Word: bassam
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...controversy broke over a report published in the Washington Star. The newspaper charged that within days of the car bombings that critically injured Nablus Mayor Bassam Shaka'a and Ramallah Mayor Karim Khalaf (a third mayor, El-Bireh's Ibrahim Tawil, escaped unscathed), Shin Bet, as the security service is known, turned up evidence that linked six members of the ultranationalist Gush Emunim settler movement to the attacks...
...expression of anger at the bomb attacks last month that maimed the West Bank Arab mayors of Nablus and Ramallah. Argues Hikmat al-Masri, board chairman of Najah University in Nablus: "Under international law we should be protected by the Israelis. But they did not come to [Nablus Mayor] Bassam Shaka'a and ask him about the incident." Adds Rashad al-Shawwa, the mayor of Gaza: "We are against terror, but I am afraid that in the state of frustrations of the Palestinians, violence must be used...
Exactly 30 minutes later, in the Arab industrial city of Nablus, 35 miles north of Ramallah, Mayor Bassam Shaka'a, 49, said goodbye to his wife Anaya and his son Nidal, 18. Ordinarily, Nidal performed the chore of starting up the engine on his father's battered 1966 Opel, which was parked in the family courtyard, but on this morning the youth was studying for his high school exams. As the mayor started the ignition and depressed the clutch, a bomb exploded, severing both of his legs. Nidal ran to the car, and cradling his father...
...issue in the Middle East--the continuing frustration of the Palestinians' aspirations for national self-determination. Israel is the only possible exception to this; ongoing settlement of the West Bank, absorption of the West Bank electrical power system into Israel's, and continuing persecution of Palestinian political spokesmen (like Bassam Shak'a, Mayor of Nablus) may be seen as "decisive acts." Unfortunately, by telegraphing Israel's apparent intention of permanently retaining the West Bank (or at least of privileges there--to settlement, stationing of Israeli troops, etc.), these "decisive acts" render in advance any discussion of genuine political rights...
...fire and spirit we redeem you, O Bassam!" shouted the jubilant townspeople of Nablus. Under a shower of rose petals, Bassam Shaka'a, 48, freed from prison and reinstated as mayor of the largest town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was hoisted on the shoulders of his Palestinian supporters and carried past garlands of flowers and olive branches into the town hall to greet his family. Smiling broadly, the mayor thanked his constituents for the hero's welcome. "I owe you my freedom, and from now on I am yours," he told them. "Victory to the fedayeen...