Fathi Shaqaqi فتحي الشقاقي | |
|---|---|
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| Secretary-General of theIslamic Jihad Movement in Palestine | |
| In office 1981–1995 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Ramadan Shalah |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Fathi Ibrahim Abdul Aziz Shaqaqi (1951-01-04)4 January 1951[1] |
| Died | 26 October 1995(1995-10-26) (aged 44) |
| Cause of death | Gunshot wound |
| Political party | Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine |
| Children | 3 |
| Residence(s) | Damascus,Syria |
| Alma mater | Birzeit University (B.Math.) Mansoura University (M.D.) |
| Profession | Math teacher Pediatrician |
Fathi Ibrahim Abdulaziz Shaqaqi (Arabic:فتحي إبراهيم عبد العزيز الشقاقي,romanized: Fatẖī Ibrāhīm ‘Abd ul-‘Aziz ash-Shaqāqī; 4 January 1951 – 26 October 1995) was a Palestinian physician, leader and the founder and Secretary-General of thePalestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a PalestinianIslamistparamilitary organization.
Shaqaqi was born in theGaza Strip to a refugee family and received his early education at aUnited Nations school. He studied physics and mathematics atBir Zeit University and later medicine atMansoura University in Egypt. Shaqaqi became a follower ofHassan al-Banna, founder of theMuslim Brotherhood, andSayyid Qutb. Influenced by theIranian Revolution, he wrote a book praisingAyatollah Khomeini's approach to anIslamic state.
In 1981, Shaqaqi co-founded Islamic Jihad with the goal of establishing a sovereign Islamic state acrossIsrael and thePalestinian territories. The organization rejected political processes, focusing on achieving its goals through military means. As the PIJ leader, Shaqaqi masterminded severalsuicide bombings in Israel. He was assassinated byMossad agents in Malta in 1995, leading to a weakening of the PIJ until its resurgence after theArab Spring.
Shaqaqi was born to a refugee family of eight children in the slums of a refugee camp inRafah in the southernGaza Strip.[2][3] His family was originally fromZarnuqa nearRamlah, where they had lived for nearly five generations and his grandfather had served as theimam of the local mosque.[4] The Shaqaqi family fled Zarnuqa during the1948 Arab–Israeli War in fear of Israeli massacres, and were not allowed to return.[4] His mother died when he was fifteen. Fathi Shaqaqi's brother Khalil, after teaching in several universities in theUnited States,Kuwait andBahrain, moved after theOslo Peace Accords to the West Bank and is founding director of theNablus-basedPalestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, established in 1993.[4]
Most of his early education was at theUnited Nations school. He attendedBir Zeit University in theWest Bank, where he studied physics and mathematics.[5] In 1970–1974, he taught mathematics at a school for orphans inEast Jerusalem. In 1974 he moved toEgypt to study medicine atMansoura University, specializing inpediatrics. Upon receiving his medical degree in 1981, he worked in a general practice atAugusta Victoria Hospital inJerusalem. He later opened a medical clinic in Gaza.[2]
During his studies atBirzeit University Shaqaqi became an admirer ofHassan al-Banna, founder of theMuslim Brotherhood, andSheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder ofHamas.[2] While studying medicine in Egypt he was an acquaintance of SheikhOmar Abdel-Rahman, leader ofal-Gama'a al-Islamiyya andEgyptian Islamic Jihad, and Salah Sariya, a Salafi Palestinian executed in 1976 on the charge of having plotted the assassination ofPresident of EgyptAnwar Sadat.[2] He also became a follower of the ideas ofSayyid Qutb[2] andHassan al-Banna.[3] He also readMarxist literature, including allegedly the entire works ofKarl Marx, but kept untouched by socialism.[3] The teachings of Qutb convinced Shkaki that the "corrupt and secular governments" of the Arab world had to be replaced by Islamic societies politically, socially and culturally.[3] Shaqaqi came to believe that thePLO opposition toIsraeli occupation was worthless and that only an Islamist organisations could achieve any political and military successes against Israel.