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{{Short description|Palestinian political and militant leader (1981 to 1995)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=December 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Fathi Shaqaqi
| name = Fathi Shaqaqi<br/>{{Nobold|{{lang|ar|فتحي الشقاقي}}}}
|image = Shaqaqi of pij.jpg|right|frame|Fathi Shaqaqi
| image = Shaqaqi of pij.jpg
|image_size =
|caption = | caption =
| office = Secretary-General of the ]
|birth_name =
|birth_date = 1951 | term_start = 1981
| term_end = 1995
|birth_place =
| predecessor = Office established
|death_date = 26 October 1995 (aged 43-44)
| successor = ]
|death_place =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1951|1|4|df=y}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.paljourneys.org/en/biography/14247/fathi-shiqaqi |title=Palestinian Journeys: Fathi Shiqaqi |access-date=28 April 2020 |archive-date=20 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200320200709/https://www.paljourneys.org/en/biography/14247/fathi-shiqaqi |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|residence =
| birth_place = ], ]
|nationality = Palestinian
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1995|10|26|1951|1|4}}
|alma_mater =
| death_place = ], ]
|occupation =
| death_cause = ]
|years_active =
|net_worth = | restingplace =
| restingplacecoordinates =
|boards =
| birthname = Fathi Ibrahim Abdul Aziz Shaqaqi
|religion = Islam
|spouse = | citizenship =
| nationality = ]
|children =
| party = Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
|parents =
|signature = | spouse =
|website = | children = 3
| parents =
| residence = ], ]
| alma_mater = ] (])<br/> ] (])
| occupation =
| profession = ]<br/> ]
| signature =
| website =
}} }}


'''Fathi Ibrahim Abdulaziz Shaqaqi''' ({{langx|ar|فتحي إبراهيم عبد العزيز الشقاقي|translit=Fatẖī Ibrāhīm ‘Abd ul-‘Aziz ash-Shaqāqī}}; 4 January 1951 – 26 October 1995) was a Palestinian physician, leader and the founder and Secretary-General of the ] (PIJ), a Palestinian ] ].
'''Fathi Shaqaqi''' ({{lang-ar|<big>فتحي الشقاقي</big>}}) (also '''Fathi Shikaki''') (1951 &ndash; 26 October 1995), was the founder and leader of the ] and a mastermind of ]s in ].<ref name=hjournal>{{cite news|title=Palestinians swear revenge for assassination|url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JbceAAAAIBAJ&sjid=VM8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=5403,3041425&hl=en|accessdate=15 December 2012|newspaper=Herald Journal|date=28 October 1995|location=Gaza City}}</ref>Along with Sheik Odeh (a.k.a. ]), he formed the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the ] during the 1970s, initially as a branch of the ].<ref> ''BBC'' 9 June 2003</ref>


Shaqaqi was born in the ] to a refugee family and received his early education at a ] school. He studied physics and mathematics at ] and later medicine at ] in Egypt. Shaqaqi became a follower of ], founder of the ], and ]. Influenced by the ], he wrote a book praising ]'s approach to an ].
==Biography==
Fathi Shaqaqi was born in ] in the southern ] after his family fled from ].<ref></ref> His mother died when he was fifteen.<ref></ref>


In 1981, Shaqaqi co-founded Islamic Jihad with the goal of establishing a sovereign Islamic state across ] and the ]. The organization rejected political processes, focusing on achieving its goals through military means. As the PIJ leader, Shaqaqi masterminded several ] in Israel. He was assassinated by ] agents in Malta in 1995, leading to a weakening of the PIJ until its resurgence after the ].
He attended ] in the Palestine territories, where he studied mathematics.<ref name=jvlib>{{cite web|title=Fathi Shiqaqi|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/shiqaqi.html|work=Jewish Virtual Library|accessdate=29 August 2013}}</ref> In 1970-1974, he taught mathematics in ]. In the 1970s he studied medicine in ], graduating in 1981. He trained in pediatrics. While in Egypt, he was influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood.<ref></ref> <ref name=ibna>{{cite news|title=As Tough as Iron 5: Fathi Shaqaqi|url=http://www.ibna.ir/vdcd5k0fsyt0sk6.em2y.html|accessdate=29 August 2013|work=IBNA|date=28 April 2012}}</ref> Until 1983, he worked as a doctor at ] in Jerusalem.<ref></ref>


