT AHARONOT 9/17/99: "Tonight, after the Friday evening
prayer, some 50,000 Muslims will gather in the large soccer
stadium of Umm-al-Fahm for a rally of sympathy with Jerusalem,
held under the slogan "The Al-Aqsa Mosque Is In Danger."
Shaykh Ra'id Salah, Umm-al-Fahm mayor and head of the Israeli
Arab's Islamic Movement, will be the main speaker. Representatives
of the Islamic Movements of South Africa, Britain, and Italy
will speak about the Jews' intentions to demolish the mosques
and call on the masses to bolster their faith in order to
protect the holy Muslim sites.
"Islam Is The Solution" reads the giant banner hung at the
stadium next to a huge model of the Dome of the Rock, placed
in the center of the court. If you did not know better, you
could not have guessed that this is an Umm-al-Fahm rally,
and not one staged in Hebron or Gaza.
Shaykh Salah does not miss an opportunity to address rallies
and conventions. Last year, for example, he addressed a Ramadan
rally in the community center of the village of Dabburiya.
He felt it is important to appear there because his movement
has but a few strongholds in Dabburiya -- only one of four
mosques and one kindergarten, and the movement is not represented
on the local council. A year after that rally, three terrorist
members of the Islamic Movement came out of Dabburiya to get
killed in explosions in Tiberias and Haifa.
Today's Umm-al-Fahm rally, just like the one held in Dabburiya,
is one of the means of the "da'wa" -- preaching and awakening
the Israeli Arabs to coming back to the roots of Islam. The
call to adopt the religion of Muhammad and its rites as a
way of life is accompanied by incitement against the state
of the Jews, Zionism, the peace agreements 'Arafat signed,
the United States, and Western culture in general.
The Islamic Movement's illegal TV station, operating out
of Umm-al-Fahm, is dripping the poisonous messages. The same
happens during the movement's special programs broadcast on
six other illegal TV stations operating in the Arab sector.
The movement's official organ, Sawt Al-Haqq Wa al-Huriyyah
(The Voice of Justice and Liberty) and its weekly Al-Mithaq
(The Covenant) take part in the incitement, using expressions
such as "the cancer of Zionism" and "the venom of the racist
snake." Such expressions are quite frequent there, as they
are in books and tapes disseminated by the movement in rallies,
conventions, and mainly in sermons in the mosques.
Defense establishment sources say that this incitement has
taken hatred for Israel to its extreme forms. This is the
soil from which the terrorists of the Dabburiya cell and the
Mashhad killer grew from. In the Islamic Movement, they call
such acts Jihad -- a holy war.
The bodies dealing with Israeli Arabs -- the Shin Bet, the
Israel Police, and the prime minister's adviser on Arab affairs
-- have drawers full of plans for curbing the Islamic Movement's
incitement: closing the movement's organs; closing the illegal
TV station; banning the movement leaders from traveling abroad;
restricting their trips to the West Bank; banning Hamas [Islamic
Resistance Movement] preachers from speaking at Israeli mosques;
banning rallies and conferences; supervising money transfers;
setting up a police station in Umm-al-Fahm, the only Israeli
city without a police station because the mayor does not want
an Israeli flag hoisted in his town.
"The politicians are hiding their heads in the sand. They
are aware of the problem, but would not address it. They are
familiar with the recommendations," defense establishment
sources said last week in reaction to Public Security Minister
Shlomo Ben-'Ami's request to be presented with operative suggestions
of handling the Islamic Movement's incitement. "The recommendations
have been made, they just have to be implemented. We need
a clear and public political instruction, not one that is
given in secret."
The Islamic Movement of the Green Line Arabs is a unique
version of the international Muslim Brotherhood Movement,
whose vision is a return to the roots of Islam, applying the
Muslim law to the lives of individuals and the society in
general, and establishing an Islamic state throughout the
Middle East. The means to this end, as determined by the movement's
founder Hasan al-Banna in 1928, are reaching out to the peoples'
hearts through education and dissemination of religion, and
through Jihad and the use of violence.
