What is "black hand"

Black Hand \Black Hand\ [A trans. of Sp. mano negra.]

1. A Spanish anarchistic society, many of the members of which were imprisoned in 1883.

2. A lawless or blackmailing secret society, esp. among Italians. [U. S.]

Italian immigrant secret society in U.S., 1904; earlier a Spanish anarchist society, both from the warning mark they displayed to potential victims.

Unification or Death , popularly known as the Black Hand (Црна рука/Crna ruka), was a secret military society formed on 9 May 1911 by officers in the Army of the Kingdom of Serbia, originating in the conspiracy group that assassinated the Serbian royal couple (1903), led by captain Dragutin Dimitrijević "Apis".

It was formed with the aim of uniting all of the territories with a South Slavic majority not ruled by either Serbia or Montenegro. Its inspiration was primarily the unification of Italy in 1859–70, but also that of Germany in 1871. Through its connections to the July 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, which was committed by the members of youth movement Young Bosnia, the Black Hand is often viewed as having contributed to the start of World War I by precipitating the July Crisis of 1914, which eventually led to Austria-Hungary's invasion of the Kingdom of Serbia.

Black Hand may refer to:

Black Hand was a type of extortion racket. It was a method of extortion, not a criminal organization as such, though gangsters of Camorra and the Mafia practiced it. According to a newspaper report in the New York Tribune of June 1912, the Black Hand "...really exists only as a phrase. As an organization such a thing never existed out of the minds of the police. It is a catch phrase made famlliar through the newspapers, and the quick witted criminal of Latin extraction lost no time in using it as a nom de crime, which he wrote at the bottom of his blackmailing letters, sometimes - in fact, generally - adding fanciful decorations of his own, such as daggers dripping blood, revolvers spitting fire and bullets, crudely drawn skulls and crossbones and the inevitable sketch of a human hand."

Black Hand (real name William Hand) is a fictional DC Comics supervillain and a recurring foe to Green Lantern. He first appeared in Green Lantern (vol. 2) #29 (June 1964) and was created by John Broome and Gil Kane. The character's name is a tribute to DC writer and Batman co-creator Bill Finger, on whom the character was based.

Black Hand extortion was a criminal tactic used by gangsters based in major cities, in the United States. In Chicago Black Hand extortion began around 1900 and had all but faded away by 1920, and the "Mafia" replaced it. The Faia was initially organized by Johnny Torrio, and somewhat organized by Al Capone. Black Handers in Chicago were mostly Italian and Sicilian men who would send anonymous extortion notes to their victims emblazoned with a feared old country symbol: the "Black Hand". The Black Hand was a precursor to organized crime (Mafia); although it is still a tactic practiced by the Mafia and is still used in organized crime. Black Hand blackmail was also common in New York and New Orleans. Victims would pay up, or be beaten, shot, or have their place of business bombed. The Black Hand was causing difficulties for mob boss Big Jim Colosimo a former Black hand gangster and owner of brothels throughout Chicago, it was a problem that brought Johnny Torrio to Chicago, a member of New York’s Five Points Gang who became the famous successor of Big Jim Colosimo. Johnny Torrio preceded and mentored Al Capone as the organized crime ruler of Chicago. Torrio came to Chicago to fix the problem of the Black Hand; it was certainly an ironic one: Colosimo's life was being threatened by Black Hand gangsters who demanded cash to insure his physical safety.

Black Hand is a 1950 American film noir directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Gene Kelly as an Italian immigrant fighting against the Black Hand extortion racket in New York City in the first decade of the 20th century.

The Black Hand was an anti-Zionist and anti-British Jihadist militant organization in Mandatory Palestine. It was founded in 1930 and led until his death in 1935 by Syrian-born Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, whose preaching was instrumental in laying the foundations for the formation of the Black Hand, which he used to proclaim jihad and attack Jewish settlers. The idea for such a group appeared to crystallize after the 1929 riots, though one source says a decision was taken after the Day of Atonement incitement at the Wailing Wall in September 1928.

From the outset a split occurred in the organization, with one militant group led by Abu Ibrahim arguing for immediate terror attacks, while the other headed by al-Qassam thought an armed revolt premature, and risked exposing the group's preparations. According to Subhi Yasin, the terror attacks in the north were executed by the dissident group in defiance of Qassam, though in 1969 Abu Ibrahim denied these allegations. The ensuing terror campaign began with the ambush and murder of three members of Kibbutz Yagur, 11 April 1931, a failed bombing attack on outlying Jewish homes in Haifa, in early 1932, and several operations that killed or wounded some four members of northern Jewish settlements. It climaxed with the deaths of a Jewish father and son in Nahalal, from a bomb thrown into their home, on 22 December 1932.

After the failure of the 1921 Syrian revolt that he led, al-Qassam escaped to Haifa. According to Shai Lachman, between 1921 and 1935 al-Qassam often cooperated with Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin al-Husayni. They were on good terms, and al-Qassam's various official appointments required the mufti's prior consent. He suggests their cooperation increased after the 1929 riots, in which one source claims al-Qassam's men were active. The two fell out in the mid-thirties, perhaps due to al-Qassam's independent line of activism. When the Mufti rejected his plans to divert funding marked for mosque repairs for the purchase of weaponry, Qassam found support in the Arab Nationalist Istiqlal Party. Qassam continued his attempts to forge an alliance with the Mufti in order to attack the British. He was not successful for the Mufti, who headed the Supreme Muslim Council, was still committed to a diplomatic approach at the time. Qassam went ahead with his plans to attack the British on his own.

The Black Hand was preceded by a group calling itself Green Hand that existed briefly in Safad and Acre districts and which was active for a few months during the winter of 1929/1930.

Al-Qassam justified violence on religious grounds. After the 1929 Hebron massacre, he intensified his anti-Zionist and anti-British agitation and obtained a fatwa from Sheikh Badr al-Din al-Taji al-Hasani, the Mufti of Damascus, authorizing the armed resistance against the British and the Jews.

Black Hand is the pseudonym of an Iranian graffiti artist, known as Iran's Banksy. S/he remains anonymous because of Iran's municipality laws, which make unofficial writing or advertising on walls illegal.

Black Hand is known for their stencil art, which they uses to comment on sexism in Iranian society, on the (legal) trade of human organs and on the political events in the Middle East. In an interview with The Guardian Blackhand explained, "The public has a right to see the art. I chose street art because I want to guard against the galleries’ monopoly. Our intellectual and artistic society are underestimating and ignoring ordinary people’s power."

The artist held an exhibition in April 2014 which took place in a condemned historic house in Tehran. In one room an image of each item of furniture was repeated multiple times, commenting on society's reliance on labels. In another room an installation was created commenting on threats to the environment. Black canvases sprayed with the word "Art" lined the hallway.