==Early life and career==
Fathi Shaqaqi's brother Khalil is the director of the ]-based Center for Palestine Research and Studies, established in 1993.<ref></ref>
Shaqaqi was born to a refugee family of eight children in the slums of a refugee camp in ] in the southern ].<ref name="Atkins">{{cite book |last=Atkins |first=Stephen E.|date=2004|title=Encyclopedia of Modern Worldwide Extremists and Extremist Groups|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofmo0000atki|url-access=registration |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |pages=–303|isbn=0-3133-2485-9 |access-date=10 March 2011}}</ref><ref name="Obituary">{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-dr-fathi-shkaki-1580289.html|title=Obituary: Dr Fathi Shkaki|author=Robert Fisk|date=31 October 1995|work=]|access-date=30 April 2013}}</ref> His family was originally from ] near ], where they had lived for nearly five generations and his grandfather had served as the ] of the local mosque.<ref name="Reuter">{{cite book|last=Reuter|first=Christopher |date=2004 |title=My Life is a Weapon: A Modern History of Suicide Bombing |url=https://archive.org/details/mylifeisweaponmo00reut |url-access=registration|publisher=] |pages=–97 |isbn=0-6911-1759-4|access-date=10 March 2011}}</ref> The Shaqaqi family fled Zarnuqa during the ] in fear of Israeli massacres, and were not allowed to return.<ref name="Reuter"/> His mother died when he was fifteen. Fathi Shaqaqi's brother Khalil, after teaching in several universities in the ], ] and ], moved after the ] to the West Bank and is founding director of the ]-based ], established in 1993.<ref name="Reuter"/>


Most of his early education was at the ] school. He attended ] in the ], where he studied physics and mathematics.<ref name="JVLib">{{cite web|title=Fathi Shiqaqi|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/shiqaqi.html|work=Jewish Virtual Library|access-date=29 August 2013}}</ref> In 1970–1974, he taught mathematics at a school for orphans in ]. In 1974 he moved to ] to study medicine at ], specializing in ]. Upon receiving his medical degree in 1981, he worked in a general practice at ] in ]. He later opened a medical clinic in Gaza.<ref name="Atkins"/>
In an interview in January 1995 with ], Shaqaqi laughingly boasted of the ] carried out under his direction that killed 21 Israelis. He called it "the biggest military attack ever inside Palestine," and giggled when asked if he knew about the attack in advance.<ref></ref>


==Leader of Islamic Jihad==
Shaqaqi spoke ] and kept a Hebrew dictionary on the bookshelf at his office decorated with photographs of suicide bombers on the outskirts of Damascus.<ref></ref>
During his studies at ] Shaqaqi became an admirer of ], founder of the ], and ], the founder of ].<ref name="Atkins" /> While studying medicine in Egypt he was an acquaintance of Sheikh ], leader of ] and ], and Salah Sariya, a Salafi Palestinian executed in 1976 on the charge of having plotted the assassination of ] ].<ref name="Atkins" /> He also became a follower of the ideas of ]<ref name="Atkins" /> and ].<ref name="Obituary" /> He also read ] literature, including allegedly the entire works of ], but kept untouched by socialism.<ref name="Obituary" /> The teachings of Qutb, who was executed by President of Egypt ] in 1966 for supposedly plotting an Islamist revolution, convinced Shkaki that the "corrupt and secular governments" of the Arab world had to be replaced by Islamic societies politically, socially and culturally.<ref name="Obituary" /> Shaqaqi came to believe that the ] opposition to ]i occupation was worthless and that only an Islamist organisations could achieve any political and military successes against Israel.<ref name="Obituary" /> By the later 1970s Shaqaqi broke with both the Muslim Brotherhood and secular Palestinian nationalist groups, dismayed that the former spoke too little about Palestine and the latter too little on Islam.<ref name="Fisk">{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/the-doctor-who-finds-death-a-laughing-matter-1570442.html |title=The doctor who finds death a laughing matter |last1=Fisk |first1=Robert|date=30 January 1995|work=] |access-date=30 April 2013}}</ref> As a university student in Egypt, Shiqaqi was inspired by the triumph of the 1979 ], which saw the last Pahlavi Shah Mohammed Reza deposed in a popular uprising that culminated in the establishment of an Islamic Republic with long-exiled Ayatollah Khomeini as its spiritual figurehead. He wrote a short book praising Khomeini's approach to Islamic governance titled ''Khomeini, The Islamic Solution and the Alternative'', published in Cairo four days after the victory of the revolution.<ref name="Atkins" /><ref name="Reuter" /> In Shaqaqi's view the Khomeini victory "demonstrated that even against an enemy as powerful as the Shah, a jihad of determined militants could overcome all obstacles."<ref>{{cite book|last=Horowitz|first=David |date=2006 |title=Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam And the American Left |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_QZtDTrIY_MC|publisher=Regnery Publishing |pages=95–96|isbn=0-89526-026-3|access-date=10 March 2011}}</ref> The book sold 10,000 copies in just two days, before it was promptly banned by the Egyptian government and Shiqaqi briefly arrested. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, of which Shiqaqi was a founding member, remains ideologically and militarily aligned with Iran, its largest supplier of weapons and aid.<ref name="Richards">{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/intifadas-gentle-man-of-war-the-leader-of-palestines-islamic-jihad-tells-charles-richards-in-damascus-why-he-thinks-violent-acts-against-the-israelis-are-justified-1563649.html |title=Intifada's gentle man of war: The leader of Palestine's Islamic Jihad tells Charles Richards in Damascus why he thinks violent acts against the Israelis are morally and religiously justified |last1=Richards |first1=Charles|date=15 December 1992|work=] |access-date=30 April 2013}}</ref>