Being a part of the international movement, the Israeli
movement is subject to the regional Muslim Brotherhood leadership,
whose base is in Jordan. Instructions and orders are received
from there and the local, international, and inter-Arab activities
of the Israeli movement are coordinated there together with
the "general guide" - the Muslim Brotherhood leader.
Hamas is also subject to the Muslim Brotherhood leadership
in Jordan. Ideologically, it is similar to the Israeli Islamic
Movement but, unlike Hamas that declared upon its formation
in1987 that jihad is a means in the struggle against Israel,
the Israeli movement is still at the da'wa stage.
Its activities aim at expanding its influence, and forming
a Muslim religious and cultural society within the Green Line
boundaries, while working as a minority under a heathen regime,
and struggling against secularism and modernization in the
Arab society. Jihad is part of the Islamic Movement's teachings
in Israel, but the movement leaders urge their followers to
be patient. The time of jihad has not come yet, they say.
The Islamic Movement in Israel has extensive contacts with
Hamas. The ties are expressed through ideological identification,
and extending moral, political, and material assistance from
the Israeli movement members to their brethren in the West
Bank and Gaza. For example, Sawt Al-Haqq Wa Al-Huriyyah serves
as a Hamas mouthpiece; money collected in Israel by "assistance
committees" are given to Hamas members in Gaza and Hebron,
and include help given to the families of suicide terrorists.
The Islamic Movement in Israel was founded in 1983 by a
group headed by Shaykh 'Abdallah Nimr Darwish of Kafr Qasim
following the failure of the Usrat al-Jihad Movement (the
Jihad Family), a terror group that operated in the Triangle
in the late 1970's and early 1980's.
Farid Abu-Mokh of Baq'a al-Gharbiyyah, the group's founder,
believed that the stage of da'wa can be skipped over and that
the movement can go directly for jihad without preparing the
peoples' hearts. Some 80 members of the group's terror cells
were detained by the Shin Bet, tried, and sent to prison.
Abu-Mokh was sentenced to 15 years in prison and, like the
others, was released in the Jibril deal of May 1985. While
in prison, the group members realized that they have to start
over, this time through da'wa.
The establishment of the Islamic Movement in Israel was
the answer.Like other Islamic movements of the Muslim Brotherhood
in the world -- operating in the Russian republics, Bosnia,
Jordan, Egypt, and Algeria -- the Israeli movement formed
two organizational systems: one secret, following the classic
model of the Muslim Brotherhood, with branches and cells,
that works for the distribution of Islam and its values.
The other is a network of dozens of legitimate associations
that serve as the foundation of the movements social infrastructure:
kindergartens, clinics, sports clubs, a religious college,
and even a TV station. The activities of the legitimate and
autonomous network is meant to organize every aspect of the
Muslim individual's life while creating an alternative to
the governmental systems.
Among other things, the success of the Islamic Movement
feeds on its ability to answer the bitterness, frustration
and discrimination that the Israeli Arabs feel.
The Islamic Movement decided that the Israeli Arabs must
promote their own affairs themselves. In this spirit, volunteer
work camps are held in Umm-al-Fahm and other Arab villages
and towns. The participants work for the public welfare, building
roads, sidewalks, sheds in bus stations, renovating schools,
cleaning cemeteries, and building classrooms.
The movement built kindergartens and day-care centers, established
social welfare services for the elderly, and opened public
libraries of religious books. The mosques have virtually turned
into community centers that include gyms, libraries, reading
rooms, and prayer halls. The movement even set up a rehabilitation
center for drug addicts.
The construction drive did not skip over mosques: since
1988, some 220 new mosques were built in Israel, mostly by
the Islamic Movement that controls them. In 1988, there were
only 80 mosques in Israel. The construction drive nearly quadrupled
the number of mosques in Israel.
In 1996, the Islamic Movement split. 'Abdallah Nimr Darwish
established the southern, moderate branch of the movement,
which recognized the State of Israel, renounced terrorism,
and was in favor of joining Israeli politics, at least on
the declarative level. Since then, however, the ruling splinter
has been the one headed by Shaykh Ra'id Salih and Shaykh Kamal
Khatib from Kafr Kana. This is the more extreme branch to
which the Dabburiya squad belonged.
