The decisions were made by individuals and do not reflect the position of the camp as a whole, especially since the Islamist forces did not call for jihad. (Photo: Haitham Moussawi)
Al-Akhbar speaks with Usbat al-Ansar and other Islamist groups in Saida’s Ain al-Hilweh that deny the presence of al-Qaeda and al-Nusra Front in the Palestinian refugee camp. Though Ain al-Hilweh residents have gone to fight jihad in Syria, it’s hardly the launching pad for all fighting in the country.
At the main entrance to Ain al-Hilweh, cars and passengers were being searched and their papers checked at the Lebanese army checkpoint. However, these security measures are not imposed on pedestrians. Men, women, and young people pass back and forth in front of the soldiers without saying a word.
This scene occurs at all the four checkpoints around the camp. However, according to information obtained by Lebanese security forces, “leading members of al-Qaeda from several nationalities” entered the camp here two months ago.
The report goes on to state that “fighters from al-Nusra Front, camp residents, and Palestinian Syrians are entering and leaving...Syria to fight the regime.” The latest such incident was recorded early Tuesday morning, when a group of leading members of the remnants of Fatah al-Islam and Jund al-Sham left the camp. They included Mohammed al-Dokhi, Haitham al-Shaabi, and Mohammed al-Arifi.
There is also information about more groups leaving very soon. According to a security source, the information is being taken seriously.
Launchpad for Jihad?
On foot, the search for the jihadist begins. In the upper street of the camp, nothing seems out of the ordinary. Shops, vegetable stalls, unemployed young men, and security guards for Palestinian factions – armed to the teeth – occupy the scene.
In the alley leading to the Taware neighborhood, where the so-called remnants of Fatah al-Islam and Jund al-Sham reside, everything seems normal. Some residents told us that we will not find anything under the sun, but masked men have been patrolling the area at night. However, “they are not jihadists, but it is part of some score-settling among groups from Fatah and others.”
In the lower street, under the control of Islamist forces, the only difference are banners saying, “There is no god but God” and a crowd of Syrian refugees gathered in front of al-Nour mosque, the headquarters of the Jihadi Islamist Movement’s chief Sheikh Jamal Khattab.
The sheikh’s name came up in the reports alleging the presence of al-Qaeda and al-Nusra in the camp, specifically in the Bahaa kindergarten he runs. It is rumored that the Islamist leader Bilal Badr has been using the premises to mobilize young fighters and train them, before sending them to Syria.
Khattab’s office is separated from the street by a steel door. The man wanted by Lebanese authorities is alone. He mocks the accusations against his kindergarten, indicating that it is far from al-Badr Brigade’s headquarters, “which if I were to visit, I would be killed before getting there, due to the many enemies along the way,” he tells Al-Akhbar.
He takes us to the kindergarten and two more centers to show us his “way of jihad for the Syrian people, which is through sheltering and supporting refugees.” He does not deny the exit of a small number of young men to fight in Syria, which is small compared to the size of the camp.
However, he maintains that “the decisions were made by individuals and do not reflect the position of the camp as a whole, especially since the Islamist forces did not call for jihad.”
While he rejects calling for jihad in Syria, since “the priority is to send fighters to Palestine,” Khattab is not surprised about the young men’s choice. “It is enough to follow media and Internet mobilization sites to be encouraged to make such a decision,” he adds.
Khattab’s open communication with Hezbollah gives him the chance to advise its leadership to reconsider their involvement in the Syrian crisis. Face to face, he told them that they “made a mistake and allowed groups inside Lebanon to call for jihad in Syria as a natural reaction to their involvement,” he says. “This is similar to the intervention of the Palestinian revolution in the Lebanese civil war, when they steered away from Palestine.”
He believes the accusations related to al-Qaeda and al-Nusra are “a Zionist plot to remove Ain al-Hilweh camp from the map as the capital of Palestinian Diaspora.”
In the beginning of 2007, Khattab began noticing the threat of Fatah al-Islam. Along with the Islamist forces in the camp, he contacted the Lebanese army, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, and Saida MP Bahia Hariri to contain the situation. He proposed to negotiate with Fatah al-Islam to ask them to leave Lebanon. So why wouldn’t he do the same now?