In 1981, along with ] and five other Palestinian Islamist and Salafi leaders, he founded the ].<ref name="Marlowe">{{cite magazine |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,982455,00.html|title=Interview With a Fanatic|last1=Marlowe |first1=Lara|date=6 February 1995|magazine=]|access-date=30 April 2013}}</ref> The aim of the organization was the establishment of a sovereign, ] ] state within the geographic borders of pre-1948 ]. Completely rejecting the political process, the organization professes that its goals can only be achieved through Islamic Jihad military means.<ref name="CFR">{{cite web |url=http://www.cfr.org/israel/palestinian-islamic-jihad/p15984 |title=Palestinian Islamic Jihad |last1=Fletcher |first1=Holly |date=10 April 2008 |publisher=] |access-date=30 April 2013 |archive-date=11 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170511152402/http://www.cfr.org/israel/palestinian-islamic-jihad/p15984 |url-status=dead }}</ref> While an adherent of ], Shaqaqi would later state to ] journalist ] that "We are not talking about theology, we are talking about politics and military things," adding that "Islam would be the idea we would start with, Palestine the goal to liberate and ] would be the way, the method." He described the organization as a "crossing-point between ] and ]",<ref name="Fisk" /> and that his intentions were not to establish an Islamic state, but merely to "liberate all of Palestine."<ref name="Obituary" /> Fisk was surprised that Shaqaqi neither greeted him with "]" nor quoted the ].<ref name="Fisk" /> Speaking about his motives during the Fisk interview, Shaqaqi stated: "We are only defending our right to live in our homeland ... We lived in peace with Jews for centuries... I have no problem with Jews ... But I will fight occupation."<ref name="Fisk" /> In an interview with Charles Richards of '']'' in 1992, Shaqaqi stated that his aim was a Palestine from the river to the sea "where all religions can live together in one state under Islamic Quranic law."<ref name="Richards" /> While nominally a Sunni organization, the PIJ has made every effort to play down the basic differences between ] and Sunni, instead emphasizing the common elements of the entire ].<ref name="Shay">{{cite book|last=Shay |first=Shaul |title=The Axis of Evil: Iran, Hizballah, And The Palestinian Terror|year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b8k4rEPvq_8C|publisher=Transaction Publishers |pages=76–77 |isbn=1-4128-1779-X |access-date=10 March 2011}}</ref> Regarding the ] as "our partners in history and destiny," Shaqaqi's organization also had Christian members.<ref name=Inquiry>{{cite journal|date=January 1993|title=Interview with the General Secretary of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine: Dr. Fathi Shikaki|journal=Inquiry |publisher=Islamic Committee for Palestine}}</ref>
== Assassination==
Shaqaqi was shot on 26 October 1995 in front of the Diplomat Hotel in ], ] by two gunmen thought to have been from ], the Israeli secret service. Shaqaqi was travelling under the ] Dr. Ibrahim Ali Shawesh.<ref> Mathaba</ref> He was on his way back from ] after visiting ]n leader ] who promised to help finance Shaqaqi’s factions.<ref name=telegraph> ''The Telegraph'', 17 February 2010.</ref> His assassination produced disarray in Islamic Jihad since no competent successor could replace Shaqaqi.<ref name=srdavis>{{cite journal|last=David|first=Steven R.|title=Israel’s Policy of Targeted Killing|journal=Ethics & International Affairs|year=2003|volume=17|issue=1|url=http://www.ukrainianstudies.uottawa.ca/pdf/david%202003.pdf|accessdate=26 July 2012}}</ref>Islamic Jihad sources in Gaza confirmed that Shiqaqi had been traveling from Libya to his home in Damascus and made a stopover in Malta.<ref></ref>


