Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni (also spelled Abd al-Qader al-Husseini) (1907-1948) was a Palestinian nationalist and fighter who in late 1933 founded the secret militant group known as the Organization for Holy Struggle, (Munazzamat al-Jihad al-Muqaddas),[1][2] which he and Hasan Salama commanded as the Army of the Holy Struggle (Jaysh al-Jihad al-Muqaddas) in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Husayni had three children - Musa, Gazi and the late Faisal.
Family and early nationalist careerHusayni was born to the influential al-Husayni family of Jerusalem, son of Musa al-Husayni; he was also the nephew of Amin al-Husayni. He graduated in chemistry at the American University in Cairo, and organized the Congress of Educated Muslims. Initially, he took a post in the settlement department of the British Mandate government, but eventually moved to the Hebron area during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine to lead the struggle against the British. A member of the Palestine Arab Party he served as its Secretary-General and became editor-in-chief of the party's paper Al-Liwa’[3] and other newspapers, including Al-Jami’a Al-Islamiyya. Battle of QastalIn 1938, Husayni was exiled and in 1939 fled to Iraq where he took part in the Rashid Ali al-Gaylani coup. He moved to Egypt in 1946, but secretly returned to Palestine to lead the Army of the Holy War in January 1948, and was killed during hand-to-hand fighting for control of Qastal Hill on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road, on 8 April 1948. His forces captured Qastal from the Haganah, which had occupied the village at the start of Operation Nachshon six days earlier with a force of about 100 men.[4] They retreated to the Jewish settlement of Motza.[5] Palmach troops recaptured the village on the night of 8-9 April; most of the houses were blown up and the hill became a command post.[6][7] Huseyni's death was a factor in the loss of morale among his forces. See alsoFootnotes
References
External links
| |||||||||||||||||||||
