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{{Short description|Co-founder and leader of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (1981 to 1995)}}
{{lead too short|date=October 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Fathi Shaqaqi<br/>{{Nobold|{{lang|ar|فتحي الشقاقي}}}}
| image = Shaqaqi of pij.jpg
| caption =
| office = Secretary-General of the [[Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine]]
| term_start = 1981
| term_end = 1995
| predecessor = Office established
| successor = [[Ramadan Shalah]]
| birth_date = {{birth date|1951|1|4|df=y}}<ref>[https://www.paljourneys.org/en/biography/14247/fathi-shiqaqi Palestinian Journeys: Fathi Shiqaqi]</ref>
| birth_place = [[Rafah]], [[All-Palestine Protectorate]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1995|10|26|1951|1|4}}
| death_place = [[Sliema]], [[Malta]]
| restingplace =
| restingplacecoordinates =
| birthname = Fathi Ibrahim Abdul Aziz Shaqaqi
| citizenship =
| nationality = [[Palestinian people|Palestinian]]
| party = Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
| spouse =
| children = 3
| parents =
| residence = [[Damascus]], [[Syria]]
| alma_mater = [[Birzeit University]] ([[Bachelor of Mathematics|B.Math.]])<br/> [[Mansoura University]] ([[M.D.]])
| occupation =
| profession = [[Mathematics education|Math teacher]]<br/> [[Pediatrician]]
| signature =
| website =
}}

'''Fathi Shaqaqi''' ({{lang-ar|فتحي الشقاقي}}; 4 January 1951 – 26 October 1995) was the co-founder and Secretary-General of the [[Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine]].

==Early life and career==
Fathi Shaqaqi was born to a refugee family of eight children in the slums of a refugee camp in [[Rafah]] in the southern [[Gaza Strip]].<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=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofmo0000atki/page/301 301]–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=[[The Independent]]|access-date=30 April 2013}}</ref> 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.<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=[[Princeton University Press]] |pages=[https://archive.org/details/mylifeisweaponmo00reut/page/94 94]–97 |isbn=0-6911-1759-4|access-date=10 March 2011}}</ref> The Shaqaqi family fled Zarnuqa during the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]] 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 [[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.<ref name="Reuter"/>

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]].<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 [[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.<ref name="Atkins"/>

==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]].<ref name="Atkins" /> 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]].<ref name="Atkins" /> He also became a follower of the ideas of [[Sayyid Qutb]]<ref name="Atkins" /> and [[Hassan al-Banna]].<ref name="Obituary" /> He also read [[Marxist]] literature, including allegedly the entire works of [[Karl Marx]].<ref name="Obituary" /> 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.<ref name="Obituary" /> Shaqaqi came to believe that the [[PLO]] opposition to [[Israel]]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=[[The Independent]] |access-date=30 April 2013}}</ref> Shortly after the [[Iranian Revolution]], Shaqaqi wrote a book "Khomeini, The Islamic Solution and the Alternative", which praised [[Ayatollah Khomeini]] and his approach to an [[Islamic state]].<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 two days.<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=[[The Independent]] |access-date=30 April 2013}}</ref> It was banned by the Egyptian government and Shaqaqi was arrested.

In 1981, along with [[Abd Al Aziz Awda]] and five other Palestinian Islamist and Salafi leaders, he founded the [[Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine]].<ref name="Marlowe">{{cite web |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|work=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=30 April 2013}}</ref> The aim of the organization was the establishment of a sovereign, [[Islamic state|Islamic]] [[Palestinian people|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.<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=[[Council on Foreign Relations]] |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 [[Islamism]], Shaqaqi would later state to [[United Kingdom|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 [[Palestinian nationalism|nationalist]] and [[Islamism]]",<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 "[[As-salamu alaykum]]" nor quoted the [[Quran]].<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 ''[[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."<ref name="Richards" /> 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 [[Ummah|Islamic nation]].<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 [[Palestinian Christians]] 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>