The PIJ recruited former leaders of other Palestinian organisations such as the PLO.<ref name="Atkins" /><ref name="BBC">{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1658443.stm |title=Who Are the Islamic Jihad? |date=9 June 2003 |work=] |access-date=12 December 2013}}</ref> Many were recruited from the predecessor of the PIJ, originally known as the ], which was founded in 1964 by Zaid al-Husseini but suppressed by Israel in 1971.<ref name="AtkinsPIJ">{{cite book |last=Atkins |first=Stephen E. |date=2004 |title=Encyclopedia of Modern Worldwide Extremists and Extremist Groups |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofmo0000atki |url-access=registration |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |pages=–240 |isbn=0-313-32485-9 |access-date=10 March 2011}}</ref> Shaqiqi created a small secretive organization engaged in assassinations, mass shootings, bombings and suicide bombings against the Israeli military. Shaqaqi prohibited targeting innocent civilians, which however did not include ].<ref name="Rudolf" /> After his killing all Israelis were deemed legitimate targets.<ref name="Rudolf" /> An elitist group, its appeal is mainly among the educated youth.<ref name="NYT">{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/world/middleeast/islamic-jihad-gains-new-traction-in-gaza.html?_r=0 |title=Islamic Jihad Gains New Traction in Gaza |last1=Rudoren |first1=Jodi|date=3 May 2014|work=] |access-date=10 May 2014}}</ref> Shaqaqi was arrested in Gaza by Israel in 1983 for publishing the magazine "Islamic Vanguard", but released the following year. He was rearrested in 1986 and sentenced to four years in prison at ] and ] in the ] desert. In 1988 he was deported to ], allegedly at the orders of ].<ref name="Fisk" /><ref name="Rudolf">{{cite book |last1=Rudolf |first1=Rachel M. |last2=Van Engeland |first2=Anisseh |chapter=The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine: a Wild Card in Palestinian Politics? |date=28 March 2013 |title=From Terrorism to Politics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BoxPx2eUQPIC |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |pages=97–117 |isbn=978-1-4094-9870-4 |access-date=23 May 2012}}</ref> Shaqaqi learned ] while imprisoned in Israel, and kept a Hebrew dictionary on the bookshelf at his office in the Palestinian ] on the outskirts of Damascus, which was decorated with a model of Al-Aqsa mosque, a lithograph of Hani Abed and framed photographs of suicide bombers<ref name="Fisk" /> Able to speak "flawless ],"<ref name="Richards" /> Shaqaqi stated to Fisk that "Before I am a politician and the leader of Islamic Jihad, I am a human being and a poet..."<ref name="Fisk" /> He was well read in the literature of ], ], ], ], ] and other ],<ref name="Obituary" /><ref name="Fisk" /> quoting ] in length during his interview with Fisk.<ref name="UglyEnd">{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/ugly-end-for-man-who-laughed-at-death-1580134.html |title=Ugly end for man who laughed at death |last1=Fisk |first1=Robert|date=30 October 1995 |work=] |access-date=30 April 2013}}</ref> Shortly after his expulsion to Lebanon in 1988, Shaqaqi met ] in ], who pledged financial and military support for his organization.<ref name="Fisk" /> While in Lebanon the PIJ built up a very close relationship with the Shia Islamist group ] led by Hassan Nasrallah, and received military training from the ].<ref name="CFR" /> In 1990, he settled in Damascus under the protection of ] ].<ref name="Atkins" />
Two assassins, allegedly Mossad agents, are believed to have carried out the killing.<ref></ref> According to ne account, the assassination was carried out by a Mossad agent from the U.S. code-named Ranan and a female agent from Canada code-named Gili. Ranan and Gili were on a motorcycle and shot Shaqaqi as he was returning to his hotel. They shot him in quick succession with a gun equipped with a silencer and a container to hold the used cartridges. Shaqaqi’s killers escaped on the motorcycle but sustained minor injuries when they swerved to avoid a mother and her child crossing the street. Abandoning the motorcycle, a third individual drove them to the ] Marina from where they most probably boarded a fast boat which took them out at sea and eventually to a ship offshore from where the whole operation was directed.<ref name=telegraph/>


