Khaled Mashaal.html



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Khaled Mashaal
Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau
In office 1996 – present
Born	1956 Silwad, Palestinian territories
Nationality	Palestinian
Political party	Hamas
Religion	Sunni Islam

Khaled Mashal, also known as Khaled Mashaal or Khalid Mish'al¹ (Arabic: خالد مشعل‎) (born 1956) is a Palestinian exile, the "political leader" of the Syrian branch of the Hamas politic bureau, and leader of Hamas since the assassination of Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in 2004.²

While at the University, he was an Islamic Palestinian leader who challenged the dominance of Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization on the campus. Mashal participated in the foundation of the Islamic Haqq Bloc, which competed with Fatah on leading the General Union of Palestinian Students in Kuwait.

Khalid Mashaal has in public claimed responsibility for numerous Palestinian suicide bomb attacks since the Second Intifada. He abides Yasser Arafat, and Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah at stark downplay with Israeli politics. He is willing to allow several truce negotiations with the State of Israel, but vows to "carry on [the] struggle" if Israel refuses to allow a Palestinian state on the borders prior to the 1967 Six Day War. From the expelling of Hamas leadership from Jordan in August 1999 after the accession of King Abdullah II Mishal has made his home in Damascus.

Early life and Hamas

Khaled Mashal was born in the Silwad neighborhood of Ramallah³, then occupied by Jordan. Mishal attended Silwad elementary school until the 1967 six day war when his family moved to Kuwait, Mashal holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Kuwait University. While at Kuwait University Kalid Mishal 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, Kalid Mishal established the Islamic League for Palestinian Students (al-rabita al-islamiyya li talabat filastin) in 1980.² Mishal taught in Kuwait schools from 1978-1984. 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 exile, it was an important milestone as it laid the foundation stone for the creation of Hamas. Mishal was part of the leadership of the project to build a Palestinian Islamic movement from its inception, after 1984 Mishal devoted himself to the project on a full-time basis. During this period Mishal remained in Kuwait.²

Mishal lived in Kuwait until the 1991 Gulf War. He married in 1981 and has seven children.

When Iraq invaded Kuwait, Mashal moved to Jordan and began his work with Hamas as one of its founders. He has been a member of the Hamas Political Bureau since its inception and became its chairman in 1996.

From the expelling of Hamas leadership from Jordan in August 1999 after the accession of King Abdullah II Mishal has made his home in Damascus. 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 then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.⁴

Assassination attempt

On September 25, 1997 Mashal was the target of an assassination attempt (because of his militant activities) carried out by the Israeli Mossad under orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his security cabinet. Ten Mossad agents carrying Canadian passports entered Jordan, where Mashal was living. They broke into a home where he was sleeping and then applied a deadly poison to his neck.⁵ At the time of the assassination attempt Mashal was considered Hamas' Jordanian branch chief. He 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.'⁶

Jordanian authorities discovered the assassination attempt and arrested two Mossad agents who had engaged in the attempt. Jordan's King Hussein then demanded that Benjamin Netanyahu turn over the poison antidote, and at first Netanyahu refused. As the incident began to grow in political significance, however, American President Bill Clinton intervened and forced Netanyahu to turn over the antidote. ⁷

Jordanian authorities later released the Mossad agents in exchange for the release of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas who was serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison.

Representing Hamas internationally

In October 2002, Mashal is believed to have met with then-Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the World Assembly of Muslim Youth in Riyadh. The outcome of that meeting is unknown. According to Haaretz, supposed Hamas documents discovered by Israeli security forces described the meeting as "excellent". ⁸ Mashal was named the most senior figure in Hamas after the assassination of Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi.

Mashal was a vocal critic of former Palestinian Authority President, Chairman Yasser Arafat, often refusing to follow directives issued by the PA regarding ceasefires with Israel. Mashal is considered a key force behind this policy, along with the late Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. He attended the funeral of Yasser Arafat, alongside the Saudi Royal family, in Cairo, Egypt, on November 12, 2004. On 9 December 2005, Mashal addressed a crowd in Damascus, Syria on the informal truce with the government of Israel that would end at the end of the year, stating that, "We will not enter a new truce and our people are preparing for a new round of conflict."

Speaking from Damascus, on 29 January 2006, after the shock Hamas victory in the legislative council elections Meshaal stated that Hamas had no plans to disarm. He said 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".

On February 13, 2006, in an interview in Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Khalid Mashal declared that Hamas would end the armed struggle against Israel if Israel recognized the pre-1967 borders, withdrew from all Palestinian occupied territories (including the West Bank and East Jerusalem) and recognized Palestinian rights which would include the "right of return".⁹ He reaffirmed this stance in a March 5, 2008 interview with Al Jazeera English,¹⁰¹¹ citing Hamas's signing of the 2005 Cairo Declaration and the National Reconciliation Document, and denied any rejectionist stance.¹² Hamas does not feel bound by the "Road Map to Peace" promoted by the Diplomatic Quartet, since in Hamas' view Israel is not honoring it's commitments to the "road map to peace".¹³ Hamas rejects the establishment of a "Palestinian entity [...] with no true sovereignty, whose principal duty is to maintain Israel's security."¹⁰ This was the first time that Hamas had talked about an end to the Palestinian armed struggle.

