Saleh Al-Arouri...the last battle is the biggest 

Abdel Rahman Nassar - Palestinian writer and researcher

This biography of the martyr Saleh Al-Arouri was compiled one month before the “Al-Aqsa Flood.” At that time, his name on the “first list” for assassinations within “Hamas” was preceded by both Yahya Al-Sanwar and Muhammad Al-Deif. It is necessary to get to know the man more deeply. Although Sinwar and Deif returned quickly after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” to be at the top of that list, that did not make “Israel” sleep about Al-Arouri for a day, or even for a single hour.

There is no doubt that we are facing a busy journey. From the first moment of Al-Arouri’s martyrdom, many people wrote about him. But it is not enough to simply know the sequence of his life or narrate some incidents for a deep understanding of the personality of Saleh Muhammad Suleiman Khasib, known as Al-Arouri, after his village of Aroura in the middle of the occupied West Bank. Rather, it is necessary to research his intellectual personality and political personality.

Before the “Al-Aqsa Flood,” and with the escalation of guerrilla operations in the occupied West Bank and their significant effects on the occupying “state,” and the occupation’s “army” entering a state of permanent exhaustion, threats against the Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of “Hamas” increased, because he was effective in the most important files in the region. : Reviving resistance in the West Bank.

What is noteworthy is that what happened coincided with the approaching election cycle of the movement, and Al-Arouri was one of the strong candidates to succeed Ismail Haniyeh, especially since the internal regulations prevent the latter from continuing in the position after serving two terms. During the past year, Al-Arouri’s popularity increased among Hamas and Palestinians after his appearance on screens became a catalyst for operations in the West Bank. Rather, his every exit was followed by strong and qualitative operations.

What also increased its popularity was that the work of the military wing, the “Al-Qassam Brigades,” in the West Bank became public, as the movement adopted more than seven large and specific operations through it before the “Al-Aqsa Flood.” This entire upward path reached its peak after the explicit threats against him from Benjamin Netanyahu, to which he responded with a military photograph of himself and held two television interviews: the first Via “Al-Aqsa” channelAnd a day later via channel The fields On 8/25/2023.

Intellectual system

Unlike traditional definitions, we will delve into depth from the beginning. Al-Arouri was influenced by a number of leading figures in Hamas, especially its founder, the martyr Ahmed Yassin, whom he met several times before the founding of the movement, in addition to his sheikh Saeed Maatan, who introduced him to the Muslim Brotherhood before that.

Maattan motivated him to spread Islamic work in Ramallah, and he was also influential in understanding Sheikh Saleh, both physically and intellectually. Maattan is called “Sayyid Qutb” by the Hamas, as a result of more than twenty-five years of his influence on them. He is one of the deportees of Marj al-Zuhur, and the occupation forces arrested him more than once.

Also, the leader of Hamas, Khalil Al-Quqa, had a great influence on Al-Arouri’s personality when he was the link between the leadership of Gaza and the West Bank. Sheikh Saleh had direct contact with him before Al-Quqa was removed. Here he had a great influence regarding the position regarding the nature of the conflict with the occupation.

After the removal of Al-Quqa, Al-Arouri moved on to establish relations with Sheikh Jamal Mansour as a liaison. Although the Hamas organization in the West Bank had ties to the Brotherhood in Jordan, Al-Arouri was keen to maintain his relationship with the leadership of Gaza, especially Sheikh Yassin.

Also, Al-Arouri and the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Al-Sinwar, exchanged influence with each other. The meetings between them in prison, and the discussion of the future of the movement, formed a basis for work after their release, as Al-Arouri found that the common understanding between him and Sinwar made him able to implement what they were planning in prison, so the two believed in “strategic preparation to zero the prisoners’ file,” and then get rid of Occupation.

Al-Arouri believed that the experience of “Hamas” was unique as an “Islamic model of resistance,” and that is why he saw that with the decline of the “Brotherhood” in the region, there was no longer any benefit to believing in the group’s ideology. Although he continued to see the importance of the group in mobilizing support for “Hamas” popularly and among the Arabs and Muslims, after the experiences that happened in Egypt and Tunisia, his conviction was firmly established that relying on the “Brotherhood” would not bring the movement and the Palestinians closer to liberating Palestine.

