Mahmud az-Zahar
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Mahmud al-Zahar (Arabic: محمود الزهار) (born 1945) is a co-founder of Hamas and a member of the Hamas leadership in the Palestinian occupied Gaza Strip. Since the formation of the Hamas/"Change and Reform" government in the Palestinian National Authority in March 2006, az-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 az-Zahar is considered the leader of the movement's radical wing.[citation needed] az-Zahar's son was killed in an Israeli raid in Gaza on January 15, 2008.[1]
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[edit] Pre-Hamas Life
Little is known about az-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 adviser 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
az-Zahar has had four children with his wife Summaya, including their first son, Khaled born in 1974, and a daughter Rima born in 1983. Two of his sons have been killed by Israeli forces; one of them in a failed assassination attempt in 2004 and the youngest one in a raid in January 2008.[2]
[edit] In Hamas
Instrumental to the creation of Hamas in 1987, az-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.
The most notable attempt on az-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.
On January 15, 2008, az-Zahar's son Hussam was reportedly killed in an IDF air strike on a car full of Hamas militants in northern Gaza.
[edit] As Foreign Minister
On March 20, 2006, Hamas named az-Zahar foreign minister. az-Zahar's main challenge has been to break the US-led diplomatic boycott of the Haniyeh government. az-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 Intifada[citation needed]. Added to that was the fact despite the great variety of Palestinian diplomats available to serve as foreign minister, in the end Hamas chose az-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 Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, az-Zahar had long ties to the group, and helped form it, though he never became a commander in it.
[edit] Hawkish Position
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In internal Hamas politics, al-Zahar is today considered one of its more stubborn hard-liners. While Hamas as a whole rejects the legitimacy of 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 Israel to release detainees and give in. az-Zahar tends to agree with the latter, and he represented within the Haniyeh government the most prominent hawk.
az-Zahar can also be considered the top Gaza-based ally of Khaled Meshal and Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, 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 governed the PNA, or if true control rested in Meshal or PNA Chairman Mahmud Abbas. After the Hamas takeover of Gaza, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas dismissed the Haniyeh-led Hamas government and appointed a new cabinet run by Fatah and Independents to govern.
On 14 June 2006, Palestinian officials reported that Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmud az-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 Mahmud 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 [4]