[3] By the later 1970s Shaqaqi broke with both the Muslim Brotherhood and secular Palestinian nationalist groups, dismayed that the former spoke too little about Palestine and the latter too little on Islam.[6] As a university student in Egypt, Shiqaqi was inspired by the triumph of the 1979Iranian Revolution. He wrote a short book praising Khomeini's approach to Islamic governance titledKhomeini, The Islamic Solution and the Alternative, published in Cairo four days after the victory of the revolution.[2][4] In Shaqaqi's view the Khomeini victory "demonstrated that even against an enemy as powerful as the Shah, a jihad of determined militants could overcome all obstacles."[7] The book sold 10,000 copies in just two days, before it was promptly banned by the Egyptian government and Shiqaqi briefly arrested. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, of which Shiqaqi was a founding member, remains ideologically and militarily aligned with Iran, its largest supplier of weapons and aid.[8]
In 1981, along withAbd Al Aziz Awda and five other Palestinian Islamist and Salafi leaders, he founded theIslamic Jihad Movement in Palestine.[9] The aim of the organization was the establishment of a sovereign,IslamicPalestinian state within the geographic borders of pre-1948Mandatory Palestine. Completely rejecting the political process, the organization professes that its goals can only be achieved through Islamic Jihad military means.[10] While an adherent ofIslamism, Shaqaqi would later state toBritish journalistRobert Fisk that "We are not talking about theology, we are talking about politics and military things," adding that "Islam would be the idea we would start with, Palestine the goal to liberate andJihad would be the way, the method." He described the organization as a "crossing-point betweennationalist andIslamism",[6] and that his intentions were not to establish an Islamic state, but merely to "liberate all of Palestine."[3] Fisk was surprised that Shaqaqi neither greeted him with "As-salamu alaykum" nor quoted theQuran.[6] Speaking about his motives during the Fisk interview, Shaqaqi stated: "We are only defending our right to live in our homeland ... We lived in peace with Jews for centuries... I have no problem with Jews ... But I will fight occupation."[6] In an interview with Charles Richards ofThe Independent in 1992, Shaqaqi stated that his aim was a Palestine from the river to the sea "where all religions can live together in one state under Islamic Quranic law."[8] While nominally a Sunni organization, the PIJ has made every effort to play down the basic differences betweenShia and Sunni, instead emphasizing the common elements of the entireIslamic nation.[11] Regarding thePalestinian Christians as "our partners in history and destiny," Shaqaqi's organization also had Christian members.[12]
The PIJ recruited former leaders of other Palestinian organisations such as the PLO.[2][13] Many were recruited from the predecessor of the PIJ, originally known as thePopular Liberation Forces (Quwat at-Tahrir ash-Sha'biya) also referred to in some sources as the "Palestine Liberation Force", which was founded in 1964, in Gaza, by Ziad al-Husseini (also called Zaid al-Husseini) as an exclusivelyFedayeen group supplementing the newly formedPalestine Liberation Army, which is the army of the PLO. The group was often in conflict with theFatah of Arafat. In 1971, Israel killed al-Husseini and arrested all members of the groups but were later released during the 1980s.[14] In 1981, Shaqiqi created a small secretive organization engaged in assassinations, mass shootings, bombings and suicide bombings against the Israeli military. Shaqaqi prohibited targeting innocent civilians, which however did not includeIsraeli settlers.[15] After his killing all Israelis were deemed legitimate targets.[15] An elitist group, its appeal is mainly among the educated youth.[16] Shaqaqi was arrested in Gaza by Israel in 1983 for publishing the magazine "Islamic Vanguard", but released the following year. He was rearrested in 1986 and sentenced to four years in prison atAshkelon andNafah in theNegev desert. In 1988 he was deported toSouthern Lebanon, allegedly at the orders ofYitzhak Rabin.