Sheikh IZZ ad DIN al Qassam
Sheikh IZZ ad DIN al Qassam established an anti-British and anti- Zionist militant organization in 1930 (Segev, Tom 18). By 1935, Sheikh Qassam had recruited and arranged militant training of about 200 to 800 men who engaged in a campaign of vandalizing trees planted by farmers and rail lines (Segev, Tom 18). On the other hand, Revisionist Zionism is a movement established by Ze’ev Jabotinsky to fight for Jewish people in Palestine. The paper discusses factors that motivated both movements to organize National Revolt in Palestine.
Sheikh AL Qassam is among the Arab leaders who succeeded in organizing violent riots in Palestine. His effort came from the first in 1920, Arab farmers had pushed off from their farms, and they started to migrate in urban areas where they settled in poverty and socially marginalized areas. Many settled in Jaffa and Haifa, where they met charismatic preacher Izz ad-Din al Qassam. His teaching encouraged the Arab youth and motivated them to organize strikes that later grew into a national revolt. Secondly, the revolt was caused by more Jewish immigration in Palestine from 1933 to 1936, where about 175000 to 370000, Jewish had settled in Palestine, raising their population from 17% to 27% (Segev, Tom 19). The increase of the Jewish population deteriorates the relationship between Arabs and Jewish in Palestine and emerges from national revolt.
On the other hand, Revisionist Zionism is a movement established by Ze’ ev Jabotinsky who advocated for “revision” for the “Practical Zionism” that was initially founded by David Ben- Gurion and Chain Weizmann (Kaplan, Eran). The World Zionist movement was initially advocating for individuals’ independence and setting the land of Israel free. In 1935, Jabotinsky resigned from the original Zionist movement and formed the Revisionist Zionism that advocated for taking the whole territory and insisted Jewish right of settling in the entire land of Israel (Kaplan, Eran). Even though Revisionists gained support from Britain, they campaigned for Zionist political violence against the British. They wanted to drive them away from Palestine so that they could establish a Jewish State. In 1921, the British had established Transjordan; hence was a significant setback for revisionist Zionism, who wanted to control the entire region (Kaplan, Eran). Also, the movement rejected the motion of partitioning Palestine into the Arab States and the Jewish States.
Works Cited
Segev, Tom. “One Palestine, complete: Jews and Arabs under the British mandate, trans.” Haim Watzman (1999 (2000): 469.
Thompson, Seth. “Golda Meir: A very public life.” Women as Political Leaders. Routledge, 2013. 194-220.
Kaplan, Eran. The radical Jewish right: Revisionist Zionism and its ideological legacy. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2005.