Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Sheikh Ali Abdul Qader Qassem Atiq was born on August 5, 1959, in the town of Burqin, Jenin Governorate, in the northern West Bank. He is married and has four sons and four daughters. He completed his primary and preparatory education in Burqin schools and graduated from Jenin Sharia School in 1978. He received a diploma in Islamic law from the Sharia Institute affiliated with the University of Jordan in 1980. He was appointed imam of the Sila al-Dahr Mosque in Jenin Governorate in 1981, and then imam of the Great Mosque of Burqin in 1990 until his retirement in 2016.
Atiq joined the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1979, and played an educational and awareness-raising role in Jenin Governorate. He was interested in spreading Islamic thought and consolidating religious affiliation in people’s hearts, and he organized many cultural and sports activities starting from mosques, such as giving lessons and lectures, establishing sports teams, conducting cultural competitions, and organizing recreational trips.
Atiq played a prominent role in establishing the Burqin Zakat Committee, overseeing its management from 1990 to 2007. The committee implemented several projects for the benefit of the poor and needy residents of Burqin, such as opening the Al-Aqsa Islamic Kindergarten, establishing a beekeeping project in 1996, and a charitable bakery project in 2004. These projects ceased in 2007 due to the repercussions of the political division in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Atiq also contributed to the establishment of the Jenin Zakat Committee and served on its administrative board from 1990 to 2007. He has been a prominent member of the Jenin Governorate Reform Committee since 2000. Atiq ran for municipal elections in Burqin in 2005 on the Reform and Change list and won the mayoral election, remaining in office until 2009.
Atiq became involved in the national struggle early in his life, participating in marches and demonstrations against the occupation during his high school years. He was first arrested in March 1988, subjected to intense interrogation, and then placed under administrative detention for six months, followed by a series of summonses to the Israeli intelligence services. He was re-arrested by the Israeli occupation forces in October 1993 and sentenced to one year in prison for belonging to the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas. He was arrested again in March 1996 and placed under administrative detention for five months. His son Ahmed (an activist in the Qassam Brigades) was martyred while carrying out an attack on the Tayasir camp of the occupation forces in the Tubas area on March 10, 2002. The occupation forces demolished Atiq's house on November 2, 2002. The Jordanian authorities prevented Atiq from traveling in 2006 as part of a delegation representing the Burqin municipality to participate in a conference in the United Arab Emirates with the aim of securing support for the municipality's projects. He was harassed by the Palestinian Authority security services and arrested by them for 10 days in 2007. The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Endowments prevented him from preaching in 2014 because of his political positions. The occupation issued an order preventing him from traveling in 2015. The occupation forces arrested his two sons, Muhammad and Abdul Qader, several times, and they were summoned and arrested by the Palestinian security services more than once.
Atiq believes that the occupation has no future on Palestinian land and that it is destined to end. He calls for Palestinians to move beyond the Oslo Accords and their negative repercussions on the lives and future of Palestinians. He believes that the Palestinian division came as a result of many negative accumulations, foremost among them the Palestinians' loss of a culture of accepting differences and understanding others. He believes that national partnership is important, especially at this stage, and that integrating Hamas and Islamic Jihad into the institutions of the Palestine Liberation Organization on consensual and realistic grounds is essential to achieving national partnership. He also believes that resistance in all its forms is a right for all peoples living under occupation, guaranteed by divine laws and earthly laws, but every time has its appropriate tools that suit the stage.
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