His alternative was that the movement should think of a strategy based on its historical experiences. Therefore, his decision came from the beginning to maintain relations with the Iranians and Hezbollah, and he was a fundamental supporter of the restoration of relations with the Syrian state, and this is what happened after a series of unannounced meetings, in which he resolved the majority of the problems.

This originally stems from his way of thinking. From the beginning of his work, he believed in openness to others, and even enjoyed friendly relations with the local leaders in “Fatah” and the leftist movements. He even intervened to solve problems between members of “Hamas” and other factions.

What is most strange, compared to Palestinian political behavior, is that he believed that all Palestinian youth had the right to join Hamas, regardless of the conditions imposed by the movement, and he was one of the first leaders to recruit young men without these conditions, and he relied on a number of them on the popular side, and others. On the military side.

In the details of the work, the martyr believed that the military apparatus represented the backbone of the resistance and “Hamas” in Palestine, and for this reason he relied on figures who were involved in military action, and the majority of those working with him in his first department were freed prisoners and belonged to the military wing.

Moreover, he believed that the nature of the current stage in the West Bank required activating action, militarily and security-wise, more than paying attention to rebuilding the preaching apparatus, and that efforts should focus on forming military cells and escalating action to overcome the effort, security-wise and militarily, against the resistance, but he did not He did not believe in a clash with the security services of the authorities.

Over the years of his imprisonment in the occupation prisons, Al-Arouri was a good follower of the Israeli internal situation, and looked daily at the Hebrew newspapers and what was written in them. By nature, he shared general strategic principles and ideas with those around him, but he did not talk much about his plans in detail, which made him understandable to those around him, but in the details, not many people could predict what he was thinking.

Military transformation

In 1990, he was subjected to his first arrest, which lasted for four months, during which he became acquainted with the most prominent leaders of military action in the West Bank: Adel Awadallah and Ibrahim Hamed. The three agreed to build the military wing after the blows the movement suffered during its previous attempts to establish military cells.

While military groups were being formed for the movement in the northern West Bank, Al-Arouri began forming the military wing in Ramallah and Hebron, organized a number of young men, established groups and provided them with weapons. He also opened a line of communication with the northern West Bank, through the official in charge of a number of military groups there, Zaher Jabarin, and this resulted in the Muhammad Bisharat operation on “French Hill” in occupied Jerusalem, in 1991, which resulted in the death of an Israeli soldier.

During those years, a group of persecuted people moved from Gaza to the West Bank, led by the martyr Imad Aqel, Muhammad Al-Deif (currently the commander-in-chief), and others. Al-Deif worked with Phalange cells in the center and north of the West Bank, while Aqel worked with its cells in Hebron and carried out shooting operations. 

Al-Arouri and his companions opened a line of communication with the movement’s leadership abroad, especially in the United States. At the same time, a leader, known as “Abi Ahmed the American,” arrived in the West Bank and held meetings with a number of leaders and cadres in the movement and the Phalange, in the West Bank and Gaza, and provided Al-Arouri with sums to provide logistical support for the Phalange cells.

In 1992, the military action suffered a painful blow, as the cells were exposed and the occupation arrested Sheikh Saleh in that blow, and he was subjected to a harsh interrogation that lasted months in the “Al-Maskobiyya” center in occupied Jerusalem and the Tulkarm Central Prison.

It is noteworthy that Al-Arouri’s relationship with Al-Deif strengthened during the 1990s, especially when coordination of military action between Hamas groups in Gaza and the West Bank was strengthened. A special relationship developed between them, and then it was strengthened by unity of position and indirect communications after Al-Arouri’s release in 2010.

After many years, and with the release of a large number of prisoners in “Wafa al-Ahrar” in 2011, he established the West Bank office in the Gaza Strip and abroad to be a starting point for Hamas’ work in the West Bank. It also became the spiritual father and reference for the prisoners of the deal, especially from the West Bank. Then The most prominent event came when “Israel” accused him of being behind the capture of the three settlers in Hebron in 2014, as a result of which the war broke out with the Gaza Strip.