The Islamic Movement was never officially registered as
an organization, movement, or party. Its activists are not
members of any formal framework. This deliberately unclear
situation was meant to provide it with immunity in the face
of the authorities.
This is why Shaykh Ra'id could appear in a press conference
and declare that the Haifa and Tiberias terrorists perpetrated
their acts on their own accord and that the Islamic Movement
had nothing to do with them. Shaykh 'Abd-al-Rahman of Umm-al-Fahm,
who is seen as the official movement spokesman told me: "We
carry no cards, nor do we run lists of members. Anyone who
prays and accepts the rules of Islam may say he is a member
of the Islamic Movement."
The Islamic Movement activities run very close to the fine
line between legal and illegal actions, careful not to cross
it. Still, some movement members choose to perpetrate Hamas-like
terrorism, or even cooperate with Hamas.
The "pitchfork night" of 13 February 1992, an attack during
which three Nahal Brigade soldiers were killed near Kibbutz
Gil'ad, the attack on Egged bus No. 945 near Ra'anana, and
the double murder in Meggido were perpetrated by Islamic Movement
members. No proof has so far been found connecting these acts
with the movement's encouragement.
The Shin Bet's work is not easy. The intelligence obtained
about the movement and its leaders will only become practical
if the political and judicial echelons find the legal tools
for this struggle. "You cannot fight the Islamic Movement
with conventional tools," defense establishment sources said
last week. "We must wage a comprehensive campaign over a long
period of time. The movement members use the rules of democracy
to struggle and survive. We must rally all the legal powers
we have to allow us to protect our society and democracy."
The defense establishment sources stressed that in addition
to making intelligent, preemptive, and deterrent moves, there
is a need for a comprehensive policy regarding the Arab sector
in Israel which would erode the Islamic Movement's power.
If this is not done, the sources warned, the movement will
become a serious threat to security in the State of Israel."
News on
recent attempted terror
ARUTZ7 9/22/99: "The news blackout on the recent attempted terrorist
attacks by Israeli-Arabs in Haifa and Tiberias has been lifted,
and details learned from the interrogation of one of the terrorists
indicate as follows:
One terrorist in each of the two cities planned to board
an Egged bus headed for Jerusalem, deposit a bomb in a handbag
under one of the seats, and then disembark and be picked up
by an accomplice at a pre-arranged spot.
Both terrorists were killed when the bombs went off prematurely.
Seven Israeli-Arabs involved in the attacks remain in custody.
The Egged Bus Company says that it does not plan to increase
security measures on its buses, citing a lack of funds. A
spokesman said that the bus drivers are aware of the dangers,
and will exercise extra caution in the weeks and months ahead.
Terror
analysis
ARUTZ7 9/22/99: "General Security Services head Ami Ayalon told
the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee yesterday
that there were twenty terrorist attempts against Israelis over
the past month. This represents an increase of 250% over the
months before. Ayalon said that Hamas' ability to carry out
large attacks is growing.
Other points made by Ayalon: Hamas abroad controls the military
arm of Hamas in Judea and Samaria, and its leaders feel that
the attacks must continue... The terrorists in Judea and Samaria
receive orders - including orders to kidnap Israeli soldiers
- from their leaders still imprisoned in Israeli prisons...
Members of the Islamic Movement in Israel do not recognize
the existence of Israel."
Israeli
Islamics 'Exploiting democracy'?
HA'ARETZ 9/23/99: "A top police chief said yesterday that he
is "worried and frustrated" about current powers available to
combat incitement by the Islamic Movement in Israel.
The chief of the Northern District, Maj. Gen. Alik Ron, told
Ha'aretz that various elements are exploiting Israeli democracy
in order to injure the state. Ron was particularly concerned
by the results of the investigation into the two abortive
terrorist attacks in Tiberias and Haifa three weeks ago, which
involved Israeli Arabs from the Islamic Movement.
