Ahmed Yassin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ahmed Yassin
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| أحمد ياسين | |
Ahmed Yassin in Gaza, first quarter of 2004
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| Born | 1 January 1937 Al-Jura, Mandatory Palestine
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| Died | 22 March 2004 (aged 67) |
| Cause of death | Assassination |
| Nationality | Palestinian |
| Alma mater | Al-Azhar University, Cairo |
| Occupation |
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| Organization |  Hamas |
Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin (Arabic: الشيخ أحمد إسماعيل حسن ياسين; born January 1, 1937 – died March 22, 2004) was a Palestinian leader and imam. An imam is a religious leader in Islam. He started a group called Hamas in the Gaza Strip in 1987. Hamas is a group that works for Palestinian independence and uses force. Ahmed Yassin was seen as the main religious guide for Hamas after it began.
Ahmed Yassin used a wheelchair because he had a serious injury at age 12. He also could barely see. In 2004, he was killed when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at him. This happened as he was leaving morning prayers in Gaza City. The attack also killed his two bodyguards and nine other people nearby. Many countries around the world spoke out against this attack. About 200,000 Palestinians went to his funeral in Gaza.
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Ahmed Yassin's Early Life
Ahmed Yassin was born in a small village called al-Jura. This village was near the city of Ashkelon in an area then known as Mandatory Palestine. This was a time when the British ruled the area. His exact birth date is not fully known. His Palestinian passport said he was born in 1929, but he said he was born in 1937. His father, Abdullah Yassin, died when Ahmed was only three years old. After that, people in his neighborhood called him Ahmad Sa'ada, using his mother's name, Sa'ada al-Habeel. This helped tell him apart from his father's other children. Ahmed Yassin had four brothers and two sisters.
In 1948, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, his village was attacked. Ahmed and his whole family had to leave their home and became refugees. They moved to Gaza and settled in a place called al-Shati Camp.
When Ahmed was 12, he hurt his back badly while playing with a friend. His neck had to be in a cast for 45 days. This injury damaged his spinal cord, which meant he could not move his arms or legs for the rest of his life. At first, he told his family he got hurt playing on the beach. He did this because he did not want trouble between his family and his friend's family.
Ahmed Yassin wanted to study at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. But he could not continue his studies there because his health got worse. He had to learn at home instead. He read many books, especially about religion, politics, and how societies work. People who followed him believed his wide knowledge made him a very good speaker in the Gaza Strip. During this time, he started giving religious talks after Friday prayers. Many people came to listen to him.
After being without a job for many years, he became an Arabic language teacher at a school in Rimal, Gaza. The headmaster, Mohammad al-Shawa, was worried at first about how students would react to Ahmed Yassin's disability. But Mr. al-Shawa said that Yassin managed well, and he became popular, especially with students who liked to learn. He encouraged his students to go to the mosque two extra times a week. This made some parents have different opinions. Having a regular job gave Ahmed Yassin money and stability. In 1960, when he was 22, he married one of his relatives, Halima Yassin. They had eleven children together.
Ahmed Yassin's Role in the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict
Ahmed Yassin was very active in helping to start a Palestinian group that was part of the Muslim Brotherhood. In 1973, he helped create an Islamic charity in Gaza called Mujama al-Islamiya. The Israeli government officially recognized this charity in 1979. In 1984, he and others were put in jail for secretly gathering weapons. But in 1985, he was set free as part of a prisoner exchange deal.
In 1987, during the First Intifada, Ahmed Yassin helped start Hamas with Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi. The First Intifada was a Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule. Hamas was first called the "military part" of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood. Ahmed Yassin became its main religious guide.
In 1989, Israeli forces arrested Yassin again. He was sentenced to life in prison. In 1997, he was released from Israeli prison. This was part of a deal with Jordan after Israel's spy agency, Mossad, failed to kill Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in Jordan. Yassin was released in exchange for two Mossad agents who had been arrested by Jordanian police. One condition was that he would stop calling for attacks against Israel. The New York Times newspaper reported that he was very weak at that time.
After his release, Yassin continued to lead Hamas. He immediately started calling for attacks on Israel again, including bombings. This went against the condition of his release. He also tried to keep good relations with the Palestinian Authority, which is the government that manages parts of the Palestinian territories. He believed that fighting between the two groups would hurt the Palestinian people. The Palestinian Authority sometimes put Yassin under house arrest. But each time, he was eventually released, often after many of his supporters held protests.
In September 2003, an Israeli Air Force (IAF) F-16 jet fired missiles at a building in Gaza City. Yassin was in the building but survived the attack. Israeli officials later said that Yassin was the target. He was treated for his injuries at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Yassin told the media that "Days will prove that trying to kill leaders will not finish Hamas. Hamas leaders want to be martyrs and are not scared of death. Jihad (holy struggle) will continue and the resistance will continue until we win, or we will become martyrs."
Yassin also promised that Hamas would teach Israel an "unforgettable lesson" because of the attack. Yassin did not try to hide or protect himself from future attacks. Journalists sometimes visited his home in Gaza. He kept his daily routine, which included being wheeled to a nearby mosque every morning.
In January 2004, a bombing at the Erez crossing killed four people. The Israeli military believed that Yassin had directly ordered this attack. Yassin said the bomber was doing her "duty" to perform jihad. Israel's Deputy Defence Minister then publicly said that Yassin was "marked for death." Yassin denied being involved in the attack.
