Khalid Mashal
(1956- )
Khalid Mashal was born in 1956 in the Silwad neighborhood
of Ramallah. He moved with his family to Kuwait
and lived there until the 1990
Gulf War. He led Islamist Palestinians at Kuwait University, challenging
the dominance of Yasser
Arafat's Palestine Liberation
Organization on the Kuwait University campus. Mashal participated
in the foundation of the Islamic Haqq Bloc, which competed with Fateh's
blocs on leading the General Union for the Palestinian Students in Kuwait.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from
Kuwait University and went on to teach Physics in Kuwaiti schools. He
was married in 1981 and has seven children, four boys and three girls.
When Iraq invaded Kuwait, Mashal moved his family 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.
On September 25, 1997, Israeli Mossad
agents tried to
poison him. He would have died, but the Mossad agents were captured
and provoked a crisis in Israeli-Jordan relations. King
Hussein insisted that Israel send the antidote to save Mashal's
life. Israel agreed and the two agents were later released in a prisoner
exchange in which Israel released Sheikh
Ahmed Yassin from jail. Jordan later expelled Mashal to Qatar
when Jordan's relationship with Hamas deteriorated. Mashal then moved
to Damascus, Syria, where
he ran the Hamas "political
wing."
After the May 22, 2003, assassination of Sheikh Ahmed
Yassin by the IDF,
Mashal was appointed the world leader of Hamas.
Source: Radio
Free Europe, Scotsman.com,
BBC,
Palestine
Information Center |
