Lebanon: Who was behind the first rockets fired into Israel? By: Radwan Mortada Published Monday, July 14, 2014 Is Hussein Atwi a hero or a daredevil? What would drive a man like Atwi, a college professor, a religious cleric, a mosque preacher, and the public relations manager at the World Arabic Language Council to leave the arenas of culture and preaching to step into the battlefield, taking it upon himself to personally launch rockets toward Israel? What links this sheikh to a former Israeli collaborator belonging to the Antoine Lahd militia (South Lebanon Army)? What messages did he want to send through his rockets and with his own blood? “I launched the missiles as a service to God, I have no regrets and I believe in what I did,” - Hussein Atwi At least three sets of rockets were fired into occupied Palestine from South Lebanon early Saturday morning, triggering a whirlwind of rumours around who was behind the attack. The news of a Muslim cleric and a former Lahd operative being involved in launching the missiles took the media by storm, with many dealing with it as if a crime had been committed. The cleric was arrested for committing the “crime” of launching missiles toward the Zionist enemy and the incident was treated as if a disgraceful act had been carried out. The event took a confusing turn, however, when the arrest of the man who launched the missiles coincided with the arrest of former Lahd operative, Samir Hussein Abu Qais, who was first suspected because he owned a car resembling the one used in the operation. But, how could a former Israeli collaborator be involved in attacking Israel? Abu Qais was soon released after it was proved that he had no relation whatsoever with the launch of the missiles. Atwi, who was injured while launching the missiles, is now the only remaining suspect under arrest. First the sheikh was linked to an extremist group, but this charge was soon refuted. Later on, it was reported that Atwi did it because he was eager to come to the aid of the people in Gaza, and launching the missiles was depicted as an impulsive reaction to the Israeli assault on the Strip. A lot was said, but it was only a part of the truth. Hussein Atwi is not some reckless youngster or a teenager driven by passion, but a man in his 40s holding a PhD in Islamic studies. Atwi was born in 1968 to a family that supports the Resistance in the village of Hebbariyeh in Arkoub in South Lebanon. Located at the western versant of Mount Hermon, the village borders both Syria and occupied Palestine. He was only nine years old when his mother was martyred by an Israeli shell in 1977, and after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Atwi joined the Resistance ranks and he enrolled with al-Fajr Forces. He worked his way up in military training and became a commander and a military trainer. He was jailed for a short period by Israeli forces in al-Khiam prison, and in the 2006 war he participated in the battles against Israel at the Arkoub axis. Along with his military activism, Atwi was a hard-working education seeker; he studied at al-Da’awa University, where he later on worked as a professor. His Master’s thesis was titled, “The Psychological Warfare in the Prophet’s Biography” and his PhD thesis was about “The Psychological Warfare in the Civil Era.” He was appointed public relations manager at the World Arabic language Council, and administered the Imam Ghazali Center for Sufi studies. Furthermore, he is currently the director of Da’awa University branch in Arkoub, and has worked as a journalist for the Jordanian newspaper al-Liwa’a for seven years. The first thing Atwi reportedly told his family at the hospital was: “I launched the missiles as a service to God, I have no regrets and I believe in what I did,” adding “I support the people of Gaza who are being killed by our enemy, and the Resistance is a right for us all.” A close friend of Atwi revealed that the sheikh believes that “the hell of the sectarian Shia-Sunni conflict can only be stopped when an open war is launched against Israel,” adding that he “knew quite well that his missiles would not change the balance and would not drag Lebanon into war amid an international consensus to neutralize it.” “Through his act, he sought to redirect the compass toward Palestine and to send a clear message that the Resistance is not restricted to a single party but it is for all the Lebanese, mainly the residents of the South’s villages.” Concerning the Jamaa Islamiya’s (Islamic Group) involvement in launching the rockets, Atwi’s friends all agreed that he acted alone and that his choice was 100 percent personal, explaining that he wanted “his voice to be heard before the rocket.” Asked how he got his hands on the rockets, they said that they had been buried in a region close by since the 2006 war. Atwi joined the Resistance early on and he always followed up on the news of Resistance fighters in southern Lebanon and in Palestine. He is not known to be a sectarian fanatic, even his recent criticism of Hezbollah was based on his opposition to the party’s involvement in Syria and had no religious reasons. He is not known to be a sectarian fanatic, even his recent criticism of Hezbollah was based on his opposition to the party’s involvement in Syria and had no religious reasons. Rejecting extremist ideas, Atwi used to tell people close to him that al-Qaeda was involved with multiple intelligence agencies and did not serve the Palestinian or the Islamic causes. He also slammed the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), saying the “ISIS are dissidents of the ummah (the Islamic nation) and are the creation of multiple intelligence agencies.” Atwi is a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars that fervently supports the Syrian revolution, but he refused to join the ranks of its fighters or to provide them with any kind of military support. Speaking to Al-Akhbar, his old friend Dr. Hilal Darwish said, “we only knew Sheikh Hussein as a moderate who worries about the ummah.” He described Atwi as “a self-made man who moved between the villages of the South, the Bekaa and Beirut seeking education,” and depicted him as a “composed person who has many publications and has written esteemed articles about psychological warfare.” Commenting on the missiles’ launch, Darwish said “I was not surprised, I knew him as a fighter before he was an intellectual,” adding “since he is a man with a message, I do not think that what he did was impulsive or stupid; he wanted to take revenge for his mother and for his ummah.” “Dr. Hussein is a jihadi and a Resistance fighter; the South’s front and its Resistance are witnesses to his jihad there,” he elaborated. Atwi’s older brother, Sheikh Abdel Hakim said, “Sheikh Hussein wanted words to come with actions.” He spoke about the messages his sibling wanted to send by launching the rockets: “the first was addressed to feeble Arabs and the second to slacking youngsters.” “For the feeble, he said I am a doctor, a sheikh, and I am willing to become a martyr for the sake of Palestine, and for the slackers, he wanted to tell them: take me as an example,” the brother explained, adding that the third message was addressed to the Lebanese state, and he wanted to say “the ministerial declaration gives me the right to resist until the liberation of the occupied part of my land.” Follow Radwan Mortada on Twitter | @radwanmortada This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 19:52:46 +0000
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