Khaled Mashal

Khaled Mashal
Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau
In office 1996 – present
Born	1956 (1956) Silwad, West Bank
Nationality	Palestinian
Political party	Hamas
Residence	Damascus, Syria
Religion	Sunni Islam

Khaled Mashal, also known as Khaled Mashaal, Khaled Meshaal, and Khalid Mish'al, (Arabic: خالد مشعل‎) (born 1956) has been the main leader of Hamas—a Palestinian political, social, and paramilitary organization—since the assassination of Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in 2004.^[1] In addition, Mashal heads the Syrian branch of the political bureau of Hamas.^[2]

Mashal was born in Silwad, a village north of Ramallah and moved to Jordan in 1967. While attending Kuwait University, Mashal, as an Islamic student leader, challenged the dominance of Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization, participating in the foundation of the Islamic Haqq Bloc, which competed with Fatah for leadership the General Union of Palestinian Students in Kuwait. After the founding of Hamas in 1987, Mashal came to lead the Kuwaiti branch of the organization.^[1] Mashal moved from Kuwait to Jordan in 1991. Since the expulsion of the Hamas leadership from Jordan in August 1999, Mashal had lived in Qatar before moving to the Syrian capital of Damascus in 2001.

Early life and membership with Hamas

Khaled Mashal was born in the village of Silwad, north of Ramallah, then ruled by Jordan. Mashal attended Silwad Elementary School until the 1967 Six-Day War and the occupation of the West Bank by Israel. His father moved the family to Kuwait afterward for financial reasons. Mashal holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Kuwait University. Mashal joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1971.^[3]

While at Kuwait University, Mashal headed the Islamic Justice (qa’imat al-haq al-islamiyya) list in the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) elections in 1977. The basis for the Islamic Justice list was the Palestinian Islamic movement, as part of the Muslim Brotherhood. After the cancellation of the GUPS elections, Mashal established the Islamic League for Palestinian Students (al-rabita al-islamiyya li talabat filastin) in 1980.^[2] Mashal taught in the Kuwait schools from 1978 to 1984. He was married in 1980 and is the father of three daughters and four sons.^[4]

In 1983, the Palestinian Islamic movement convened an internal, closed conference in an Arab state. It included delegates from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Palestinian refugees from the Arab states. It was an important milestone as it laid the foundation stone for the creation of Hamas. Mashal was part of the leadership of the project to build a Palestinian Islamic movement from its inception, after 1984 Mashal devoted himself to the project on a full-time basis. During this period Mashal remained in Kuwait.^[2]

Relocation to Jordan

Mashal lived in Kuwait until the 1991 Gulf War. When Iraq invaded Kuwait, Mashal moved to Jordan and began working directly with Hamas. He has been a member of Hamas' Political Bureau since its inception and became its chairman in 1996.

Assassination attempt

On September 25, 1997, Mashal was the target of an assassination attempt carried out by the Israeli Mossad under orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his security cabinet. At the time of the assassination attempt Mashal was considered Hamas' Jordanian branch chief. Two Mossad agents carrying Canadian passports entered Jordan, where Mashal was living. As Mashal walked into his office, one of the agents came up from behind and held a device to Mashal's left ear that transmitted a lethal nerve toxin.^[5][6] After a chase by one of Mashal's bodyguards, Jordanian authorities arrested the two Mossad agents.

Immediately after the incident, Jordan's King Hussein demanded that Benjamin Netanyahu turn over the antidote for the nerve toxin. At first Netanyahu refused, but as the incident grew in political significance, American President Bill Clinton intervened and forced Netanyahu to turn over the antidote.^[7]

Jordanian authorities later released the two Mossad agents in exchange for the release of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas.^[8] After the incident Mashal told Third Way Magazine: "Israeli threats have one of two effects: some people are intimidated, but others become more defiant and determined. I am one of the latter."^[9]

Exile

Following the expulsion of the Hamas leadership from Jordan in August 1999 after the accession of King Abdullah II, Mashal has made his home in Qatar. In August 1999, possibly in reaction to pressure from the Clinton Administration, Jordanian police issued an arrest warrant for Mashal in advance of a visit to the country by the US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.^[10] In 2001, he moved to Damascus, Syria where he currently resides.^[3]

Representing Hamas internationally

Mashal with Saad Hariri in Lebanon, 2008

Mashal was a vocal critic of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, often refusing to follow directives issued by the PA regarding ceasefires with Israel. Mashal was considered a key force behind this policy, along with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Mashal attended Arafat's funeral, alongside the Saudi royal family, in Cairo, Egypt, on November 12, 2004.

