Wedding of a warrior's grandson
Regional, Culture, 10/25/1997

It wasn't like any other wedding ceremony but a first class national rally. Last Sunday, Palestinians from all parts of the country poured into the town of Ya'bad, near Jenin on the West Bank, to attend the wedding ceremony of Ahmad Al Qassam, the grandson of Arab warrior and revolutionary Izziddin Al Qassam.

Sheikh Izziddin Al Qassam, of Syrian origin, arrived in Palestine in the early 30s and led the revolution against the British Mandate. In a 1935 battle with British troops near Ya'bad, he was killed. His name in the late 80s became the inspiration for Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, which named its military wing after him.

The reception was warm for both the grandson, Ahmad, and for his bride Lamia Hajjo, originally from the village of Lubia in Palestine but whose family was forced out of their country in 1948 and since then has been living in the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus. Their direct relatives did not attend the wedding. Lamia's family is still in Yarmouk and Ahmad's in Latakia, the Syrian coastal city on the Mediterranean.

But the villagers and the scores of friends who poured in from various parts of the country made it up for the two. The couple almost forgot that their relatives were not there. The local council, headed by Nidal Abu Baker, offered to organize the wedding ceremony and all its costs. The town residents took to the streets as if it was there own wedding. "Of course it is ours," said an old man as he was singing along with hundreds of others a number of national songs at music played by a local band. "Izziddin Al Qassam is a remarkable fighter in our history and the least we can do to honor him is to honor his grandson and celeberate with him this bright day," he said.

In Palestinian folkloric tradition, the groom is taken to a special ceremony where the crowd participate in shaving his beard as music plays and people sing. The bride is taken to a different hall where women sing and dance. The two events take place separately until only towards the end when the bride and the groom get together after they are pronounced a married couple. Photos of Al Qassam, the grandfather, and of PNA President Yasser Arafat were hung on the walls along with numerous Palestinian flags. It was a natinoal rally with the full sense of the word.

After dinner that was served to hundreds of participants, the peolpe walked through the town streets to the main school building where the big ceremony took place. Rain drops started to fall, but did not deter the participants. It felt like the tears of joy were descending on their heads from heaven.

Speakers in the wedding wished the best of luck to the two but still did not run short of rhetoric. They spoke of the struggle against the British, and later against Israel. They praised the unity among Arab warriors who fought over the land of Palestine. One speaker had to interrupt others every time he received a cable of congratulations from prople who could not attend the ceremony. Many cables arrived from national and public institutions from inside Israel, from the West Bank and from the PNA areas. Also President Arafat sent a warm message to the two.

For most of those who attended the wedding, Sheikh Al Qassam was a legend. They never saw him. They never met him. They had only heard of him. Except for Sheikh Salem Saqer, today the imam of Kufr Kanna village mosque near Nazareth. Sheikh Saqer arrived the next morning to Ya'bad, hug the groom and spoke of how close he was to the Sheikh. "I used to pray with your grandfather in Haifa's Istiqlal (independence) Mosque for 27 days." He spoke of how Izziddin Al Qassam was killed in Ya'bad along with two other warriors, Abu Abdallah Zeibawi of Palestine and one from Egypt. He spoke of how the Imam who prayed in their funeral could not control himself and broke in tears during the prayers. "Imam Taha Darini called for the prayers. The minute he started his speech, he cryied and we all cried with him."

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