As the leader of the PIJ, Shaqaqi masterminded several ]s in Israel.<ref name=hjournal>{{cite news |title=Palestinians swear revenge for assassination |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JbceAAAAIBAJ&pg=5403,3041425&hl=en |newspaper=Herald Journal |date=28 October 1995 |location=Gaza City |access-date=15 December 2012}}</ref> He was a key player in setting up the National Alliance in January 1994, a coalition of eight PLO groups, Islamic Jihad and Hamas rejecting the ].<ref name="JVLib" /> The PIJ is considered by Israel to be one of the most extreme and violent organisation in its operational methods and commitment to the destruction of Israel.<ref name="ReichGoldberg">{{cite book |last1=Reich |first1=Bernard |last2=Goldberg |first2=David H. |date=2008 |title=Historical Dictionary of Israel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mf-xAAAAQBAJ |publisher=Scarecrow Press |pages=373–375 |isbn=978-0-313-32485-7 |access-date=10 March 2011}}</ref> By 1995 it was according to Fisk "perhaps the fiercest of all Israel's modern-day enemies."<ref name="Fisk" />
Another account states that two men, Gil and Ran, arrived in Malta on a late-afternoon flight and checked into the Diplomat Hotel where Shaqaqi was staying. Ran rented a motorcycle, saying he planned to use it to tour the island. At the same time, a freighter from Haifa radioed the Maltese harbour authorities that it had developed engine trouble and would need to anchor off the island for repairs. A team of Mossad communications technicians on board sent the agents instructions through a radio in Gil's suitcase.<ref></ref>


==Assassination==
According to a book about Mossad, Mossad Director-General ] was on the ship personally directing the operation. The Maltese police were only able to identify Shaqaqi's body three days later. His funeral in ] on 1 November 1995 was attended by some 40,000.<ref name=jvlib/><ref> from the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, Jerusalem</ref>
{{main|Assassination of Fathi Shaqaqi}}
Shaqaqi was shot five times on 26 October 1995 in front of the Diplomat Hotel in ], ] by a hit team said to be composed of two ] agents.<ref>], Meir Javedanfar, Basic Books (2007) 2008 p.177.</ref><ref name="Bergman" >Ronen Bergman Simon & Schuster 2008 p.275.</ref><ref>], ], 30 November 2010</ref><ref>Ian Lesser, John Arquilla, Bruce Hoffman, David F. Ronfeldt, Michele Zanini, Rand Corporation 1999 p.62 n.50.</ref> The assassination happened a few days after Shaqaqi conducted an interview with journalist ] of '']'' Newspaper. Shaqaqi had been travelling under the ] Dr. Ibrahim Ali Shawesh.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050412013556/http://www.mathaba.net/news/news1/lockerbie/maltaccused.html |date=12 April 2005 }} Mathaba</ref> He was on his way back from ] after visiting ]n leader ] who promised to help finance Shaqaqi's factions.<ref name=telegraph>], , Telegraph, 17 February 2010</ref> His assassination produced disarray in Islamic Jihad since no competent successor could replace Shaqaqi.<ref name=srdavis>{{cite journal|last=David|first=Steven R.|title=Israel's Policy of Targeted Killing|journal=Ethics & International Affairs|year=2003|volume=17|issue=1|pages=111–126|doi=10.1111/j.1747-7093.2003.tb00422.x|s2cid=17694067|url=http://www.ukrainianstudies.uottawa.ca/pdf/david%202003.pdf|access-date=26 July 2012}}</ref> Islamic Jihad sources in Gaza confirmed that Shiqaqi had been traveling from Libya to his home in Damascus and made a stopover in Malta.<ref></ref>


Accounts vary in details. In the '']'' version by ], two men, Gil and Ran, arrived in Malta on a late-afternoon flight, after receiving new passports provided by fellow agents in Rome and Athens (''sayan''), and checked into the Diplomat Hotel where Shaqaqi was residing. Another local ''sayan'' who owned a car rental agency provided Ran with a ] motorcycle, which he told hotel staff he planned to use for touring the island. At the same time, a ] from ] radioed the Maltese harbour authorities that it had developed engine trouble and would need to anchor off the island for repairs. A team of Mossad communications technicians on board sent the agents instructions through an encrypted radio system in Gil's suitcase. The two ] operatives then drove up on the motorcycle and pulled up while Shaqaqi was walking along the waterfront and one of them, Gil, shot him six times in the head, a 'kidon signature'.<ref name="telegraph"/> ] writes that Shaqaqi was out shopping, and was shot twice in the forehead and twice in the back of the head, with a semi-automatic pistol fitted with a silencer and a device to catch the spent cartridges, and that the motorbike had been stolen the day before.<ref name="Bergman" />
Since Shaqaqi's death, Palestinian Islamic Jihad has been led by fellow co-founder ] Shallah, a.k.a. Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad Shallah, who then joined the earlier listing of fellow PIJ co-founder Abd Al Aziz Awda as a "]" under United States law on 27 November 1995. Both Shallah and Awda were subsequently indicted on 53 ] (RICO) charges, and consequently became two of the ] on 24 February 2006.

