Young Sowetan’s encounter with Ismail Haniyeh over 26 years ago
In 1998 I led a delegation of South African Muslim leaders to Palestine. Amongst the leaders who joined the delegation was the former President of the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), Maulana Ihsan Hendricks and Yousuf “Tara” Seedat. Hendricks was a great advocate of the Palestinian cause in South Africa. Yusuf Tara was a widely loved figure and a leading activist within the South African Muslim community, may Allah be kind to both and accept them in Jannat ul Firdous.
This was the first visit of its kind and a beginning of a relationship which saw a development of very close ties between Palestine and South African Muslim community.
We visited the West Bank, Palestine 1948 (Israel) and Gaza. Our main stop was Omul Fahm in Palestine 1948. We were invited to attend the annual Al Aqsa Mahrajan Festival. Al Aqsa Mahrajan is an annual event that was conceptualised, by amongst others, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Palestine 1948, Sheik Raeed Salah.
Our final stop was Gaza. Those days, notwithstanding several checkpoints, it was possible to enter Gaza from the West Bank and Palestine 1948. That was where I first met Ismail Haniyeh, a man who was robbed of electoral victory of Palestine in 2006 and ended up becoming a Prime Minister of Gaza.
When I met Ismail Haniyeh, he was an aide of Sheik Ahmad Yassin the leader of the Islamic Movement in Gaza who was assassinated by Israel in March 2004. Our visit to Gaza was very productive. We had a chance to discuss at length the South African struggle and its similarities with that of Palestine. We also had a remarkable political discussion with Abdul Aziz Rantisi, another leader of the Islamic movement in Gaza at the time, a medical doctor and intellectual. Rantisi was also assassinated by Israel in April 2004, a month after the assassination of Sheik Ahmad Yassin.
Almost 26 years later I met Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, Qatar on several occasions during my residence in that country. Notwithstanding his new political status, he remained a humble servant of his people.
Ismail Haniyeh exuded Noor (brightness and attraction). He had the most noticeable presence in the room. Palestinians have lost a great leader. In most occasions I met him, he was in his white thawb. He looked like someone from another planet in his thawb, always calm. May his spirit live on and continue to inspire generations to come.