Recommendations that the Shin Bet internal security service
and the police are expected to present to the government regarding
means of dealing with the Islamic Movement do not, however,
include the outlawing of the organization. "We have not learned
anything and we have not internalized anything about incitement
since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin," Ron said. "Democracy
must have methods to defend itself, constraints that protect
it. Otherwise, it will suffer heavily."
Nevertheless, he said, Israel "has not yet found better
or more correct means to deal with this incitement." Ron said
he had watched a video of a mass rally held in Umm al Fahm
last Friday by the Islamic Movement under the title "Al Aqsa
in Danger" - referring to the mosque on the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem.
"When I hear Sheikh Raad Salah [a leader of the Islamic
Movement and the mayor of Umm al Fahm], it is perfectly clear
to me who is inciting, who is instigating," Ron said. "When
he says, 'With blood and fire we will redeem Al Aqsa,' whose
blood is he talking about? This is an open threat. Some of
those who hear him return home in a trance, they toss and
turn in their sleep and they start cooking up something terrible
in their minds."
As for the failed terrorist attacks, Ron said that for him
"it's as though dozens of people were killed in the attacks;
after all, that was the intention."...
Israeli
Arab terror cell
HA'ARETZ 9/22/99: "Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon yesterday told the
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that a cell
of Israeli Arab Islamic Movement terrorists has been uncovered.
The cell was found as part of an investigation into the
two abortive terrorist bombings which took place in Haifa
and Tiberias two weeks ago. The cell included the activists
who had carried out the bombings and had planned to perpetrate
several more attacks, in cooperation with Iz a Din al Kassam,
Hamas's military wing.
The most important revelation was the disclosure that the
security services had apprehended Ibrahim Al Magid Salah,
a 20-year-old resident of the Galilee village of Mashed. Salah
was the so-called "missing body."
A Shin Bet update in the wake of Ayalon's report revealed
that while in Tiberias two dead terrorists were found at the
scene of the explosion, in Haifa only one dead terrorist was
found. The assumption was that the second terrorist in Haifa
had luckily escaped the bomb and was still at large.
An intensive investigation led to Salah, who was arrested
a few days after the abortive attacks and confessed to being
"the fourth man" Yesterday he reconstructed the bombings before
investigators at the scene of the crime...
Salah told investigators that the cell was organized and
commanded by Amir Masalha, a 25-year-old resident of the Arab
village of Daburriya, who was killed in the Tiberias explosion.
The two men had met as a result of their activities in the
Islamic Movement.
Salah has also told investigators of the links between movement
activists and the Hamas. He said that Masalha had come into
contact with Hamas activists while studying at an Islamic
institute in Ramallah. He also told investigators that the
Hamas activists they had been in contact with were from Samaria.
During his report, Ayalon told the committee that the security
services had previously recommended taking steps to curtail
the activities of what he described as "the hard-core activists
of the movement." He said, however, that the government had
not taken any steps in this regard. He said that this is not
the first time Islamic Movement activists had been implicated
in terrorist activities...
"HA'ARETZ 9/23/99: "Three senior members of the militant
Hamas organization were arrested yesterday when they landed
in Jordan, and one of the three was deported to Tehran via
Dubai shortly afterward. They arrived in Amman on a flight
from Tehran in defiance of arrest orders which had been issued
against them by the Jordanian authorities.
The three are Khaled Meshal, the head of Hamas's political
bureau; the organization's representative in Jordan, Ibrahim
Ghosheh; and member of the political leadership Moussa Abu
Marzouk. Marzouk, who, unlike the other two, is not a Jordanian
national and holds Yemeni citizenship, was expelled. Meshal,
who was the target of a botched assassination attempt by the
Mossad in 1997, and Ghosheh are expected to be tried in a
Jordanian military court.
Since the Jordanian authorities launched a series of raids
and arrests against Hamas activists at the end of August,
several meetings have been held between Jordanian leaders
and the heads of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has ties with
Hamas.
King Abdullah sent his top officials to these meetings,
including Prime Minister Abd a-Raouf Rawabdeh; the chief of
the Royal Bureau, Abd al Karim Kabariti; and the head of the
General Intelligence Service, Samih al Batihi.