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=[[BBC News]] |access-date=12 December 2013}}</ref> 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.<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=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofmo0000atki/page/239 239]–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 [[Israeli settlers]].<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=[[The New York Times]] |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 [[Ashkelon]] and [[Nafah]] in the [[Negev]] desert. In 1988 he was deported to [[Southern Lebanon]], allegedly at the orders of [[Yitzhak Rabin]].<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 [[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<ref name="Fisk" /> Able to speak "flawless [[English language|English]],"<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 [[Shakespeare]], [[Dante]], [[T. S. Eliot]], [[Ezra Pound]], [[E. M. Forster]] and other [[Western literature|Western writers]],<ref name="Obituary" /><ref name="Fisk" /> quoting [[Hamlet]] 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=[[The Independent]] |access-date=30 April 2013}}</ref> Shortly after his expulsion to Lebanon in 1988, Shaqaqi met [[Ruhollah Khomeini]] in [[Tehran]], 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 [[Hezbollah]] led by Hassan Nasrallah, and received military training from the [[Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps|Iranian Revolutionary Guards]].<ref name="CFR" /> In 1990 he settled in Damascus under the protection of [[President of Syria]] [[Hafez al-Assad]].<ref name="Atkins" />

As the leader of the PIJ, Shaqaqi masterminded several [[suicide bombing]]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 [[Oslo process]].<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" />

==Assassination==
Shaqaqi was shot six times on 26 October 1995 in front of the Diplomat Hotel in [[Sliema]], [[Malta]] by a hit team composed of two [[Mossad]] agents from a [[kidon|Kidon unit]] that had previously killed [[Gerald Bull]] and [[Atef Bseiso]].<ref>[[Yossi Melman]], Meir Javedanfar, [https://books.google.com/books?id=q8-Me-041qAC&pg=PA199 ''The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran,''] Basic Books (2007) 2008 p.177.</ref><ref name="Bergman" >Ronen Bergman [https://books.google.com/books?id=NkxZcHL1xdYC&pg=PA215 ''The Secret War with Iran: The 30-Year Clandestine Struggle Against the World's Most Dangerous Terrorist Power,''] Simon & Schuster 2008 p.275.</ref><ref>[[Yossi Melman]], [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/yossi-melman-mossad-mi6-the-cia-and-the-case-of-the-assassinated-scientist-2146995.html 'Mossad, MI6, the CIA and the case of the assassinated scientist,'] [[The Independent]], 30 November 2010</ref><ref>Ian Lesser, John Arquilla, Bruce Hoffman, David F. Ronfeldt, Michele Zanini, [https://books.google.com/books?id=9Fp-5hPCpHwC&pg=PA62 ''Countering the New Terrorism,''] Rand Corporation 1999 p.62 n.50.</ref> 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 [[Pseudonym|false name]] Dr. Ibrahim Ali Shawesh.<ref>[http://www.mathaba.net/news/news1/lockerbie/maltaccused.html Malta and the Accused] Mathaba</ref> He was on his way back from [[Tripoli]] after visiting [[Libya]]n leader [[Muammar Gaddafi]] who promised to help finance Shaqaqi's factions.<ref name=telegraph>[[Gordon Thomas (author)|Gordon Thomas]], [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/7254807/Mossads-licence-to-kill.html 'Mossad's licence to kill,'], 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>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150924194147/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4307208.html Leader of Islamic Jihad Reported Killed in Malta]</ref>

Accounts vary in details. In the ''[[The Daily Telegraph|Telegraph]]'' version by [[Gordon Thomas (author)|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]] 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"/> [[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 pistol fitted with a silencer and a device to catch the spent bullet cartridges, and that the motorbike had been stolen the day before.<ref name="Bergman" />

Mossad Director-General [[Shabtai Shavit]] was reportedly on the ship from where he personally directed the operation. The Maltese police were only able to identify Shaqaqi's body three days later.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

==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 [[Ramadan Shallah]]. His funeral in [[Damascus]] 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 [[Palestinian National Authority]] led to a significant weakening of the organization.<ref name="Shay"/> 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.<ref name="NYT"/>

==See also==
*[[Palestinian political violence]]

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

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaqaqi, Fathi}}
[[Category:1951 births]]
[[Category:1995 deaths]]
[[Category:Assassinated Palestinian people]]
[[Category:Birzeit University alumni]]
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in Malta]]
[[Category:Mansoura University alumni]]
[[Category:Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine members]]
[[Category:Palestinian people murdered abroad]]
[[Category:Palestinian people imprisoned by Israel]]
[[Category:Palestinian refugees]]
[[Category:Palestinian Sunni Muslims]]
[[Category:Palestinian pediatricians]]
[[Category:People killed in Mossad operations]]
[[Category:People from Rafah Governorate]]
[[Category:People murdered in Malta]]
[[Category:Palestinian general practitioners]]
[[Category:Leaders of Islamic terror groups]]

Fathi Shaqaqi - Revision history

UpdateBot at 01:09, 6 June 2022