Ben-Gvir threatens to destroy grave of anti-colonial leader Izzeddin al-Qassam

Israel's extremist National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has called for the demolition of the grave of the anti-colonial resistance leader Izzeddin al-Qassam near Haifa.

Al-Qassam was killed by British forces in Mandatory Palestine in 1935 and was buried in the village of Balad al-Sheikh. The inhabitants of the village fled during the 1948 Nakba, and its territory is now part of the Israeli town of Nesher near Haifa.

Ben-Gvir told the mayor of Nesher, Roy Levi, to "issue a demolition order tomorrow morning" during a Tuesday meeting of the Israeli Knesset's Internal Affairs and Environment, according to the Times of Israel.

"We must send a very clear message: arch-terrorists, even in death, will not serve as symbols here," Ben-Gvir added, saying that the Israeli police would organise the demolition.

Izzeddin Al-Qassam, a Muslim preacher, was born in the Syrian town of Jableh in 1881. Throughout his life, he opposed Western colonial encroachment into Arab countries, supporting resistance against the Italian invasion of Libya and later taking part in fighting against French colonial forces in Syria.

In the early 1920s, he moved with his family to Palestine, where the British government had promised to support a "national home" for Jews against the wishes of the Palestinian people.

In the 1930s, Al-Qassam began to organise a resistance group against both the British colonial authorities and Jewish settlers in Palestine.

He was later killed after being surrounded by British forces, who blamed his group for the death of a Jewish police constable working for the British government.

He is widely revered by Palestinians for his resistance against the British occupation of Palestine, with Hamas naming its military wing after him.

Yitzhak Kroizer, a member of the Knesset from Ben-Gvir's far-right Jewish Power party, said that Qassam's grave should be used as a "bargaining chip" in negotiations with Hamas to return Israeli captives held in Gaza, threatening to re-bury Qassam in a "cemetery for terrorists".

Al-Qassam's grave has been vandalised before, with other Israelis previously advocating its destruction.