Views on the Peace Process
Ahmed Yassin's ideas about the peace process were not always clear. He supported fighting against Israel. He said that Palestine is an Islamic land that belongs to future Muslim generations. He believed that no Arab leader had the right to give up any part of this land. Yassin's words sometimes did not separate Israelis from Jews. At one point, he said that "making peace with the Jews is a crime." However, there is also a video of him saying he loved all people, including Jews, whom he saw as his religious cousins. He explained that his conflict with them was only about land he believed was stolen. Yassin's words were often looked at closely in the news. He once said that Israel "must disappear from the map." Yassin's statement, "We chose this path, and will end with martyrdom or victory," later became a common saying among Palestinians.
Yassin sometimes suggested long-term ceasefire agreements, called Hudnas. These truces would be in exchange for Israel giving up some things. Israel rejected all of these offers. After he was released from Israeli prison in 1997, he suggested a ten-year truce. This would be in exchange for Israel completely leaving the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, and stopping attacks on civilians.
Ahmed Yassin's Death
Ahmed Yassin was killed in an Israeli attack on March 22, 2004. He was being wheeled out of an early morning prayer session in Gaza City. An Israeli AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship fired missiles at Yassin and his two bodyguards. Before the attack, Israeli F-16 jets flew overhead to hide the sound of the helicopters coming. Yassin always took the same path every morning to go to the same mosque in the Sabra area, which was about 100 meters (330 feet) from his home.
Yassin and his bodyguards died instantly. Nine other people nearby were also killed. Another 12 people were hurt, including two of Yassin's sons. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, who was Yassin's deputy, became the new leader of Hamas after Yassin's death.
Reactions to Ahmed Yassin's Death
Kofi Annan, who was the UN Secretary General at the time, spoke out against the killing. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights passed a resolution condemning the killing. This resolution was supported by 31 countries, including China, India, Indonesia, Russia, and South Africa. Two countries voted against it, and 18 did not vote. The Arab League also spoke out against it, as did the African Union.
A draft resolution was brought before the United Nations Security Council. It condemned the killing of Yassin and six other Palestinians, as well as all attacks against civilians. The United States used its veto power to block this resolution. The United Kingdom, Germany, and Romania did not vote. The United States explained that the resolution should have clearly condemned Hamas for its bombings in Ashdod the week before.
Palestinian Reactions
The Palestinian Authority announced three days of mourning and closed Palestinian schools. A Hamas official, Ismail Haniyeh, said, "This is the moment Sheikh Yassin dreamed about." The Hamas leadership said that Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, had "opened the gates of hell." Hamas called for revenge against Israel. About 200,000 people went into the streets of the Gaza Strip for Yassin's funeral. Israeli forces were put on high alert.
After Yassin's death, Hamas became the most popular group in Palestine for the first time. This was shown by surveys of people living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip two weeks after the killing.
Abdel Aziz Rantisi was announced as the new head of Hamas. At a memorial service for Sheikh Yassin, he said, "The Israelis will not know safety... We will fight them until all of Palestine is free." Rantisi told the "military part" of Hamas, "The door is open for you to attack all places, all the time, and using all ways." Rantisi himself was killed by Israel on April 17, 2004. This attack was very similar to the one that killed Yassin. He was killed by three rockets fired from an Israeli military helicopter.
On August 31, 2004, at least 15 Israeli people were killed and 80 were hurt in an attack on two Israeli buses in Beersheba. Hamas said this attack was revenge for the killings of Rantisi and Yassin. After the bombing, about 20,000 Hamas supporters in Gaza celebrated the attack in the streets.
Israeli Reactions
Shaul Mofaz, who was Israel's Defense Minister, called Yassin "the Palestinian Bin Laden." He said, "If we have to think about how many more attackers Yassin would have sent, how many attacks he would have approved, if we weigh this, we acted correctly."
Avraham Poraz, Israel's Interior Minister, said he thought killing Yassin "was a bad idea because I am afraid of revenge coming from the Palestinian side, from the Hamas side." Shimon Peres, who was the leader of the Labour opposition party, did not agree with the killing. He suggested that it "could lead to more attacks."
Reactions from the Arab World
King Abdullah II of Jordan called the killing a "crime." Lebanon's president Emile Lahud strongly spoke out against the Israeli act. He said it was "...a crime [which] will not succeed in ending the Palestinian cause." The Emir of Kuwait, Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, said: "Violence will increase now because violence always creates more violence." The head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Mohammed Akef, called Yassin a "martyr" and his killing a "cowardly operation."
Reactions from the Western World
Jack Straw, who was the British Foreign Secretary at the time, said: "All of us understand Israel's need to protect itself – and it has every right to do that – against the terrorism that affects it, within international law. But it does not have the right to do this kind of unlawful killing, and we condemn it. It is unacceptable, it is not right, and it is very unlikely to achieve its goals." The European Union's foreign policy head, Javier Solana, was worried that it might stop the peace process.
When asked about the killing, United States Representative to the United Nations John Negroponte said that the United States was "very troubled by this action by the Government of Israel." But he also said that the U.S. would not support any U.N. Security Council statement condemning Israel's killing of Yassin if it did not also condemn "Hamas terrorist attacks."
See also
- Hamas
- Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi
- Muslim Brotherhood
Images for kids
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Ahmed Yassin in Gaza, first quarter of 2004
