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{{Short description|Palestinian politician and physician; co-founder of Hamas}}

{{Multiple issues|
{{disputed|date=April 2008}}
{{BLP sources|date=April 2008}}
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Mahmoud al-Zahar
| native_name = محمود الزهار
| native_name_lang = ar
| image = محمود الزهار.jpg
| caption = Palestinian politician
| image_size =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1945|05|06|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Gaza City]], [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate for Palestine]]
| office = [[Foreign Minister of the Palestinian Authority]]
| term_start = 20 March 2006
| term_end = 18 March 2007
| primeminister = [[Ismail Haniyeh]]
| predecessor = [[Nasser al-Kidwa]]
| successor = [[Ziad Abu Amr]]
| party = [[Hamas]]
| alma_mater = [[Cairo University]]<br>[[Ain Shams University]]
| profession = [[Physician]]
}}

'''Mahmoud al-Zahar''' ({{lang-ar|محمود الزهار}} ''{{transl|ar|DIN|Maḥmūd az-Zahhār}}'') (born 6 May 1945) is a Palestinian politician. He is a co-founder of [[Hamas]] and a member of the Hamas leadership in the [[Gaza Strip]]. Al-Zahar served as [[Foreign Minister of Palestinian Authority|foreign minister]] in the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Authority Government of March 2006 (also known as the [[First Haniyeh Government]]) that was sworn in on 20 March 2006. On 10 September 2003, his eldest son Khaled was killed in an Israeli air strike, and his other son, a member of the Hamas military wing, the [[Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades]], was killed by Israeli fire in [[Gaza Strip|Gaza]] on 15 January 2008.<ref>{{cite news|last=Kershner|first=Isabel|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/world/middleeast/16mideast.html|title=18 Palestinians Killed in Gaza Clashes|location=Gaza Strip;Israel|work=The New York Times|date=16 January 2008|access-date=27 September 2011}}</ref>

==Early life==
{{BLP unsourced section|date=August 2010}}
Little is known about al-Zahar's early life beyond the fact that he was born in [[Gaza City]] in 1945, and the report that he was born to a [[Palestinian people|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.

==Career with Hamas==
Al-Zahar was instrumental in the creation of [[Hamas]] in 1987. He was detained by Israeli authorities in 1988, and eventually exiled to Lebanon along with a large number of other Islamist activists in 1992.<ref name=ecfr>{{Cite web|url=https://ecfr.eu/special/mapping_palestinian_politics/mahmoud_al_zahar_plc/|title = Mahmoud al-Zahar (Hamas) – Mapping Palestinian Politics – European Council on Foreign Relations|date = 9 April 2018}}</ref> He returned to Gaza after about a year. In response to a campaign of suicide bombings by the [[Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades]] (IQB), on 10 September 2003 an Israeli F-16 dropped a large bomb over his house in the [[Rimal]] neighborhood of [[Gaza Strip|Gaza]], which only managed to slightly wound him, while his eldest 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4653706.stm |title=Middle East | Profile: Hamas' Mahmoud Zahhar |work=BBC News |date=2006-01-27 |access-date=2014-08-14}}</ref> The resulting funeral was attended by over two thousand mourners, who called on Hamas to avenge the deaths.

Al-Zahar has remained a senior official and spokesperson for the group and was 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 action. Al-Zahar was elected for Hamas to the [[Palestinian Legislative Council]] at the [[2006 Palestinian legislative election]], and continues to be a member (as no elections for the PLC have taken place since). He was [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates (State of Palestine)|foreign minister]] in the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Authority Government of March 2006 (also known as the [[First Haniyeh Government]]) that was sworn in on 20 March 2006. Al-Zahar's main challenge was to break the United States-led diplomatic boycott of the Haniyeh government. On 14 June 2006, Palestinian officials reported that al-Zahar brought twelve suitcases stuffed with US$26.7 million in cash into Gaza through its border with Egypt, which was controlled by Palestinian Authority forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President [[Mahmoud 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.<ref>[http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200606/s1663270.htm "Hamas minister carries millions of dollars into Gaza", ABC News, reported 14 June 2006] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615222606/http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200606/s1663270.htm |date=15 June 2006 }}</ref>

On 15 January 2008, al-Zahar's son Hussam, a member of IQB, was reportedly killed in an [[Israel Defense Forces|IDF]] air strike<ref name=ecfr/> on a car full of Hamas fighters in northern Gaza.

