>Abd al-Qadir Husayni was, a Palestinian Arab nationalist and fighter who in late 1933 founded the secret militant group known as the Organization for Holy Struggle, born to the prominent and influential al-Husayni family of Jerusalem.
>In 1938, Abd al-Qadir was exiled to Egypt from Mandatory Palestine for his involvement in the Arab Revolt of 1936 and in1939 moved to Iraq where he took part in the pro-Axis Rashid Ali al-Gaylani coup. He moved to Egypt in 1946, but secretly returned to Palestine to lead the Army of the Holy War in January 1948.
>Having recruited a few thousand volunteers, al-Husayni organised the blockade of the 100,000 Jewish residents of Jerusalem.[38] To counter this, the Yishuv authorities tried to supply the city with convoys of up to 100 armoured vehicles, but the operation became more and more impractical as the number of casualties in the relief convoys surged. By March, Al-Hussayni's tactic had paid off. Almost all of Haganah's armoured vehicles had been destroyed, the blockade was in full operation, and hundreds of Haganah members who had tried to bring supplies into the city were killed.[39] The situation for those who dwelt in the Jewish settlements in the highly isolated Negev and north of Galilee was even more critical.
>Husayni was killed while personally reconnoitring an area of Qastal Hill shrouded by fog, in the early hours of 8 April 1948.[4] Qastal village was then demolited by the Haganah.
>According to Dov Yosef the turning point of the Battle for Jerusalem was the death of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni on 8 April. 30,000 people attended his funeral at the Haram al-Sharif and subsequently the morale of his forces collapsed.[44]
Abd al-Qadir Husayni was a remarkable Palestinian for being actually good at war for once, but the most interesting thing about his was his father, and the massive role he played in establishing a Zionist presence in Israel under the Ottomans before WW1.
>His father, Musa al-Husayni, held various senior positions in the Ottoman Empire, working in Yemen, Iraq, Najd and Constantinople (Istanbul) in addition to Palestine. Serving as governor (kaymakam) of Jaffa and Mayor of Jerusalem.
>In 1905, while Governor of Jaffa, Musa al-Husayni sent armed guards to protect the new Jewish neighbourhood of Neveh Zedek, North of Jaffa, founded by his personal friend Eliezer Rokach.[29] He also helped associates of Edmond Rothschild in the setting up of some of the first Jewish colonies.[30] In the 1920s he appears to have sold land to the Jewish National Fund in particular at Dalab, near Abu Gosh on which kibbutz Kfar Anavim was later built. His name also appears on a 1937 Zionist list of notables who had sold land.