Ismail Haniyeh's illustrious legacy, which Israel didn't kill, will inspire freedom-seekers

By Wesam Bahrani

The cowardly assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh following the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s newly-elected president in Tehran represents no strategic victory for the Tel Aviv regime. 

Haniyeh had already won his decades-old battle against the illegitimate Zionist entity. A journey that stretches back to the day he was born in exile at the al-Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. 

His parents were driven out of their home in what is known today as “Ashkelon” to make way for foreign settlers who seized and occupied Haniyeh's ancestral home like they did to rest of the territory.

Nevertheless, the slain Hamas political bureau chief toiled hard in his days at university and earned respect among his peers with powerful speeches and demonstrations against the settler-colonial regime, the right to Palestinian statehood and a national Palestinian identity. 

Israelis cracked down and crushed all such resistance activities with an iron fist. Yet Haniyeh stood like a lion, fearless and unshakeable, despite being arrested and jailed on numerous occasions as a young pro-liberation student-activist.

The illegal settlers tried to silence Haniyeh, arresting him at the young age of 26. He was sentenced to three years in prison in the 1980s when abuse in Israeli dungeons was more rampant than today.

Haniyeh was then exiled to Lebanon, only to reappear in the Gaza Strip, where he helped establish a political party that would later rebrand itself and gain popularity as Hamas. 

The Palestinian resistance movement, which was behind the unprecedented Operation Al-Aqsa Storm on October 7, 2023, emerged during the first Intifada when Palestinians only had stones to defend themselves from the West-backed apartheid regime.

Haniyeh was a man of many rare qualities. He was resolute and devoted solely to the struggle for the liberation of Palestine and al-Quds for Muslims, Christians and Jews to pray peacefully together. 

His loyalty saw him rise through the ranks of Hamas, starting as secretary to the resistance movement's spiritual leader and founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. 

During the second intifada, the Israelis assassinated Sheikh Yassin, believing that the job was done.

His replacement was swiftly named Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, who famously declared that he wouldn't be in this life very long (amid the Israeli assassination spree against Hamas leaders at the time) but would prefer death by an "Israeli Apache helicopter". 

Profile: Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas leader who pushed Zionist entity to brink of extinction

The life and legacy of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of Hamas, will continue to inspire the forces of resistance against the Zionist occupation.

On March 23, 2004, Rantisi was named leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Just a day later, Rantisi was assassinated by an Apache helicopter in the besieged Palestinian territory. 

These were dangerous times for Hamas. Very challenging times. Leaders found it difficult to survive more than 24 hours in office. Many were forced to snap ties with the movement. And some did. 

Many others, such as Haniyeh stood their ground and led the way forward. He was in Gaza when bombs were raining down on the territory, at one point, emerging from a bombed residential building, while carrying the body of a dead child in his arms through the streets in search of an ambulance. 

He spent many years after 2004 working with other resistance figures on the political path for Palestinians to earn their right to self-defense and self-determination. 

Fast forward 20 years of struggle and resilience. Haniyeh was among those who ensured the Palestinian resistance in Gaza grew much stronger than in 2004. And it has, as is evident.

Who would have expected the Palestinians to break through the largest "open-air concentration camp in the world" the way they did on October 7, 2023? It literally shook the rickety edifice of the regime.

Despite spending the last years of his life in exile, mostly in Doha, Haniyeh remained a hero to Palestinians and all freedom-seeking people around the world. 

When news reached him at a Doha hospital, while tending to injured Palestinians, of his three sons and four grandchildren murdered by the Israeli forces earlier this year, he nodded in approval and said let's go and check on the others. At least 60 of his relatives have been killed since October 7, 2023. 

"All our people and all the families of Gaza have paid a heavy price in blood, and I am one of them," Haniyeh said in April after his sons and grandchildren were killed by the Israeli occupation in Gaza. 

This is the life he was born into and it ended in a similar fashion – a free man who didn’t accept a life of humiliation under an illegitimate, child-murdering regime.

Until his final hours, Haniyeh was advocating for the Palestinian cause. He left behind an illustrious legacy for future generations to take inspiration from. He did not leave behind a vacuum. 

Israelis also assassinated senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in January this year. It did not affect the Palestinian resistance in Gaza battling the genocidal US-backed Israeli war against women and children. 

The genocide has exceeded 300 days now and Tel Aviv has run out of ideas on how to defeat the Palestinian resistance when half of their Merkava tanks have been destroyed by Palestinian rockets. 

This is a Palestinian resistance besieged by land, air and sea, fighting against what is described as the most powerful army in the world backed by almost all Western states.

Sophisticated and advanced arms shipments are being sent every week from the US and still the Israeli occupation forces cannot defeat the resistance in Jabalia or Gaza City, let alone the entire Gaza Strip. 

There are plenty of Palestinians who will seek to avenge the martyrdom of Haniyeh by following his path, just like Haniyeh followed the path of Sheikh Yassin and al-Rantisi two decades ago. 

The movement can only grow stronger, no matter how many of its leaders the Israelis assassinate. 

At the end of the day, the hyenas can dance on the lion's grave but they can never be lions.

Wesam Bahrani is an Iraqi journalist and commentator.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.

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