Sheikh Farhan al-Saadi (circa 1862 – 27 November 1937) was a Palestinian rebel commander and revolutionary who rose to prominence during the

1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine A popular uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine against the British administration, later known as the Great Revolt, the Great Palestinian Revolt, or the Palestinian Revolution, lasted from 1936 until 1939. The movement sought i ...

. He participated in national conferences and demonstrations against the British Mandate of Palestine in the

1929 Palestine riots The 1929 Palestine riots, Buraq Uprising (, ) or the Events of 1929 (, , ''lit.'' Events of 5689 Anno Mundi), was a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 in which a longstanding dispute between Palestinian Arabs and Jews ove ...

. He is thought to have been the first to use a weapon during the revolt. Sa'adi was at one point imprisoned by the British authorities. When he was released from prison, he moved to

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

where he met Sheikh Izz al-Din al-Qassam and joined his organisation. On 15 April 1936, a group called ''Ikhwan al-Qassam'' under al-Sa'di's leadership ambushed a bus on the Nablus-Tulkarm road. Two Jewish passengers were taken off the bus and fatally shot. This incident is seen as the starting point of the 1936–1939 Arab Revolt. For the many operations against the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

, he was sentenced to death for carrying a single bullet. Sa'adi was

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

on 27 November 1937, at the age of 75 during the Ramadan fast.

References

1860s births 1937 deaths Inmates of Acre Prison Rebel commanders of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine Executed revolutionaries Palestinian nationalists People from Jenin Governorate People from the Ottoman Empire People convicted of illegal possession of weapons People executed by the British military by hanging People executed by Mandatory Palestine by hanging {{Palestine-bio-stub