![\"Hamad](\"http:\/\/buletinonline.net\/v7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Hamad-Hasanat.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cHammad al-Hasanat co-founded the terrorist group (Hamas) on December 14, 1987,\u201d wrote British tabloid by way of introducing the black Palestinian leader. I say \u2018black\u2019, although skin colour was never an issue worth discussing within the Palestinian Gaza political context.<\/p>\nBut Hasanat had an affinity with Africa. I should know that. He was my geography teacher, and my favourite one throughout my three years at the Nuseirat\u2019s UNRWA Boys\u2019 Prep School.<\/p>\n
Hasanat\u2019s popularity stemmed largely from the fact that he \u201cdidn\u2019t give too much homework\u201d and that \u201che didn\u2019t hit\u201d as other teachers habitually did. In that way, his class was quite ideal: learning about the world at large and where winds come from and why, but the lessons included much storytelling. He was an agreeable character, and unlike our math teacher \u2013 whose name I am withholding because he still scares me to this day \u2013 who often came to class drunk and violent, Hasanat was a kind, fatherly figure to many of us.<\/p>\n
But being teenagers and all, we exploited our geography teacher\u2019s benevolence. Once we circulated a rumour that Hasanat naps in class because he was bitten by a bug while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.<\/p>\n
In a way, Hasanat asked for it, for he spoke disproportionately about that particular mountain. And whenever he needed to pronounce it, he would put less emphasis on the word \u201cmount\u201d and sharply increase the pitch of his voice when he phonated \u201cKilimanjaro\u201d. It was as if the whole classroom would shake, as the thunderous voice of Hasanat would echo around the decayed walls of our UN-funded refugee school.<\/p>\n
We laughed at Hasanat\u2019s expense, who rarely responded angrily at our snickering. Whenever he failed to mention Kilimanjaro, we would remind him with a sneaky question like \u201cAbu Yaser, what is the highest mountain in Africa, you know, the one in Tanzania?\u201d He would readily answer, then we would burst out laughing once more, and so on.<\/p>\n
Hasanat was not a militant, even though an assault rifle was laid on his chest in preparation for burial. But, when stacked in the right order, historical circumstances could turn a kindly geography teacher, in the words of the condemnatory Daily Mail, into a \u201ccofounder of a terrorist group\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hasanat\u2019s oldest son is Yaser, thus he was \u201cAbu Yaser\u201d \u2013 father of Yaser. I have never met Yaser, but I knew Tariq Dukhan well. Both Tariq and Yaser, along with two other teenagers, started the militant wing of Hamas, known as Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades.<\/p>\n