He indicates that the people of the camp know each other very well and that the members of Fatah al-Islam were from outside the camp. “Anyone leaving Ain al-Hilweh will be discovered quickly. The camp is small and people know each other. They would notice strangers,” he explains. Currently, he does not notice anything. However, several fighters returning from Syria were welcomed back by popular festivities.
A Close Friend of Zarqawi
While Khattab got mixed up in the allegations about al-Nusra and al-Qaeda though his kindergarten, Abu Tarek al-Saadi, a leader in Usbat al-Ansar, was embroiled in the same tale through his group’s involvement in Iraq.
Saadi stresses that no members of al-Qaeda or al-Nusra entered Ain al-Hilweh since they could only enter through him. He has “shared blood with al-Qaeda,” in reference to the 10 members of al-Ansar who fell resisting the US occupation in Iraq. He is currently undertaking field investigations to authenticate the information of the Lebanese security forces about the presence of the two groups, but has uncovered nothing.
He is surprised that all the reports and accusations haven’t produced any arrests or uncovered any “plans of sabotage or terrorism against the Shia.”
Saadi respects the young men who fight in Syria, despite their “undisciplined manner.” He resents those who return after a short while, which means that their “intent of jihad was not pure and it was merely for show and vacationing.”
He is also angry at sheikhs and leaders inside and outside the camps, “who use the people of Ain al-Hilweh as fodder.” This includes Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, for example, who said he depended on Usbat al-Ansar to fight for him in any confrontation.
Saadi insists that it will not be sending fighters to Syria. “Intervention in this battle would be a setback to the military struggle against Israel and the US,” he explains. However, “if an external aggression on Syria occurs, jihad will become a duty.”
The State and Hezbollah
A few months ago, a leaflet attacking Palestinian Islamist forces was distributed in the Ain al-Hilweh camp. It criticized Khattab, Saadi, and Usbat al-Ansar’s media representatives Abu Sharif Aql for their contacts with Hezbollah and the Lebanese army. However the three men know that these contacts “are in the interest of the camp and not for personal gain.”
This is why they immediately isolated Sheikh Assir from the camp and disengaged from Lebanese internal conflicts.
Assir and the reconciliation
Saadi says that the camp is not involved in a war against the army or the Shia. He denies the accusations of al-Ansar’s involvement in Sunni-Shia strife. In Iraq, he was able to influence Abu Musab al-Zarqawi at the height of the sectarian strife. Before his death, Zarqawi said in his last sermon, “We are in Iraq, but our hearts are in Jerusalem.”
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.
At the main entrance to Ain al-Hilweh, cars and passengers were being searched and their papers checked at the Lebanese army checkpoint. However, these security measures are not imposed on pedestrians. Men, women, and young people pass back and forth in front of the soldiers without saying a word.
This scene occurs at all the four checkpoints around the camp. However, according to information obtained by Lebanese security forces, “leading members of al-Qaeda from several nationalities” entered the camp here two months ago.
The report goes on to state that “fighters from al-Nusra Front, camp residents, and Palestinian Syrians are entering and leaving...Syria to fight the regime.” The latest such incident was recorded early Tuesday morning, when a group of leading members of the remnants of Fatah al-Islam and Jund al-Sham left the camp. They included Mohammed al-Dokhi, Haitham al-Shaabi, and Mohammed al-Arifi.
There is also information about more groups leaving very soon. According to a security source, the information is being taken seriously.
Launchpad for Jihad?
On foot, the search for the jihadist begins. In the upper street of the camp, nothing seems out of the ordinary. Shops, vegetable stalls, unemployed young men, and security guards for Palestinian factions – armed to the teeth – occupy the scene.
In the alley leading to the Taware neighborhood, where the so-called remnants of Fatah al-Islam and Jund al-Sham reside, everything seems normal. Some residents told us that we will not find anything under the sun, but masked men have been patrolling the area at night. However, “they are not jihadists, but it is part of some score-settling among groups from Fatah and others.”
In the lower street, under the control of Islamist forces, the only difference are banners saying, “There is no god but God” and a crowd of Syrian refugees gathered in front of al-Nour mosque, the headquarters of the Jihadi Islamist Movement’s chief Sheikh Jamal Khattab.
The sheikh’s name came up in the reports alleging the presence of al-Qaeda and al-Nusra in the camp, specifically in the Bahaa kindergarten he runs. It is rumored that the Islamist leader Bilal Badr has been using the premises to mobilize young fighters and train them, before sending them to Syria.
