Eugene BirdInterview with Khalid Mashaal (2006)

Khalid Mashal
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.

A seven-member CNI-led observer mission to the Palestinian Legislative Council
elections on January 25th, 2006 including Ambassadors Edward Peck and Robert Keeley, included stays in all five neighboring countries: Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. The delegation met with top government
officials and leading opposition figures in Palestine and neighboring Arab countries to assess the accelerated development of democratic institutions and their impact on U.S. long-term interests in the region.

This item is part of the collection: Iraq War: General

Producer: Eugene Bird
Production Company: a l c h y m e d i a
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: Palestine, Israel, Hamas, Election

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Reviewer: Telephone Toughguy - - April 11, 2007
Subject: How can they be democratic?

We haven't bombed them into the stoneage yet. Only when the last traces of the old regimes are annihilated can the puppet governments be set up and then only time will lead them to the inevitable democracy which seems to be the only working formula for government that lasts...

Hitler was elected...

Reviewer: phitoness - - April 8, 2007
Subject: Palestinian Democracy??

What a joke. Another terrorist thug.

Palestinians are incapable of doing anything constructive, besides blowing themselves up.

Reviewer: ragah1 - - June 23, 2006
Subject: Palestinian Democracy

This interview exhibits the point of view of the democratically elected authority in Palestine rarely documented in mainstream media.

Mashaal discusses Hamas, Israel, the International community, and specifically the needs of the Palestinian people.