==Legacy==
Shaqaqi left behind a wife and three children, two boys and a girl.<ref name="Obituary"/> He was succeeded as Secretary-General of the PIJ by fellow co-founder ]. His funeral in ] on 1 November 1995 was attended by some 40,000.<ref name="JVLib"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.passia.org/palestine_facts/personalities/alpha_s.htm#s26 |title=Bio of Fathi Shiqaqi |publisher=Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs |location=Jerusalem |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204220510/http://www.passia.org/palestine_facts/personalities/alpha_s.htm |archive-date=2013-12-04 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The assassination of Shaqaqi, who was regarded as a highly charismatic and capable leader, and the subsequent crackdown on the PIJ by Israel and the ] led to a significant weakening of the organization.<ref name="Shay"/> Following the ] the group has enjoyed a revival in its military and political strength with increased Syrian and Iranian support, and in some Gaza precincts, Shaqaqi's picture is more prominent than that of the Hamas prime minister.<ref name="NYT"/>


==See also== ==See also==
*] *]

==References== ==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=33em}} {{Reflist}}


{{Authority control}}
== External links ==
* in ]


{{Authority control|VIAF=11613358}}

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| NAME = Shaqaqi, Fathi
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| DATE OF DEATH = October 26, 1995
| PLACE OF DEATH =
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaqaqi, Fathi}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Shaqaqi, Fathi}}
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Latest revision as of 02:12, 27 October 2024

Palestinian political and militant leader (1981 to 1995)

Fathi Shaqaqi
فتحي الشقاقي
Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
In office
1981–1995
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byRamadan Shalah
Personal details
BornFathi Ibrahim Abdul Aziz Shaqaqi
(1951-01-04)4 January 1951
Rafah, All-Palestine Protectorate
Died26 October 1995(1995-10-26) (aged 44)
Sliema, Malta
Cause of deathGunshot wound
Political partyIslamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
Children3
Residence(s)Damascus, Syria
Alma materBirzeit University (B.Math.)
Mansoura University (M.D.)
ProfessionMath teacher
Pediatrician

Fathi Ibrahim Abdulaziz Shaqaqi (Arabic: فتحي إبراهيم عبد العزيز الشقاقي, romanized: Fatẖī Ibrāhīm ‘Abd ul-‘Aziz ash-Shaqāqī; 4 January 1951 – 26 October 1995) was a Palestinian physician, leader and the founder and Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a Palestinian Islamist paramilitary organization.

Shaqaqi was born in the Gaza Strip to a refugee family and received his early education at a United Nations school. He studied physics and mathematics at Bir Zeit University and later medicine at Mansoura University in Egypt. Shaqaqi became a follower of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Sayyid Qutb. Influenced by the Iranian Revolution, he wrote a book praising Ayatollah Khomeini's approach to an Islamic state.

In 1981, Shaqaqi co-founded Islamic Jihad with the goal of establishing a sovereign Islamic state across Israel and the Palestinian territories. The organization rejected political processes, focusing on achieving its goals through military means. As the PIJ leader, Shaqaqi masterminded several suicide bombings in Israel. He was assassinated by Mossad agents in Malta in 1995, leading to a weakening of the PIJ until its resurgence after the Arab Spring.

Early life and career

Shaqaqi was born to a refugee family of eight children in the slums of a refugee camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. His family was originally from Zarnuqa near Ramlah, where they had lived for nearly five generations and his grandfather had served as the imam of the local mosque. The Shaqaqi family fled Zarnuqa during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War in fear of Israeli massacres, and were not allowed to return. His mother died when he was fifteen. Fathi Shaqaqi's brother Khalil, after teaching in several universities in the United States, Kuwait and Bahrain, moved after the Oslo Peace Accords to the West Bank and is founding director of the Nablus-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, established in 1993.

Most of his early education was at the United Nations school. He attended Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, where he studied physics and mathematics. In 1970–1974, he taught mathematics at a school for orphans in East Jerusalem. In 1974 he moved to Egypt to study medicine at Mansoura University, specializing in pediatrics. Upon receiving his medical degree in 1981, he worked in a general practice at Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem. He later opened a medical clinic in Gaza.