In March 2006, Mashal met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for political talks. Russia called on Hamas to transform itself into a purely political organisation, recognise Israel's right to exist, and abide by prior peace accords with Israel.

On July 31, 2006, Mashal warned, in a Reuter interview, Palestinians everywhere against attempts to separate the Lebanese and Palestinian issues. ¹⁴

On April 21st, 2008, former U.S. President and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jimmy Carter met with Hamas Leader Mishal and reached an agreement that Hamas will 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 it is ratified by the Palestinian people in a referendum. Carter had made several other requests, but these were turned down. Hamas later announced publicly an offer for a 10 year hudna with Israel, should they decide to return to their 1967 borders and allow the return of all Palestinian refugees. The US of A originally rejected the plan and Israel has yet to respond.¹⁵¹⁶

On 27th of May 2008, Mashal met Khamenei in Tehran and told him, "The Palestinian nation will continue its resistance despite all pressures and will not under any circumstances stop its jihad."¹⁷

Prisoner swap

Mashal is currently involved in negotiating a prisoner exchange deal that would free the captured 22 year old Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit. The Israeli soldier was seized inside Israel near the southern Gaza Strip border after the attackers crossed through an underground tunnel near the Kerem Shalom border crossing. ¹⁸

On July 10, 2006, Mashal spoke authoritatively concerning the Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit, stating Shalit was a prisoner of war and demanded a prisoner swap.¹⁹

In November 2006, Meshal said that Gilad is alive in.²⁰

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 has hinted that it will enter into a discussion over the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured in a cross border raid in 2006.²¹ On 29 July 2008 Mahmoud Abbas warned the GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni through the head of the PA's civil affairs department, Hussein al-Sheikh, who is responsible for coordinating with Israel on anything involving the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The "personal message" from Abbas, stressed that the Palestinian leader did not speak merely of "resigning," but of "dismantling the PA" if Israel releases the 40 Hamas members of the Palestinian parliament as part of a deal for the return of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.²²

Selective Quotes

• In a Reuters interview in January 2007, Mashal said: "As a Palestinian today I speak of a Palestinian and Arab demand for a state on 1967 borders. It is true that in reality there will be an entity or state called Israel on the rest of Palestinian land. This is a reality, but I won't deal with it in terms of recognising or admitting it." In the same interview, he declined to accept the Western demand for Hamas to recognise Israel, renounce violence against it and honour previous peace agreements.²³

• "Israel is there, it is part of the United Nations and we do not deny its existence. But we still have rights and land there which have been usurped and until these matters are dealt with we will withhold our recognition."²⁴

• After describing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments on holocaust denial as "courageous" he stated that "...Muslim people will defend Iran because it voices what they have in their hearts, in particular the Palestinian people."²⁵
• "I bring good tidings to our beloved Prophet Muhammad: Allah's promise and the Prophet's prophecy of our victory in Palestine over the Jews and over the oppressive Zionists has begun to come true."²⁶

• "I say to the [European countries]: Hurry up and apologize to our nation, because if you do not, you will regret it. This is because our nation is progressing and is victorious. Do not leave a black mark in the collective memory of the nation, because our nation will not forgive you."²⁶

• "Tomorrow, our nation will sit on the throne of the world. This is not a figment of the imagination, but a fact. Tomorrow we will lead the world, Allah willing. Apologize today, before remorse will do you no good. Our nation is moving forwards, and it is in your interest to respect a victorious nation."²⁶

• "Before Israel dies, it must be humiliated and degraded. Allah willing, before they die, they will experience humiliation and degradation every day."²⁶

• "I want to make it clear to the West and to the German people, which is still being blackmailed because of what Nazism did to the Zionists, or to the Jews. I say that what Israel did to the Palestinian people is many times worse than what Nazism did to the Jews, and there is exaggeration, which has become obsolete, regarding the issue of the Holocaust. We do not deny the facts, but we will not give in to extortion by exaggeration. As for the Zionist holocaust against the Palestinian people, and against the peoples of the Arab and Islamic nation – this is a holocaust that is being perpetrated in broad daylight, with the coverage of the media of globalization. Nobody can deny it or claim that it is being exaggerated."²⁷

• "Who can tell, my brothers and sisters, when we will celebrate on this podium, the liberation of the West Bank? When will we celebrate the liberation of Jaffa, Haifa, Safed, and the Negev? When will we celebrate the departure of the last Zionist from our land? Yes. Some people ask when this will happen. Say: It could be soon. Such is our faith in Allah. We have no doubt that victory will come, and that just as we liberated Palestine from the Crusaders and from the Mongols, we will regain it – pure and purified - from the Zionist occupiers."²⁸

Footnotes

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Khaled Mashal

• 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