On January 29, 2006, after the surprise Hamas victory in the Palestinian legislative council elections, Mashal stated that Hamas had no plans to disarm. He declared that Hamas was ready to "unify the weapons of Palestinian factions, with Palestinian consensus, and form an army like any independent state... an army that protects our people against aggression". Later, on February 13, 2006, Mashal declared that Hamas would end the armed struggle against Israel if Israel withdrew to its pre-1967 borders and recognized Palestinian rights such as the "right of return".^[11] In a Reuters interview on July 31, 2006, Mashal warned Palestinians everywhere against attempts to separate the Lebanese and Palestinian issues. ^[12]

He reaffirmed this stance in a March 5, 2008 interview with Al Jazeera English,^[13][14] citing Hamas's signing of the 2005 Cairo Declaration and the National Reconciliation Document, and denied any rejectionist stance.^[15] Former US President and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jimmy Carter met with Mashal on April 21, 2008 and reached an agreement that Hamas would respect the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip areas seized by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967, provided that such a state is ratified by the Palestinian people in a referendum. Hamas later announced it would offer Israel a ten-year hudna ("truce") if it returned to its 1967 borders and recognized all Palestinian refugees' "right of return." Israel did not respond to the offer.^[16][17] Later, on May 27, 2008, Mashal met the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, in Tehran and stated, "The Palestinian nation will continue its resistance despite all pressures and will not under any circumstances stop its jihad."^[18]

Prisoner swap

Mashal is currently involved in negotiating a prisoner exchange deal that would release captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Shalit was seized inside Israel near the southern Gaza Strip border by a coalition of Palestinian paramilitary groups, including Hamas, who had crossed the border through an underground tunnel near the Kerem Shalom border crossing.^[19] On July 10, 2006, Mashal spoke authoritatively concerning the Israeli prisoner, stating Shalit was a prisoner of war and demanding a prisoner swap.^[20] In November, 2006, Mashal said that Shalit was alive and well.^[21]

On June 18, 2008, Israel announced a bilateral ceasefire with Hamas which formally began on June 19, 2008. The agreement was reached after talks between the two camps were conducted with Egyptian mediators in Cairo. As part of the ceasefire, Israel has agreed to resume limited commercial shipping across its border with Gaza, barring any breakdown of the tentative peace deal, and Hamas hinted that it would discuss the release of Shalit.^[22] However, on July 29, 2008, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas voiced his strong opposition to the release of 40 Hamas members of the Palestinian parliament in exchange for Shalit.^[23] On October 2, 2009, after the swap of 20 Palestinian prisoners for a proof-of-life video, Khaled Mashal vowed to capture more soldiers. ^[24]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Khaled Mashal

• iDNES.cz - Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal: Who is qualified to judge others? (exclusive interview with Khaled Mashal from May 2009, Damascus)
• video of signing of a ceasefire proposal drafted by Rabbi Menachem Froman and journalist Khaled Amayreh
• Halid Meşal Kimdir?
• Hamas softens Israel stance in calls for Palestinian state
• The Real Significance of the Attempted Israeli Assassination of Khaled Meshal in Jordan in Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 1998, by Israel Shahak
• Hamas to end truce with Israel, BBC News, 9 December 2005
• HARDtalk interview with Khaled Mashal broadcast by the BBC, 19 April 2004
• Mashal proposes a new Palestinian army including the Hamas militia after the Palestinian election, 29 January 2006
• BBC - Khaled Meshaal interview Monday, 19 April, 2004
• BBC - Transcript: Khaled Meshaal interview , Wednesday, 8 February 2006
• BBC - Profile: Khaled Meshaal of Hamas Wednesday, 8 February 2006
• Khaled Meshaal: Our message to the Israelis is this: We do not fight you because you belong to a certain faith or culture.
• BBC - Moscow urges Hamas to transform Friday, 3 March 2006
• Mishal's Luck, review by Adam Shatz of the book Kill Khalid: The Failed Mossad Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas by Paul McGeough, London Review of Books, 14 May 2009

A time for joy and reflection, The Guardian, July 5, 2007