During the meetings the king's emissaries made it plain
that Jordan had no intention of reconsidering its measures
against the Hamas leadership. On Tuesday, following another
fruitless meeting, the Hamas leadership in Damascus authorized
the return of the wanted officials to Amman. Four of their
aides were arrested with them.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak, speaking in English, told reporters
covering his visit to Berlin that the "attitude of King Abdullah
to Hamas is an example of security awareness, an anti-terror
approach, and of a courageous stand that puts a limit on the
operational latitude of an extremely dangerous organization."
Barak added that it was essential for Israel, the Palestinian
Authority, Jordan and Egypt to cooperate against "extremist
terror in our region," adding: "We look forward to establishing
this kind of cooperation." Leaders of the Hamas movement in
the West Bank and the Gaza Strip deplored the Jordanian action
and asked King Abdullah to reconsider. In the absence of PA
Chairman Yasser Arafat, who is abroad, there was no official
PA reaction..."
Barak interview
THE JERUSALEM POST 9/23/99: "Israel should seek to strike peace
deals with the old guard in the Middle East - Palestinian Authority
Chairman Yasser Arafat and Syrian President Hafez Assad. It
should not wait for a generational change in the Arab world
since old leaders have a unique authority in their societies
to "take big decisions today," while it will take younger leaders
time to consolidate their power, Prime Minister Ehud Barak said
in an wide-ranging interview with The Jerusalem Post this week.
Barak declared that "the leaders who were there when their
states were being established are the ones who can take the
big decisions today. Assad is the symbol of the revolution
there; he molded the state. And Arafat also in a way is the
one who molded his people. Therefore these leaders hold the
sort of authority and perspective that allow them to make
the hard decisions. A new leader has to take a few years to
gather strength and consolidate power."
Some other highlights of the interview [to be published
in Friday's JERUSALEM POST] were:
* Barak believes Arafat realizes that he will not gain the
entire West Bank in final-status negotiations. When pointedly
asked if he thinks Arafat realizes this, the premier replied,
"I am sure he does. Of course, he won't say that. If you interview
him, there is no doubt that he will say he wants everything,
but I am convinced that he understands." At the same time,
Barak said that is possible that Arafat will not choose a
final-status deal.
* He said that if a final-status framework deal does not
succeed, a long-term interim set of understandings might be
reached. "Even if we manage partially - that is, to identify
those parts on which we can, in principle, reach agreement,
and those parts that will require long interim agreements,
or those for which we can see the permanent status but which
will require a long time to arrive at - we will have done
the right thing."
* Barak called for the immediate construction of a bridge
linking the West Bank and Gaza, which he hopes will be completed
within four years. "There needs to be some connection. I am
for beginning to build the bridge right now, finding some
big international contributors who want to participate and
getting help from governments to do it. Build it within four
years."
* On the ruling of the High Court of Justice halting physical
pressure against Palestinian suspects, Barak expressed his
belief that the court would permit continued use of pressure
in extraordinary circumstances. He made no reference to legislation.
"[When there is] a ticking bomb, exceptions need to be made,"
he said. "You can have in hand someone who might know where
that bomb is located, and tick, tick, tick, it is going to
blow up, so that sitting him down for a cup of coffee and
asking him nicely about it is implausible. You don't know
who you may be burying the next day."
Speaking in general terms, he added, "it is clear that in
Israel there is a need to allow force, under certain circumstances,
with thought and under the correct supervision. We are not
a barbaric country, but it cannot end with coffee and a pat
on the back. We need to find a way to do it and we will do
so."
* Barak said serious Hizbullah attacks emanating from southern
Lebanon could lead to a freeze in talks with Syria, marking
the first known time that he has made a linkage between the
two issues. "Terror from Lebanon could put a halt to the process
with Syria, and therefore, Assad and I, so I think, have a
common interest in stopping Hizbullah terror."
* He voiced hoped that once peace is reached with Israel's
immediate neighbors, this would diminish the threat emanating
from Iran and potentially Iraq. " I don't see how Iran and
Iraq will be able to to keep up that belligerency if we manage
to reach peace deals with the Syrians, the Lebanese, and Palestinians."
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