The vacuum in the Hamas leadership following the assassination of its spiritual leader Ahmad Yasin will be filled by Dr. ‘Abd Al-‘Aziz A-Rantisi.
Thousands of Hamas members expressed support of the decision to place A-Rantisi at the movement’s helm on Tuesday.
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Dr. ‘Abd Al-‘Aziz A-Rantisi
Reports on the new structure of the movement are contradictory and the exact balance of power and authority has yet to be clarified.
At present, it seems that A-Rantisi will head the movement in Gaza, but will answer to Khalid Mash’al who resides in Syria and is now titled Secretary-General of Hamas [click here [1] to read about Khalid Mash’al]. A-Rantisi told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds that he is obligated to obey orders from Mash’al who is “the person in charge of the organization in all parts of Palestine.”
A-Rantisi, a trained pediatrician residing in Gaza, is considered a hardliner in the organization. While A-Rantisi leads the organization from its hub in Gaza, there are other leaderships in the West Bank and in Israeli prisons where many Hamas activists are detained.
Although he lacks the religious standing of Yasin, A-Rantisi is considered a charismatic leader with many supporters.
A-Rantisi was born in 1947 in what was then Mandatory Palestine. His family fled to Gaza during the 1948 war and resided in the Khan Younis refugee camp, where he grew up among nine siblings.
He studied medicine at Alexandria University and returned to Gaza where he worked as a pediatrician in Khan Younis.
He worked in social and charitable organizations offering his medical expertise, including the Palestinian Red Crescent.
In 1987, A-Rantisi became one of the seven founders of Hamas, an acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement. He was one of the first Hamas leaders to be arrested in 1987, and overall spent several years in Israeli jail, mainly for what the Hamas website calls “anti-Zionist activity.”
A-Rantisi had a close relationship with the late Yasin; as the Hamas website notes he learned the Quran by heart with Yasin’s help while they shared a prison cell together in 1990.
In 1992, A-Rantisi was expelled with 400 Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists to southern Lebanon. After setting up a protest camp there, he became the prominent vocal spokesman for the deportees, who eventually returned a year later.
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority led by Yassir Arafat are at odds, since Hamas refuses to recognize the Zionist entity. Since Palestinians started negotiating with Israelis, leading to the Oslo Accords and the formation of the Palestinian Authority in 1993, the relationship between the two has been shaky. A-Rantisi served time in Palestinian jails in the late 1990s.
A-Rantisi has also made several anti-Semitic comments to the media, including Holocaust denials.
Even before the killing of Yasin, A-Rantisi was considered the strongman in Hamas, the person who had the power and the capability of shaking policies and making crucial decisions.
His opinion is frequently expressed in the media, explaining the stand of his organization. However, he has practiced caution in appearing in public since the attempt on his life by the Israeli army in June 2003.
A-Rantisi said he sees his position as the new leader of Hamas as an obligation, not an honor. “My hand is extended to all the national and Islamic factions to make a unified stand and face the enemy,” he said.