Khattab’s office is separated from the street by a steel door. The man wanted by Lebanese authorities is alone. He mocks the accusations against his kindergarten, indicating that it is far from al-Badr Brigade’s headquarters, “which if I were to visit, I would be killed before getting there, due to the many enemies along the way,” he tells Al-Akhbar.
He takes us to the kindergarten and two more centers to show us his “way of jihad for the Syrian people, which is through sheltering and supporting refugees.” He does not deny the exit of a small number of young men to fight in Syria, which is small compared to the size of the camp.
However, he maintains that “the decisions were made by individuals and do not reflect the position of the camp as a whole, especially since the Islamist forces did not call for jihad.”
While he rejects calling for jihad in Syria, since “the priority is to send fighters to Palestine,” Khattab is not surprised about the young men’s choice. “It is enough to follow media and Internet mobilization sites to be encouraged to make such a decision,” he adds.
Khattab’s open communication with Hezbollah gives him the chance to advise its leadership to reconsider their involvement in the Syrian crisis. Face to face, he told them that they “made a mistake and allowed groups inside Lebanon to call for jihad in Syria as a natural reaction to their involvement,” he says. “This is similar to the intervention of the Palestinian revolution in the Lebanese civil war, when they steered away from Palestine.”
He believes the accusations related to al-Qaeda and al-Nusra are “a Zionist plot to remove Ain al-Hilweh camp from the map as the capital of Palestinian Diaspora.”
In the beginning of 2007, Khattab began noticing the threat of Fatah al-Islam. Along with the Islamist forces in the camp, he contacted the Lebanese army, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, and Saida MP Bahia Hariri to contain the situation. He proposed to negotiate with Fatah al-Islam to ask them to leave Lebanon. So why wouldn’t he do the same now?
He indicates that the people of the camp know each other very well and that the members of Fatah al-Islam were from outside the camp. “Anyone leaving Ain al-Hilweh will be discovered quickly. The camp is small and people know each other. They would notice strangers,” he explains. Currently, he does not notice anything. However, several fighters returning from Syria were welcomed back by popular festivities.
A Close Friend of Zarqawi
While Khattab got mixed up in the allegations about al-Nusra and al-Qaeda though his kindergarten, Abu Tarek al-Saadi, a leader in Usbat al-Ansar, was embroiled in the same tale through his group’s involvement in Iraq.
Saadi stresses that no members of al-Qaeda or al-Nusra entered Ain al-Hilweh since they could only enter through him. He has “shared blood with al-Qaeda,” in reference to the 10 members of al-Ansar who fell resisting the US occupation in Iraq. He is currently undertaking field investigations to authenticate the information of the Lebanese security forces about the presence of the two groups, but has uncovered nothing.
He is surprised that all the reports and accusations haven’t produced any arrests or uncovered any “plans of sabotage or terrorism against the Shia.”
Saadi respects the young men who fight in Syria, despite their “undisciplined manner.” He resents those who return after a short while, which means that their “intent of jihad was not pure and it was merely for show and vacationing.”
He is also angry at sheikhs and leaders inside and outside the camps, “who use the people of Ain al-Hilweh as fodder.” This includes Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, for example, who said he depended on Usbat al-Ansar to fight for him in any confrontation.
Saadi insists that it will not be sending fighters to Syria. “Intervention in this battle would be a setback to the military struggle against Israel and the US,” he explains. However, “if an external aggression on Syria occurs, jihad will become a duty.”
The State and Hezbollah
A few months ago, a leaflet attacking Palestinian Islamist forces was distributed in the Ain al-Hilweh camp. It criticized Khattab, Saadi, and Usbat al-Ansar’s media representatives Abu Sharif Aql for their contacts with Hezbollah and the Lebanese army. However the three men know that these contacts “are in the interest of the camp and not for personal gain.”
This is why they immediately isolated Sheikh Assir from the camp and disengaged from Lebanese internal conflicts.
Assir and the reconciliation
Saadi says that the camp is not involved in a war against the army or the Shia. He denies the accusations of al-Ansar’s involvement in Sunni-Shia strife. In Iraq, he was able to influence Abu Musab al-Zarqawi at the height of the sectarian strife. Before his death, Zarqawi said in his last sermon, “We are in Iraq, but our hearts are in Jerusalem.”
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.
Uprooted Palestinian
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!
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