October 6, 2026 marks the 39th anniversary of the founding of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine. On this anniversary, Khaled Barakat, a member of the Executive Committee of the Masar Badil, the Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, spoke to the Masar Badil website and gave a live interview in Beirut with Palestine Today TV about the significance of this anniversary and the relationship between the Islamic Jihad Movement and the Masar Badil.
“When we study the history of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, we realize that it is a revolutionary Islamic trend that has played, and continues to play, a significant role in the Palestinian national liberation movement,” Barakat said. “The movement and its founders are deeply rooted in the impoverished classes and the popular masses of Palestine, especially in Gaza. The great leader, the martyr Dr. Fathi Shaqaqi, played a central role in shaping the direction of the Islamic Jihad Movement when he wrote his booklet, ‘Khomeini: The Islamic Solution and the Alternative,'” Barakat noted.
“The movement consciously adopted the central idea that the role of any Islamic movement in the region, especially in Palestine, must be to engage in armed struggle against the occupation, and that Palestine is the central cause in the region,” he said. “At the time, this distinguished the nascent Islamic Jihad Movement from other Islamic trends, which prioritized the dissemination of Islam or the establishment of an Islamic government and saw the liberation of Palestine as a later stage of development, or viewed Palestine as of equal or lesser importance to other conflicts.”
He further said that “the Movement played a significant role in confronting the efforts of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United States to push Palestinian youth to fight in Afghanistan rather than in Palestine,” and commented that this is one of the reasons the movement is specifically named the “Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine,” emphasizing the centrality of Palestine to its cause.
“The movement also strongly adhered to a social vision based on serving the popular and impoverished classes in which it is rooted and mobilizing the oppressed for action. As a result, the Movement has found itself targeted by Arab reactionary regimes and the Zionist entity through imprisonment, assassination and attempts to destroy the movement,” Barakat said.
Speaking about the Masar Badil’s view on the 39th anniversary of the movement, Barakat congratulated the movement on 39 years of distinguished struggle. “For the Masar Badil, the Islamic Jihad Movement is an important ally, and the relationship between the two movements is very strong. We focus this relationship on the main issues that concern our people, and we cooperate in political, media and cultural work. We aim to strengthen the connections between the Islamic Jihad Movement and international liberation movements and solidarity organizations,” he said.
“For the Masar Badil, we view one of our primary roles as opening a dialogue and developing a sense of unity between the Resistance in Palestine and the region and the anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist movements around the world,” Barakat said. “In every meeting that we have organized between the leadership of the Islamic Jihad and these movements across the globe, the outcomes have been important, promising and positive. We aim to build this bridge because we see it as beneficial for our Palestinian cause, for Islamic revolutionary trends and for anti-imperialist fronts and movements across the globe.”
“Though we come from different ideological backgrounds and orientations, both movements are very serious about maintaining our independent political direction and positions, and both movements believe in the project of total liberation and return to Palestine. Both the Islamic Jihad and the Masar Badil reject all attempts to impose upon the Palestinian people the liquidation process known as the Madrid-Oslo path, and both movements see the so-called ‘Palestinian Authority’ as a tool in the hands of the enemy,” Barakat said.
“The movement officially celebrates its birth on 6 October 1987, and this is directly linked to the first Intifada, the great popular Intifada. The role of the Islamic Jihad Movement was significant in the development of this great uprising. Six Palestinian prisoners, led by Islamic Jihad cadre Misbah al-Suri, managed to escape from Gaza Central Prison and subsequently engaged in armed resistance against the occupiers. Their actions were important in paving the path of struggle and fanning the growing flames of the Intifada, especially in Gaza,” Barakat said. “If we evaluate the development of the Movement from that day until today, we can say that armed struggle remains central to its revolutionary path. The movement is heavily engaged in the Battle of Toufan al-Aqsa and the defense of Gaza. Its political discourse has become more deeply engaged in Palestinian internal politics, although the movement remains known for refusing to seek positions or authority, instead focusing on the continuing struggle,” he said.
“The movement was born in Gaza, but in the ensuing years, it has become a significant part of the Palestinian resistance everywhere, particularly in the northern West Bank, as well as in Lebanon. The movement has also managed to build a leadership forged inside the prisons of the occupation, where its members have demonstrated exceptional steadfastness through hunger strikes and collective and individual resistance. Our people know these leaders, headed by the martyr Sheikh Khader Adnan and the heroes of the Gilboa 6 ‘Freedom Tunnel,'” Barakat said.
“Our role as the Masar Badil is always to engage with the Movement about the connected struggles of peoples around the world fighting imperialism and colonialism, such as those represented by Bobby Sands in Ireland, Steve Biko in South Africa, and Black Liberation prisoners in the United States,” Barakat noted. “Some of our work has been indirectly inspired by the struggles of Islamic Jihad leaders—for example, the development of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, an integral part of the Masar Badil, came alongside the paradigmatic hunger strikes of Sheikh Khader Adnan, followed by Hana’ Shalabi, from late 2011 through early 2012. This is because, for both movements, the prisoners’ movement is a leading priority.”
“The Islamic Jihad Movement is very open to this broad internationalist horizon and to understanding the struggle as an anti-imperialist cause,” Barakat said. “As part of our political education curriculum, the Masar Badil studies the work of Fathi Shaqaqi. We believe that the revolutionary alternative for Palestine, like our Palestinian people, must not be of only one color, but instead must reflect the pluralism of our liberation movement. We benefit from the writings of Ghassan Kanafani and Fathi Shaqaqi alongside one another, without contradiction.”
“We understand that the stronger our relationship is, the more ‘Israel’ and its collaborators will be angered by it, because they want our people to be divided and weak rather than unified and strong. We will never forget that the Islamic Jihad Movement was the first and only Palestinian faction to publicly support the declaration of Masar Badil, without hesitation, in 2021. Today, five years after the founding of Masar Badil, almost every Palestinian faction has a positive and growing relationship with our movement,” Barakat concluded.