PALESTINIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD–BAYT AL-MAQDIS

Subgroup (al-Jihad al-Islami al-Filastini–Bayt al-Maqdis; Palestinian Islamic Jihad–Jerusalem) of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad whose name surfaced for the first time in February 1990, when it claimed responsibility for an attack on a bus filled with Israeli tourists in Isma'ilia, Egypt (the place where the Muslim Brotherhood was founded), that caused eleven deaths. Its principal leader was Shaykh Asad Bayud Tamimi, one of the founders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who, taking advantage of disarray in the Jihad in Lebanon, tried to capture its leadership. The movement went on to claim credit for a number of attacks it had not really carried out. Opposing any negotiated resolution with Israel and advocating the liberation of the whole of Palestine, it received material support from Iran and Sudan. In October 1990 a disagreement between Tamimi and Ibrahim Serbal prompted the latter to form his own group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad–Kataʾib al-Aqsa. After the Gulf War, two factions appeared within Palestinian Islamic Jihad–Bayt al-Maqdis: one pro-Iraqi, the other pro-Iranian. These two new currents rose from a divergence between Shaykh Tamimi and Talaʾat al-Tamimi. Within the larger Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, the Bayt al-Maqdis faction is considered to be closest to al-Fatah. Some think that members of Force 17 joined its ranks in January 1993 in order to constitute a military branch called the Falcons of Islam. In Jordan, where the movement is based, the constant surveillance of the Jordanian services has kept its activities within the limits of strict legality.

SEE ALSO Fatah, al-;Palestinian Islamic Jihad;Palestinian Islamic Jihad–Kataʾib al-Aqsa.