[6][15] Shaqaqi learnedHebrew while imprisoned in Israel, and kept a Hebrew dictionary on the bookshelf at his office in the PalestinianYarmouk Camp on the outskirts of Damascus, which was decorated with a model of Al-Aqsa mosque, a lithograph of Hani Abed and framed photographs of suicide bombers[6] Able to speak "flawlessEnglish,"[8] Shaqaqi stated to Fisk that "Before I am a politician and the leader of Islamic Jihad, I am a human being and a poet..."[6] He was well read in the literature ofShakespeare,Dante,T. S. Eliot,Ezra Pound,E. M. Forster and otherWestern writers,[3][6] quotingHamlet in length during his interview with Fisk.[17] Shortly after his expulsion to Lebanon in 1988, Shaqaqi metRuhollah Khomeini inTehran, who pledged financial and military support for his organization.[6] While in Lebanon the PIJ built up a very close relationship with the Shia Islamist groupHezbollah led by Hassan Nasrallah, and received military training from theIranian Revolutionary Guards.[10] In 1990, he settled in Damascus under the protection ofPresident of SyriaHafez al-Assad.[2]
As the leader of the PIJ, Shaqaqi masterminded severalsuicide bombings in Israel.[18] He was a key player in setting up the National Alliance in January 1994, a coalition of eight PLO groups, Islamic Jihad and Hamas rejecting theOslo process.[5] The PIJ is considered by Israel to be one of the most extreme and violent organisation in its operational methods and commitment to the destruction of Israel.[19] By 1995 it was according to Fisk "perhaps the fiercest of all Israel's modern-day enemies."[6]
Shaqaqi was shot five times on 26 October 1995 in front of the Diplomat Hotel inSliema,Malta by a hit team said to be composed of twoMossad agents.[20][21][22][23] The assassination happened a few days after Shaqaqi conducted an interview with journalistIbrahim Hamidi ofAl-Hayat Newspaper. Shaqaqi had been travelling under thefalse name Dr. Ibrahim Ali Shawesh.[24] He was on his way back fromTripoli after visitingLibyan leaderMuammar Gaddafi who promised to help finance Shaqaqi's factions.[25] His assassination produced disarray in Islamic Jihad since no competent successor could replace Shaqaqi.[26] Islamic Jihad sources in Gaza confirmed that Shiqaqi had been traveling from Libya to his home in Damascus and made a stopover in Malta.[27]
Accounts vary in details. In theTelegraph version byGordon Thomas, two men, Gil and Ran, arrived in Malta on a late-afternoon flight, after receiving new passports provided by fellow agents in Rome and Athens (sayan), and checked into the Diplomat Hotel where Shaqaqi was residing. Another localsayan who owned a car rental agency provided Ran with aYamaha motorcycle, which he told hotel staff he planned to use for touring the island. At the same time, afreighter fromHaifa radioed the Maltese harbour authorities that it had developed engine trouble and would need to anchor off the island for repairs. A team of Mossad communications technicians on board sent the agents instructions through an encrypted radio system in Gil's suitcase. The twokidon operatives then drove up on the motorcycle and pulled up while Shaqaqi was walking along the waterfront and one of them, Gil, shot him six times in the head, a 'kidon signature'.[25]Ronen Bergman writes that Shaqaqi was out shopping, and was shot twice in the forehead and twice in the back of the head, with a semi-automatic pistol fitted with a silencer and a device to catch the spent cartridges, and that the motorbike had been stolen the day before.[21]
Shaqaqi left behind a wife and three children, two boys and a girl.[3] He was succeeded as Secretary-General of the PIJ by fellow co-founderRamadan Shallah. His funeral inDamascus on 1 November 1995 was attended by some 40,000.[5][28] The assassination of Shaqaqi, who was regarded as a highly charismatic and capable leader, and the subsequent crackdown on the PIJ by Israel and thePalestinian National Authority led to a significant weakening of the organization.[11] Following theArab Spring the group has enjoyed a revival in its military and political strength with increased Syrian and Iranian support, and in some Gaza precincts, Shaqaqi's picture is more prominent than that of the Hamas prime minister.[16]
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