Black Hand (Palestine)

The Black Hand (Arabic: الكف الاسود (transliteration) al-Kaff al-Aswad‎) was an armed organization in the British Mandate of Palestine. It was founded in 1930 and led by Syrian-born Shaykh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam until his death in 1935.

After the failure of the 1921 Syrian revolt that he led, al-Qassam escaped to Haifa and engaged in recruitment and training of Arab peasants. The clandestine cells had no more than five people. This organization became known as the Black Hand. In all, he had enlisted between 200 and 800 men. In various acts of violence they targeted Jewish targets in northern Palestine between 1930 and 1935 and killed at least eight Jews. In one instance three members of kibbutz Yagur were killed, and in another a father and son were killed in Nahalal.

Al-Qassam justified violence on religious grounds. After the 1929 Hebron massacre, he intensified his anti-zionist and anti-British agitation and obtained a fatwa from Shaykh Badr al-Din al-Taji al-Hasani, the Mufti of Damascus, authorizing the armed resistance against the British and the Jews with increasing number through Aliyah.

On November 20, 1935, after killing a Palestine police officer, al-Qassam was surrounded by British police in a cave near Jenin and killed in a gunbattle along with three of his fighters. Some of The Black Hand's surviving members participated in the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.

Although al-Qassam's revolt was unsuccessful in his lifetime, many organizations gained inspiration from his revolutionary example. He became a popular hero and an inspiration to subsequent Arab militants, who in the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt, called themselves Qassamiyun, followers of al-Qassam.

Black Hand was the name used by members of the 'Azazme Negev bedouin who were believed to be responsible for the killing of eleven Israelis at Scorpion Pass, 17 March 1954.