Islamic Jihad Gains New Traction in Gaza

Coffeehouse for desis :: Coffeehouse :: Coffeehouse Main

Page 1 of 1

Islamic Jihad Gains New Traction in Gaza

by confuzzled dude Sat May 03, 2014 11:02 pm

Islamic Jihad was created in 1979 by Palestinian students at Egyptian universities who were inspired by Iran’s Islamic revolution, and disillusioned that the Muslim Brotherhood — from which Hamas spun off years later — was not focused enough on Palestine. Its founder, Fathi Shikaki, was assassinated by Israeli agents in Malta in 1995; in some Gaza precincts, his picture is more prominent than that of the Hamas prime minister.

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found 5 percent of Gaza residents supporting Islamic Jihad in December and 4 percent in March, up from 1 to 3 percent in recent years. “It’s always been an elitist group,” said the center’s director, Khalil Shikaki, who is also Fathi Shikaki’s brother. “It appealed more to the educated youth rather than to the older generation or to the mass of people.”

Abu Malek, the field commander, said he joined at 18 because of Islamic Jihad’s “pioneering ideology” promoting “the liberation of all Palestine from the sea to the river.” He says he teaches sixth grade at a Hamas-run school and studies for a master’s in Arabic by day, but goes to the field every night after the last of Islam’s five daily prayers, remaining until the dawn call for the first."

The armed wing remains Islamic Jihad’s priority, but its civic activities have been swelling. Daoud Shihab, the chief spokesman — who, like Abu Ahmed, operates from an unmarked office above a store selling strollers and toys — said the movement planned to build a cardiac hospital in central Gaza and four clinics. Those projects have been delayed by Egypt’s shutdown of smuggling tunnels and Israel’s ban on import of concrete and steel.

Islamic Jihad runs three private elementary schools and is planning three more, Mr. Shihab said. The group has doubled its kindergartens to 100 in the past five years; at one in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood recently, some of the 700 students alternated between chanting Quranic verses and singing the A B C’s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/world/middleeast/islamic-jihad-gains-new-traction-in-gaza.html?hpw&rref=world

confuzzled dude: Posts : 10205
Join date : 2011-05-08