Mahmoud al-Zahar

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Mahmoud al-Zahar (Arabic: محمود الزهار) (born 1945) is a co-founder of Hamas, and a member of Hamas's leadership in the Gaza Strip. Since the formation of the Hamas/"Change and Reform" government in the Palestinian National Authority in March 2006, al-Zahar has served as foreign minister in the government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Prior to that he was seen as a major candidate among the Hamas members elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council for prime minister, as he was at that time the most senior official within the organization. In the end the party decided to go with the then-unknown Haniyeh because al-Zahar is considered the leader of the radical arm of the movement.

1 Pre-Hamas Life
2 Family
3 In Hamas
4 As Foreign Minister
5 Hawkish Position
6 Quotes
7 Notes

[edit] Pre-Hamas Life

Little is known about al-Zahar's early life beyond the report that he was born to a Palestinian father and an Egyptian mother.

At the age of 26, he graduated from the Cairo University Faculty of Medicine and five years later he got his Masters Degree in General Surgery from Ain Shams University, Cairo. He then became the advisor to the Palestinian Health Minister, and helped create the Palestinian Medical Society and was one of the primary founders of the Islamic University in Gaza in 1978.

[edit] Family

Al-Zahar has had four children with his wife Summaya, including their first son, Khaled born in 1974, and a daughter Rima born in 1983.

[edit] In Hamas

Instrumental to the creation of Hamas in 1987, al-Zahar has remained a senior official and spokesperson for the group and is rumoured to have succeeded to leadership of the group following Israel's assassination of Ahmed Yassin in 2004. Hamas routinely denied this rumour, but refused to name who their new leader was, for fear of Israeli reprisals.

Mahmoud al-Zahar has described the creation of "Hamastan" as a goal of Hamas. "When asked by a Newsweek reporter (August 30, 2005) whether the Gaza Strip would become “Hamastan”, Mahmoud al-Zahar responded: 'It should be Hamastan'."^[1]

The most notable attempt on al-Zahar's life was on September 10, 2003, when Israeli F-16s dropped a large bomb over his house in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza, which only managed to slightly wound him, while his son Khaled, and a personal bodyguard were killed, and twenty others wounded including his daughter Rima. His house was destroyed, and ten other houses nearby were damaged, as well as the nearby Al-Rahman mosque. The resulting funeral was attended by over two thousand mourners, who called on Hamas to avenge the deaths.

[edit] As Foreign Minister

On March 20, 2006, Hamas named al-Zahar foreign minister. Al-Zahar's main challenge has been to break the US-led diplomatic boycott of the Haniyeh government. Al-Zahar was a strange choice for the position; he is a wanted man according to Israeli security forces, and it has been confirmed that he actively encouraged and planned attacks against Israeli civilian and military targets during and before the Al-Aqsa Intifadeh. Added to that was the fact despite the great variety of Palestinian diplomats available to serve as foreign minister, in the end Hamas chose al-Zahar, who is a novice in the field, and whose belligerent character in the past could damage Hamas in its venture to acquire a new image as a responsible political movement. Unlike Haniyeh, who never was involved in Hamas's armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, al-Zahar had long ties to the group, and helped form it, though he never became a commander in it.

[edit] Hawkish Position

In internal Hamas politics, al-Zahar is today considered one of its more stubborn hard-liners. While Hamas as a whole rejects the existence of Israel, demands the Right of Return and Jerusalem as the capital of the new Palestinian state, and calls for the release of all Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, it is divided as to the means of attaining these goals. The political wing has in the past expressed willingness to negotiate with Israel for a long-term ceasefire and territorial concessions, and then to consider recognition of Israel. The Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades and their leader Muhammad Deif maintain that only continuous attrition will force cause Israel to release detainees and give in. Al-Zahar tends to agree with the latter, and he represents within the Haniyeh government the most prominent hawk.

Al-Zahar can also be considered the top Gaza-based ally of Khaled Meshal and Mousa Abu Marzouk, the heads of the Hamas "State Bureau" who most contend today are the true leadership of the movement since the assassination of Ahmad Yassin and his spokesman Abdelaziz Rantisi. If Meshal is indeed the true head of the movement, then the true power of Prime Minister Haniyeh is actually negligible and the legitimacy of the Palestinian government is questionable. The possibility that any decisions made by Haniyeh carry no weight within Hamas would undermine any policies he enacts, and would cast serious doubt as to whether he really governs the PNA, or if Meshal or PNA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

^[2]

On 14 June 2006, Palestinian officials reported that Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar brought twelve suitcases stuffed with US$26.7 million in cash into Gaza through its border with Egypt, which is controlled by Palestinian guards loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. Al-Zahar was at least the third known Hamas official to be caught with large sums of cash: Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri had been stopped the previous month ^[3]

[edit] Quotes

"Israel wants to negotiate only for the sake of negotiations, but on the ground, it expands settlements and continues building the separation fence on the Palestinian territories" ^[4]

"Anyone who thinks the calm means giving in is mistaken. The calm is in preparation for a new round of resistance and victory, If the enemy has something to offer we will study it, but we will not abide by a truce that is for free." ^[5]

"We are entering (parliament) to eliminate any traces of Oslo." ^[6]

"I hope that our dream to have our independent state on all historic Palestine will become real one day. I'm certain of this because there is no place for the state of Israel on this land" ^[7]

"Are these the laws for which the Palestinian street is waiting? For us to give rights to homosexuals and to lesbians, a minority of perverts and the mentally and morally sick?" ^[8]