Editing priority

Al-Arouri believed that Palestine would not be liberated from Gaza alone, and for this reason he saw that the Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic nations must be “pulled into the confrontation with the occupation,” and that the confrontation should not be limited to the Palestinians alone, but rather the occupation could be dismantled gradually, and through major, well-prepared battles for which That all fronts work simultaneously in a way that disperses the occupation and makes it unable to deal with the threats it faces.

Therefore, he looked at the “resistance axis” as a strategic ally since the first Palestinian intifada, especially Iran, Hezbollah, and Syria, and he used to say that the positions of these parties and their support for the resistance were great, and a reason for the rise of the military side of the movement. Without this support, it would not have been able to fill major gaps. 

In this aspect, it was consistent with the vision of the Gaza leadership regarding strengthening cooperation with Iran, so that the support that the movement receives becomes equal to the support that Hezbollah receives, especially in the field of weapons and military capabilities, in parallel with the development of resistance in the West Bank to become resistant to the occupation.

As a result, he led a major movement after 2017 within Hamas, in coordination with Sinwar, in order to change the movement’s orientations, return to the “axis of resistance,” and strengthen relations with it. He also planned with Sinwar to reconcile and give Fatah everything it wanted, including the crossings, to put the internal house in order, before launching resistance in the face of the occupation.

Al-Arouri had the same positive view of the leadership of the military wing towards the Islamic Republic of Iran, as he was familiar with Tehran’s efforts to support the resistance and the movement’s military groups in the 1990s and the second intifada, and after his release and his presence in Syria, Turkey and Lebanon.

Until his martyrdom, Sheikh Saleh enjoyed great consensus within the frameworks of the movement in the West Bank, especially in Ramallah and the southern West Bank, specifically in Hebron, as well as the northern West Bank in Nablus and Jenin, as he is seen as one of the leaders who sacrificed a lot and did not abandon work or retreat, and among those who endured A lot of burdens to maintain movement in the West Bank.

At the same time, he enjoyed great love and respect from the military leaders, and there was no objection among them to him being the leader of the political bureau during the next electoral cycle. Rather, he enjoyed the support of the military wing, and the advocacy movement as well.

Internally, the martyr’s theory was that whenever relations with Fatah were strengthened, the state of tension and security pressure exerted on the resistance fighters in the West Bank could be eased. However, Fatah’s exclusiveness in the decision and the PLO must be stopped, by any means, while interim concessions are made to enter the organization and change its reality. As for the West Bank, his vision is that developing resistance work is a priority, and achieving the ability to harm and exhaust the occupation is a primary goal to force it to recognize the Palestinians’ national and political rights. 

According to those close to him, the man used to show anger during attacks committed by the occupation, especially against prisoners and holy sites. When he talks about the occupation, he does not hesitate to show a state of defiance because of his belief that “Israel” is weak, and its security and leaders can be shaken through simple actions.

In the end, he believed that there was a need for further accumulation of power so that the resistance would possess the military tools through which it could liberate lands from the occupation, or force the occupation to fulfill the movement’s demands, especially withdrawal from the West Bank, and that the best strategy was to accumulate power inside Gaza and enhance military capabilities. , especially missile and drone aircraft, and this is what produced the “Al-Aqsa Flood.” 

In order to exhaust the occupation and stop its settlement project, he insisted that the West Bank move because its effects were great, and this is what he was killed for, making his last battle his largest.

The secret is in childhood

Sheikh Saleh was born in Aroura on August 19, 1966. He studied primary and middle school in the village schools, and was a diligent student. Since childhood, his association with the mosque began, as he frequently visited the mosque in their neighborhood, known as “The Great.” His father, Sheikh Muhammad, was religious and memorized the Holy Qur’an. Hence, his religiosity was a natural path to socialization in the atmosphere of the family and the mosque. After high school, he moved to study at the Faculty of Sharia at Hebron University, and began his activity in his village of Aroura, where he distributed the movement’s first statement.

Source: Al-Mayadeen Net.