Abdel Aziz ar-Rantisi

Abdel Aziz ar-Rantisi (October 23, 1947 - April 17, 2004) was the co-founder, along with Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, of the Palestinian army organization Hamas. A doctor and father of six children, he was killed by the Israeli army in a missile attack in which his bodyguards were also killed, while dozens of civilians were injured.

He was the political leader and spokesman for Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the death of Ahmed Yasin, the organization's spiritual leader, in March 2004. Like most Hamas members, Rantisi was opposed to any submission to Israel and called for the liberation of all Palestine through jihad against the Jewish state. Additionally, Rantisi was one of the Hamas leaders most determined to deny the Holocaust, claiming that it never occurred in the manner described by Western historians, and that Zionists for a time supported and financed Nazi activities.

He was considered a terrorist by the United States, the European Union and Israel for advocating suicide bombings carried out by civilians. According to the Chicago Tribune newspaper, he went so far as to declare "We will kill Jews everywhere." There will be no safety for any Jew, whether he came from the United States, Russia or anywhere".

Biography

Rantisi was born in Jubna, near Jaffa, but in 1948 - when he was one year old - his family relocated to the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He studied pediatrics and genetics in Egypt for nine years, standing at the top of his class, and later became a licensed physician, though he never actually practiced. During his stay in Egypt he became a convinced member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization from which Hamas was born. In 1976 he returned to Gaza to teach parasitology and genetics at the Islamic University.

In 1987, four residents of the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza were killed in a road accident. Ar-Rantisi claimed to have met Sheikh Ahmad Yasin, as well as 'Abdel Fattah Dujan, Muhammad Shama', Dr. Ibrahim al-Yazur, Isa an-Nayyar and Saláh Shahada, and issued instructions for people to come out of the mosques chanting Allahu akbar ("God is great& #3. 4;). This would be the beginning of the first intifada, according to Rantisi, under whose leadership, that same year, what was to be called Hamas was integrated. The OLP, a rival group, was added later and a single leadership was created.

In December 1992, he was expelled to southern Lebanon, as part of the expulsion of 416 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, and became the general spokesman for those expelled. Upon his return in 1993, he was arrested, before being released. He was detained several times and for the longest time by the Palestinian Authority for criticizing the PA and Yasir Arafat, the last time being in mid-1999. When Rantisi returned to his public position as "right-hand man"; After Yasin, he remained one of the main opponents of all ceasefires and ceasefires against terrorist attacks against Israel. During talks among the Hamas leadership both in Gaza and abroad and in the organization's constant contact with the PA about terrorist activity, Rantisi, along with Ibrahim Macadma, controlled the tone of the Hamas leadership.

Following Sheikh Yasin's triumphant return to the Gaza Strip in October 1997, he worked closely with the old sheikh to restore hierarchical command and bolster cadre uniformity within a reorganized Hamas. After the removal of Saláh Shahada and Ibrahim Macadma, he became the political head as well as the acclaimed spiritual leader of Hamas, remaining the organization's main spokesman. In these multiple functions, Rantisi directed, ordered and determined policies, including terrorist activities, according to interrogations of Hamas agents. His public statements served as instructions for terrorists to carry out attacks.

In moments of tension, when diplomacy reached its limits, ar-Rantisi never ceased to be a critical voice. He took the opportunity of a meeting between US Congressman Christopher H. Smith and then Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on January 28, 1998, to announce via Reuters that "there is only one option against the Palestinians, which is to return to the uprising and the armed struggle against the Israeli occupation." Hours after the Israeli withdrawal from Bethlehem, on August 19, 2002, ar-Rantisi reportedly said, according to the Manchester Guardian, that Hamas's rifles "will continue to be aimed at the Zionist enemy.";.

Key dates

• On 6 June 2003. ar-Rantisi broke the negotiations with Mahmud Abbás, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, who had called for the end of armed resistance against the Israeli occupation.
• On 10 June 2003, ar-Rantisi survived the attack of an Israeli attack helicopter on a vehicle in which he was travelling; he suffered only minor injuries. His son, however, was seriously injured and his bodyguard died.
• On January 26, 2004, ar-Rantisi offered "a 10-year truce in exchange for the [Israeli] retreat and the creation of a State." It was rumored before there had been talks inside Hamas to proceed like this, but on this occasion, ar-Rantisi announced that "the movement has made a decision on it."
• On 23 March 2004, ar-Rantisi was appointed Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, following the assassination of Yasin by Israeli forces.
• On 17 April 2004, he was killed by missile shots by Israeli forces from a helicopter. His death occurred less than a month after the murder of Ahmed Yasín, also at the hands of Israeli troops.

External links (in English)

• Interview with ar-Rantisi of January 1998 (source of part of the information of this article)