Bassam Shakaa

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Bassam Shakaa (Arabic: بسّام شكاء‎, transliteration: Bassām Shak’ā) (1930- ) was elected mayor of Nablus in 1976. Former Nablus mayor Ghassan Shakaa is his first cousin.

Shakaa had been a PLO supporter and outspoken critic of the Camp David accords, and was subsequently accused of inciting terrorism by his public statements and was issued an expulsion order in 1979. Felicia Langer successfully defended him from the charges.

On July 2, 1980 he became the victim of a bomb placed in his car by followers of members of what later became known as Gush Emunim Underground. They also planted bombs in the cars of Ibrahim Tawil, the mayor of El-Bireh, and Karim Khalaf, the mayor of Ramallah. Khalaf lost one leg, while Shakaa had to have both legs amputated. Moshe Zer, one of the first Israeli settlers in the northern West Bank, was the person who led the Jewish underground "hit team" that tried to assassinate him. Zer was sentenced to three years in prison, but hardly served any time.

In 1982 Shakaa resigned as mayor of Nablus.

[edit] External links

• "Two Teeth for a Tooth!" Monday, Jun. 16, 1980 Time Magazine
• Donald Neff: Jewish Terrorists Try to Assassinate Three Palestinian Mayors Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June 1999, pages 87-88
• Palestinians arrested for criticicing self-rule authority BBC 28 November, 1999
• The Absence of National Unity: An Interview with Bassam Shaka Arjan El Fassed, The Electronic Intifada, 29 August 2005
• Fighting words / Far from the madding crowd by Danny Rubinstein in Haaretz, 15/07/2005 (retrieved 30 Oct. 2006)
• Bassam Shaka biography