Translator’s Note: This interview between Bilal Abu Daqa and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was conducted just a few months before the latter’s martyrdom on 22 March 2004, when he was “killed by an Israeli helicopter attack […] while he was being wheeled out of a mosque.” Specifically, Sheikh Yassin was exiting the al-Mujamma’ al-Islami mosque when “Israeli helicopter gunships fired three rockets” at the 66-year-old Yassin. It was published in Arabic on 15 November 2003 (and conducted a few days before, likely 9-11 November 2003). It has, hitherto, not been translated into English.
To appreciate the interview, it is important to have some understanding of the context in which it was conducted, in the midst of the Second Intifada. In between 29 June and 21 August 2003, a truce (hudna) was declared by all resistance factions. This was declared for three months but lasted only 52 days. The Ariel Sharon government broke the truce by continuing its assassination campaign.
Tensions rose further in August 2003 when Hizbu’llah Unit 1800 (viz., the Palestinian Unit) commander Ali Hussein Salih was assassinated when the occupation forces exploded his car in the heart of Hizbu’llah’s stronghold in Southern Lebanon.
It is also notable that the interviewer, Bilal Abu Daqa, mentions a joint effort between Hamas and Hizbu’llah to negotiate a prisoner’s release. This concerns negotiations that culminated in the 29 January 2004 prisoner exchange, where Hizbu’llah secured the release of hundreds of prisoners from the occupation’s prisons, in return for captives and the remains of solders. Palestinian factions, including Hamas, submitted lists of detainees to Hizbu’llah during the negotiation process, as Hizbu’llah acted as the negotiating party on behalf of multiple detainees held by the occupation. The occupation released 400 Palestinian prisoners along with 23 Lebanese and other detainees in exchange for Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three occupation soldiers. The arrangement was German-mediated.
Also in August 2003, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) froze the civil service association, Al-Salah Society’s, accounts, claiming that “al-Salah was a front for Hamas.” Furthermore, the United States Department of Treasury accused al-Salah of employing “a number of Hamas military wing members.” Since 80% of the association’s estimated $5 million budget came from external donors who relied on the banking system to transfer the funds, the freeze was devastating. This caused increased tensions between the PNA and Hamas.
Lastly, on 6 September 2003, the European Union, acting under pressure from the United States and the United Kingdom, passed a resolution placing Hamas’s political wing on its blacklist and designating it a terrorist organization; in doing so, it categorized both the movement’s political and military branches as terrorist entities. Notably, not every member state supported this decision. The United Kingdom, for instance, opted to ban only Hamas’s military wing under its own domestic terrorism laws. Likewise, France and Germany resisted the EU’s designation of Hamas’s political wing, arguing that such a step would undermine the peace process. The inclusion of Hamas on the EU’s list of terrorist organizations in 2003 was largely driven by the efforts of Jack Straw, who served as the UK’s foreign secretary under Tony Blair from 2001 to 2006. Straw succeeded in persuading his German counterpart, Joschka Fischer, to back the initiative. The combined diplomatic influence of the United Kingdom and Germany proved sufficient to bring the remaining EU member states into alignment with the proscription. It is widely regarded that the EU’s adoption of this resolution precipitated the Sharon government’s assassination of Yassin.
When the interview was originally published, the following description was appended to its introduction:
After great effort, [the interviewer, Bilal Abu Daqa] managed to conduct the most comprehensive and significant interview with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and its spiritual leader.
[…] [He] arrived at the home of the disabled sheikh and waited for more than an hour and a half until he was brought from an unknown location. Two bearded young men carried him into the reception room, followed by two others carrying weapons. A physical therapist was waiting for him; […] [Bilal Abu Daqa] waited another hour for the therapist to perform his duties in treating the sheikh. Sources in the sheikh’s office told [Bilal Abu Daqa] that he had not undergone physical therapy for more than fifty days. It is certain that he will leave his home (located in the Al-Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City) after the interview for an unknown location [to undergo physical therapy].
In the modest reception room, Yassin sat in his wheelchair, with large Hamas slogans to his right and a model of the historical map of Palestine to his left; behind him was a photo of the child martyr Iman Hajjo, who had been martyred before she was but six months old.
A plastic chair was placed in front of the sheikh, where the correspondent [Bilal Abu Daqa] sat. The interview then began, lasting about two hours. The sheikh described it as his ‘most important interview.'