Palestinian co-founder of Islamic Movement in Israel dies

The co-founder of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Farid Abu Mukh, passed away in his hometown of Baqa Al-Gharbiye in Israel yesterday.

Eighty-three-year-old Abu Mukh had publicly called for an armed struggle against Israel combining Islamic and national ideologies.

In 1981, Israeli authorities arrested him and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for co- founding the Jihad Family secret organisation.

After spending four years in prison, he was released as part of the Jibril Agreement, which saw the release of 1,150 Palestinian prisoners including Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, co-founder of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, in exchange for the release of three Israeli soldiers captured by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC).

Historians have said Abu Mukh believed in unity and an end to division among Palestinians, Arabs and Muslim nations.

He had also called for an end to the division in the Islamic movement in its northern and southern branches as well as the state of division between Fatah and Hamas.

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