Hanadi Qawasmi-Jerusalem

“Let them occupy Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa, we will take it back immediately,” and “Why is all this attention to Jerusalem, Abdul Qadir? It does not deserve it.” With such cynicism and cynicism, representatives of the Arab League and the Salvation Army in Damascus responded to the request of the leader of the Holy Jihad Army Abdul Qadir al-Husseini. Supplying him with weapons to continue fighting in Jerusalem and defending it in the 1948 battles.

This indolent Arab condition angered Abdul Qadir, until he wrote his famous letter to the Arab League by saying, "I hold you responsible after you left my soldiers at the height of their victories without assistance or weapons."


While the weapons he requested remained locked up in the stores of the Military Committee of the Salvation Army, Al-Husseini went into battle, unconcerned with the calculations of victory or defeat, hijacked by the fate of Jerusalem, not his own.

He told his companions while returning from Damascus to Jerusalem, "As for me, I am going to Qastal to die there, before I see the fruit of negligence and complicity. I will return to Qastal and I will take it back from the Jews at all costs, and I will die there...

holiest conclusion

On April 6, Abd al-Qadir arrived in the city of Jerusalem and joined his soldiers to retrieve Qastal, located to the west of the city, after it was occupied by the Palmach Zionist forces, but he was martyred on its land on the eighth of the same month at the age of 36 (and in some sources 40 years).

The next day, the newspaper "Palestine" published on its front page the news of his martyrdom under the headline "The holiest end to the brightest life, with the martyrdom of Abdul Qader Al-Husseini, the commander of the general jihad."

Faisal Darraj says in an article entitled "Abdul Qader Al-Husseini, the Different Intellectual", published by Palestinian Papers magazine in the summer of 2013, "Jerusalem did not see a funeral similar to the funeral of the martyr Abdul Qadir, the enormity and majesty...People walked at the funeral in respect, loyalty and recognition that the martyr represented the homeland and the people." .

In his book “Palestine the Mother and Her Righteous Son, Abdel Qader Al-Husseini,” Issa Khalil Mohsen says, “The city of Jerusalem has never witnessed in its rich history a day like the day of the funeral of the best heroes, the title of dedication and the symbol of sacrifice, and sadness did not prevail in Palestine as it was on that painful day.”

The funeral described for Al-Husseini started at ten thirty in the morning on Friday, April 9, 1948, from the house of his brother Farid Al-Husseini, located on Al-Zahra Street in the center of Jerusalem, where the house is occupied today by the Turkish Cultural Center of the Turkish Consulate in Jerusalem, all the way to Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The militants saluted their deceased comrade by firing shots in the air, and then the funeral started, led by wreaths, students of national colleges and schools, the Islamic Orphanage Music Band, and a large team of militants who put on their weapons the mourning badge, and then the coffin of the martyr, behind it another group of militants, and then the family of the martyr Notables and notables of Palestine, including political, religious and other personalities, follow them.


obituary

The funeral was entered into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the presence of King Faisal’s gate, and the coffin of the deceased was entered into the Dome of the Rock, where verses from the Holy Qur’an were recited to it, and then it was transferred to the Qibli prayer hall, where the funeral prayer was offered after the Friday prayer.

The funeral rites also included the mourning of the muezzins on the various minarets of Jerusalem, and church bells rang, and 11 cannons were fired in salute to the martyr.

As for the eulogies, they included a speech by the Arab Higher Committee, the Supreme Islamic Council, the National Committee in Jerusalem, the General Command of the Holy Jihad Army, and speeches by representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Women’s Union, and representatives of Christian sects.

And from the word of the Supreme Islamic Council we quote: “The nation lost you, and it is in dire need of your sincerity, adventure, and dedication, and you were martyred after you carried the light of victory in the greatest battles, and history will speak of your heroism and your immortal deeds. You did your duty and gave the dear for the sake of the homeland and to restore its stolen dignity and lost freedom.”

Although his name is not found in some archives of Palestinian newspapers, the most prominent word - according to oral narrations - was that of his companion in the struggle, Ibrahim Abu Dayyeh.

Nahil Oweida states in her book "The New Jerusalem Battles and their Entrances to the Year of the Nakba and the Biography of the Hero Ibrahim Abu Dayyah", that his speech was one of the truest words, and that he improvised it improvised, and was the most influential, and that Abu Dayyeh left the hospital despite his severe injury with seven bullets and refused to complete medical treatment until after Farewell to his companion and participate in his funeral.


Rehab Al Aqsa

Tens of thousands of people who came from all over Palestine participated in the funeral of Abdul Qader Al-Husseini, and were not limited to the people of Jerusalem exclusively. Books and newspapers mention that delegations came from Jenin, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Hebron, Nablus and other cities of Palestine.

There are different accounts about the estimated number of participants in the funeral, but the newspaper "Palestine" in its issue issued on April 10, 1948, said that 50,000 mourners participated in the funeral.

The martyr was buried west of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, next to his father, Musa Kazem Al-Husseini, and then Faisal Al-Husseini, son of the martyr Abdul Qader, was buried next to them after his death in Kuwait in June 2000.

As for those who did not attend the funeral in Jerusalem, the absentee prayer was held for the soul of the martyr and the muezzins mourned him on the minarets of the mosques, and symbolic funerals took place for him in most of the cities of Palestine.

For example, the Great Mosque in Al-Majdal, and the Great Mosque in Lod, from which I left after the Friday prayer, a symbolic and silent funeral towards the city cemetery, where words and greetings were given to the deceased martyr.

A memorial ceremony was held for the martyr in the Omari Mosque in Gaza.

Black flags were raised on the balconies of houses, church bells rang in many Palestinian cities, and shops closed their doors.