The idea of founding the
The nascent core from which the PIJ developed was probably formed in 1980. Shiqaqi explained the reasons for its founding:
It began as an intellectual discussion among a group of religious, educated Palestinian youth while they were students in Egypt in the latter half of the 1970s. Some of them were part of the [Muslim] Brotherhood, but not the majority. This intellectual discussion delved into questions of politics, ideology and methodology, and grew into a [broader] political environment. The initial core that launched the Jihad grew out of here, in Egypt, while we were still students … we worked to create an atmosphere to rally people around a new Islamist school of thought, one that was enlightened and fresh, and at the same time, combatant. . . . We saw there were nationalists without Islam, and Islamists without Palestine. The Islamic Jihad Movement came as a solution to this problem, born out of our awareness of Islam and the Quran, as well as of history and reality.
The founders of PIJ found inspiration in the Islamic Revolution in Iran , which showed clearly in Shiqaqi’s book titled Khomeini: The Islamic and Alternative Solution. They were opposed to the traditional Islamist mindset, which believed that Palestine would only be liberated after the establishment of an Islamic state, and held it responsible for the inability of Islamist youth to actively participate in the liberation struggle. By creating the PIJ, they transformed the model of political Islam in the occupied Palestinian territories from the Islamist model of the Muslim Brotherhood to one of “jihadist Islam.”
Fathi Shiqaqi returned to Palestine in early November 1981 after graduating from medical school. He teamed up with his friends who had returned before him and they began to organize the movement in the occupied territories, particularly in Gaza. Shiqaqi worked as a doctor for two years in the Augusta Victoria Hospital in
To its own followers, the PIJ defined itself as “an independent, grassroots Islamist movement engaged in jihad. Its ideological basis is grounded in Islam, its means of operation combines grassroots and revolutionary work with armed jihad and its goal is the liberation of Palestine from Zionist occupation.” The movement emphasized the Palestinian cause as “the most important issue in the Islamic world at this stage of its history,” and that to fight for it would be the gateway to achieving the goals of the broader Islamist movement. From the PIJ’s point of view, the centrality of the Palestinian cause and its particular character spring from the role Israel plays in perpetuating “the fragmentation that exists on the soil of the Islamic homeland,” “the looting of [its] wealth,” and as “a watchman for the benefit of global colonialism and imperiousness led by the United States . This role is what makes Israel into “a real danger to all the sons of the Islamic nation [umma],” and “to all the world’s downtrodden.” The movement saw the Muslim and Arab masses as embodying “the true depth of our [Palestinian] people in their jihad against the Zionist entity” and considered the battle to liberate Palestine to be “the battle of the entire Islamic nation, and in which it must participate with all its material and spiritual force and resources. The Palestinian people and the mujahideen [fighters] for the cause of Palestine are the umma’s vanguard in the battle of liberation, and upon them falls the heaviest burden to continue the struggle, until the entire umma can rise to fulfil its role in history: to wage the ultimate and decisive battle for the land of Palestine.”
Some sources indicate that the PIJ was able to attract many of the rank-and-file of
After the
Concerning its political positions, the PIJ opposed the peace initiative that was adopted by the PLO during the nineteenth general meeting of the
Currently, the PIJ is the second strongest organization in the Gaza Strip after
The PIJ has established special relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran and considers the Islamic revolution a model to follow. It has also strong relations with Lebanese
Fathi Shiqaqi was succeeded by
Abu-Amr, Ziad. Islamic Fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza: Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994.
Alhaj, Wissam, Dot-Pouillard, Nicolas and Rébillard, Eugénie. De la Théologie à la Libération?: Histoire du Jihad islamique palestinien. Paris: La Découverte, 2014.
Batsh, Khalid. “Between Hamas and the PA: An Interview with Jihad’s Khalid Al-Batsh”. Journal of Palestine Studies. vol. 42, no 2. (Winter 2013): 61-70.
Bröning, Michael. Political Parties in Palestine: Leadership and Thought. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Shallah, Ramadan. “Interview with Ramadan Shallah (Part I): Israel at a Crossroads--Unable to Vanquish Resistance or Negotiate Peace”. Journal of Palestine Studies. vol. 44, no. 2 (Winter 2015): 52-62.
Shallah, Ramadan. “Interview with Ramadan Shallah (Part II): Palestinian Resistance - A Reexamination”. Journal of Palestine Studies. vol. 44, no. 3 (Spring 2015): 39-48