Leader of Islamic Jihad

During his studies at Birzeit University Shaqaqi became an admirer of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas. While studying medicine in Egypt he was an acquaintance of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, leader of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya and Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and Salah Sariya, a Salafi Palestinian executed in 1976 on the charge of having plotted the assassination of President of Egypt Anwar Sadat. He also became a follower of the ideas of Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna. He also read Marxist literature, including allegedly the entire works of Karl Marx, but kept untouched by socialism. The teachings of Qutb, who was executed by President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1966 for supposedly plotting an Islamist revolution, convinced Shkaki that the "corrupt and secular governments" of the Arab world had to be replaced by Islamic societies politically, socially and culturally. Shaqaqi came to believe that the PLO opposition to Israeli occupation was worthless and that only an Islamist organisations could achieve any political and military successes against Israel. By the later 1970s Shaqaqi broke with both the Muslim Brotherhood and secular Palestinian nationalist groups, dismayed that the former spoke too little about Palestine and the latter too little on Islam. As a university student in Egypt, Shiqaqi was inspired by the triumph of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which saw the last Pahlavi Shah Mohammed Reza deposed in a popular uprising that culminated in the establishment of an Islamic Republic with long-exiled Ayatollah Khomeini as its spiritual figurehead. He wrote a short book praising Khomeini's approach to Islamic governance titled Khomeini, The Islamic Solution and the Alternative, published in Cairo four days after the victory of the revolution. In Shaqaqi's view the Khomeini victory "demonstrated that even against an enemy as powerful as the Shah, a jihad of determined militants could overcome all obstacles." The book sold 10,000 copies in just two days, before it was promptly banned by the Egyptian government and Shiqaqi briefly arrested. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, of which Shiqaqi was a founding member, remains ideologically and militarily aligned with Iran, its largest supplier of weapons and aid.

In 1981, along with Abd Al Aziz Awda and five other Palestinian Islamist and Salafi leaders, he founded the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine. The aim of the organization was the establishment of a sovereign, Islamic Palestinian state within the geographic borders of pre-1948 Mandatory Palestine. Completely rejecting the political process, the organization professes that its goals can only be achieved through Islamic Jihad military means. While an adherent of Islamism, Shaqaqi would later state to British journalist Robert Fisk that "We are not talking about theology, we are talking about politics and military things," adding that "Islam would be the idea we would start with, Palestine the goal to liberate and Jihad would be the way, the method." He described the organization as a "crossing-point between nationalist and Islamism", and that his intentions were not to establish an Islamic state, but merely to "liberate all of Palestine." Fisk was surprised that Shaqaqi neither greeted him with "As-salamu alaykum" nor quoted the Quran. Speaking about his motives during the Fisk interview, Shaqaqi stated: "We are only defending our right to live in our homeland ... We lived in peace with Jews for centuries... I have no problem with Jews ... But I will fight occupation." In an interview with Charles Richards of The Independent in 1992, Shaqaqi stated that his aim was a Palestine from the river to the sea "where all religions can live together in one state under Islamic Quranic law." While nominally a Sunni organization, the PIJ has made every effort to play down the basic differences between Shia and Sunni, instead emphasizing the common elements of the entire Islamic nation. Regarding the Palestinian Christians as "our partners in history and destiny," Shaqaqi's organization also had Christian members.

The PIJ recruited former leaders of other Palestinian organisations such as the PLO. Many were recruited from the predecessor of the PIJ, originally known as the Palestine Liberation Force, which was founded in 1964 by Zaid al-Husseini but suppressed by Israel in 1971. Shaqiqi created a small secretive organization engaged in assassinations, mass shootings, bombings and suicide bombings against the Israeli military. Shaqaqi prohibited targeting innocent civilians, which however did not include Israeli settlers. After his killing all Israelis were deemed legitimate targets. An elitist group, its appeal is mainly among the educated youth. Shaqaqi was arrested in Gaza by Israel in 1983 for publishing the magazine "Islamic Vanguard", but released the following year. He was rearrested in 1986 and sentenced to four years in prison at Ashkelon and Nafah in the Negev desert. In 1988 he was deported to Southern Lebanon, allegedly at the orders of Yitzhak Rabin. Shaqaqi learned Hebrew while imprisoned in Israel, and kept a Hebrew dictionary on the bookshelf at his office in the Palestinian Yarmouk Camp on the outskirts of Damascus, which was decorated with a model of Al-Aqsa mosque, a lithograph of Hani Abed and framed photographs of suicide bombers Able to speak "flawless English," Shaqaqi stated to Fisk that "Before I am a politician and the leader of Islamic Jihad, I am a human being and a poet..." He was well read in the literature of Shakespeare, Dante, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, E. M. Forster and other Western writers, quoting Hamlet in length during his interview with Fisk. Shortly after his expulsion to Lebanon in 1988, Shaqaqi met Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran, who pledged financial and military support for his organization. While in Lebanon the PIJ built up a very close relationship with the Shia Islamist group Hezbollah led by Hassan Nasrallah, and received military training from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. In 1990, he settled in Damascus under the protection of President of Syria Hafez al-Assad.

