Rashad al-Shawa

Rashad al-Shawwa (1909 – 1988) was the Palestinian mayor of Gaza for eleven years from 1971 to 1982. Before becoming mayor he was an outgoing local activist in the city. He was known by Israelis and Palestinians as the pro-Jordanian "father figure" of the Gaza Strip. Rashad's mother was Lebanese. Rashad received his primary and secondary education in public schools in the city. In 1934, he graduated from the American University in Cairo with a degree in politics and economics.

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, he helped organize the smuggling of arms from Iraq and Lebanon to the Arab Liberation Army under Fawzi al-Qawuqji. He returned to Gaza during this time period. In 1950, he founded the newspaper Sha'ab al-Arabiya ("The Arab Nation"). It was the mouthpiece of the Palestinians and he presided over the editing, but it ended after an eight-month circulation. Shawwa was appointed by Egyptian president Muhammad Naguib to "cleanse" Gaza of corruption and any remnants of the monarchy of Farouk of Egypt. He took over responsibility for the management of the municipality and made the decision to not annex adjacent Palestinian refugee camps to the city such as al-Shati and Jabalia. He commenced the development of the economic sector in the Gaza Strip, working on major projects for the export of locally grown citrus to the Arab world, and establishing a juice factory which still exists off Salah al-Din Street.

Second term (1976–1982) The Israeli government re-appointed Shawwa as Mayor of Gaza City in 1976.

In July 1982, the Israeli government deposed Shawwa from his position as mayor of Gaza, along with the entire Gaza City council, accusing them of failing to cooperate with Israeli military rule of the Gaza Strip. Shawwa and the council had refused to work in the city hall building since the March 1982 Palestinian general strike that had been triggered by the deposal of the Al-Bireh city council by the Israeli government, working from home instead in a symbolic protest. Shawwa and the council had also refused to sign an order from the Israeli military forbidding them from making political statements.

Later life and death Shawwa's local influence in Gaza remained strong after his deposal as mayor, largely because of his chairmanship of the Gaza Benevolent Society, which dispensed Jordanian funds. The Israeli military attempted to limit the size of Shawwa's funeral by imposing lockdowns on the suburbs of Gaza City, but the soldiers deployed to the city were ordered to avoid confronting funeral demonstrators, even when the demonstrators raised the Palestinian flag over the mosque where the funeral service was held, in violation of the Israeli occupation laws.

Political positions According to Gil Sedan of the Jewish Journal, Al-Shawwa was considered one of "more moderate" Palestinian leaders, saying that while Shawwa "deeply resented the humiliation of living under military occupation," he "cautioned against hasty solutions. He always stressed the need to end the Israeli administration of the territories before a Palestinian state could be established," adding that Shawwa "was a key figure of the pro-Jordanian camp in the administered territories and refused to blindly follow the guidelines of the Palestine Liberation Organization."