In 2010, al-Zahar revealed to the press that [[Yasser Arafat]] had instructed Hamas to launch militant attacks—including [[suicide bombing]]s—against Israel in 2000, due to peace talks not going anywhere.<ref>[http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=189574 "Arafat ordered Hamas attacks against Israel in 2000", Jerusalem Post, reported 29 June 2010]{{Interlanguage link multi||}}</ref>

===Incitement controversy===
During the [[Gaza War (2008–09)|2008–2009 Gaza War]], al-Zahar, during a television broadcast, was reported to have said that the Israelis "have legitimised the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine... They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/200915132615532555.html|title=Al Jazeera |publisher=English.aljazeera.net|date=5 January 2009|access-date=27 September 2011}}</ref> This remark was widely reported as advocating the "murder" of Jewish children worldwide.<ref name=tt>{{cite web|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5454204.ece |title=UK TimesOnline |access-date=2009-03-15 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513023702/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5454204.ece |archive-date=13 May 2011}}</ref><ref name=ta>{{cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24882659-601,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090604165442/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0%2C25197%2C24882659-601%2C00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 June 2009 |title=Hamas terror: every Jewish child now a target |publisher=Theaustralian.news.com.au |date=27 January 2009 }}</ref><ref name=te>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4127907/Hamas-leader-Revenge-for-Israels-Gaza-assault-will-be-murder-of-Jewish-children-across-the-world.html|title=Hamas leader: Revenge for Israels|work=The Telegraph|date=6 January 2009}}</ref> [[Maajid Nawaz]] condemned the remarks as "depraved" and "perverse [[Al-Qaeda]] logic," writing that, as opposed to Hamas, "Israel does not have an active policy of deliberately capturing children to murder them, or even deliberately murdering civilians for that matter."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jan/07/gaza-mahmoud-zahar-hamas |title=Mahmoud Zahar has betrayed his people|work=The Guardian|date=7 January 2009|access-date=27 September 2011|location=London|first=Maajid|last=Nawaz}}</ref> Basim Naim, the minister of health in the Hamas government in Gaza, said Zahar's statements had been misquoted and mistranslated, and that what he did was to "warn that by carrying out these barbaric massacres of children and women, and by destroying our mosques, the Zionists are creating the conditions for people to believe it is justified or legitimate to take revenge....Dr Zahar did not even mention 'Jews' in his comments".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jan/13/gaza-israelandthepalestinians|title=We believe in resistance, not revenge|work=The Guardian|date=13 January 2009|access-date=27 September 2011|location=London|first=Basim|last=Naim}}</ref>

===Park51 endorsement===
In an interview on New York's WABC radio, al-Zahar was asked by Aaron Klein to comment on the construction of the mosque [[Park51]] near the [[World Trade Center site]]. Zahar, endorsed the building, by saying, "We have to build the mosque as you are allowed to build the church and the Israeli are building their holy places. We have to build everywhere – in every area we have Muslims, we have to pray, and this mosque is the only site of prayer especially for the people when they are looking to be in the group – not individual".<ref>{{cite news|author=S.A. Miller in Washington and TOM TOPOUSIS in New York |url=http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/hamas_nod_for_gz_mosque_cSohH9eha8sNZMTDz0VVPI |title=Hamas nod for Ground Zero mosque |work=New York Post|date=16 August 2010|access-date=8 August 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/43647/20100816/ground-zero-mosque-hamas-new-york-post-landmarks-preservation-commission.htm |title=Ground Zero mosque row to become muddier as Hamas pitches in with support – International Business Times |work=International Herald Tribune|date=16 August 2010 |access-date=8 August 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308041211/http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/43647/20100816/ground-zero-mosque-hamas-new-york-post-landmarks-preservation-commission.htm |archive-date=8 March 2012 }}</ref><ref>[https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g5lnPPJXXpZ_cmN17J9dJBFjcgnQD9HKH6S00 ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100819041914/https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g5lnPPJXXpZ_cmN17J9dJBFjcgnQD9HKH6S00 |date=19 August 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Paul Woodward |url=http://warincontext.org/2010/08/16/hamas-supports-the-right-of-muslims-to-pray-in-mosques-even-in-new-york/|title=Hamas supports the right of Muslims to pray in mosques – even in New York|publisher=War in Context|access-date=8 August 2011}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Al-Zahar has had four children with his wife Summaya, including their first son, Khaled, (1974-10 September 2003), daughters Rima (born in 1983),<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Israel-Palestinians.html|work=The New York Times|title=Israel to Make Gestures to Palestinians – New York Times}}</ref> and Huda and son Hussam (??- 15 January 2008).

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

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4653706.stm Profile: Hamas' Mahmoud Zahhar]
* [http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,490160,00.html 2007 interview] with [[Der Spiegel]]
* [https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/islamic-state-not-yet-1.761960 Islamic state? Not yet] – Article stating that he is a creationist.
* [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/16/AR2008041602899.html No Peace Without Hamas] – Op-Ed by Zahar in The Washington Post.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zahar, Mahmoud Al-}}
[[Category:1945 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Jerusalem]]
[[Category:Palestinian Sunni Muslims]]
[[Category:Hamas leaders]]
[[Category:Foreign ministers of the Palestinian National Authority]]
[[Category:Government ministers of the Palestinian National Authority]]
[[Category:Palestinian surgeons]]
[[Category:Members of the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council]]
[[Category:Muslim creationists]]
[[Category:Cairo University alumni]]
[[Category:Ain Shams University alumni]]

Mahmoud al-Zahar - Revision history

CleanupBot at 10:45, 30 January 2022