As the leader of the PIJ, Shaqaqi masterminded several suicide bombings in Israel. He was a key player in setting up the National Alliance in January 1994, a coalition of eight PLO groups, Islamic Jihad and Hamas rejecting the Oslo process. The PIJ is considered by Israel to be one of the most extreme and violent organisation in its operational methods and commitment to the destruction of Israel. By 1995 it was according to Fisk "perhaps the fiercest of all Israel's modern-day enemies."

Assassination

Main article: Assassination of Fathi Shaqaqi

Shaqaqi was shot five times on 26 October 1995 in front of the Diplomat Hotel in Sliema, Malta by a hit team said to be composed of two Mossad agents. The assassination happened a few days after Shaqaqi conducted an interview with journalist Ibrahim Hamidi of Al-Hayat Newspaper. Shaqaqi had been travelling under the false name Dr. Ibrahim Ali Shawesh. He was on his way back from Tripoli after visiting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who promised to help finance Shaqaqi's factions. His assassination produced disarray in Islamic Jihad since no competent successor could replace Shaqaqi. Islamic Jihad sources in Gaza confirmed that Shiqaqi had been traveling from Libya to his home in Damascus and made a stopover in Malta.

Accounts vary in details. In the Telegraph version by Gordon Thomas, two men, Gil and Ran, arrived in Malta on a late-afternoon flight, after receiving new passports provided by fellow agents in Rome and Athens (sayan), and checked into the Diplomat Hotel where Shaqaqi was residing. Another local sayan who owned a car rental agency provided Ran with a Yamaha motorcycle, which he told hotel staff he planned to use for touring the island. At the same time, a freighter from Haifa radioed the Maltese harbour authorities that it had developed engine trouble and would need to anchor off the island for repairs. A team of Mossad communications technicians on board sent the agents instructions through an encrypted radio system in Gil's suitcase. The two kidon operatives then drove up on the motorcycle and pulled up while Shaqaqi was walking along the waterfront and one of them, Gil, shot him six times in the head, a 'kidon signature'. Ronen Bergman writes that Shaqaqi was out shopping, and was shot twice in the forehead and twice in the back of the head, with a semi-automatic pistol fitted with a silencer and a device to catch the spent cartridges, and that the motorbike had been stolen the day before.

Legacy

Shaqaqi left behind a wife and three children, two boys and a girl. He was succeeded as Secretary-General of the PIJ by fellow co-founder Ramadan Shallah. His funeral in Damascus on 1 November 1995 was attended by some 40,000. The assassination of Shaqaqi, who was regarded as a highly charismatic and capable leader, and the subsequent crackdown on the PIJ by Israel and the Palestinian National Authority led to a significant weakening of the organization. Following the Arab Spring the group has enjoyed a revival in its military and political strength with increased Syrian and Iranian support, and in some Gaza precincts, Shaqaqi's picture is more prominent than that of the Hamas prime minister.

See also

References

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  21. ^ Ronen Bergman The Secret War with Iran: The 30-Year Clandestine Struggle Against the World's Most Dangerous Terrorist Power, Simon & Schuster 2008 p.275.
  22. Yossi Melman, 'Mossad, MI6, the CIA and the case of the assassinated scientist,' The Independent, 30 November 2010
  23. Ian Lesser, John Arquilla, Bruce Hoffman, David F. Ronfeldt, Michele Zanini, Countering the New Terrorism, Rand Corporation 1999 p.62 n.50.
  24. Malta and the Accused Archived 12 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine Mathaba
  25. ^ Gordon Thomas, 'Mossad's licence to kill,', Telegraph, 17 February 2010
  26. David, Steven R. (2003). "Israel's Policy of Targeted Killing" (PDF). Ethics & International Affairs. 17 (1): 111–126. doi:10.1111/j.1747-7093.2003.tb00422.x. S2CID 17694067. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  27. Leader of Islamic Jihad Reported Killed in Malta
  28. "Bio of Fathi Shiqaqi". Jerusalem: Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs. Archived from the original on 4 December 2013.
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