Shabir is soon likely to need all those negotiating skills—and more. The 60-year-old college professor is the main candidate to become the next prime minister of a nascent Palestinian unity government. Though negotiations are still ongoing, both Hamas and Fatah officials are said to have agreed upon Shabir to replace Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader with whom both Washington and Israel refuse to deal. Shabir is compromise candidate. Friends and colleagues describe him as a moderate, and Shabir himself has told Israel’s Haaretz newspaper that he is an independent who maintains “sound relations with all.” Hamas and Fatah hope that his appointment to what they call a government of technocrats will prompt Western governments to lift the sanctions that were imposed on Hamas after it was elected to office earlier this year. “[The sanctions] have been grueling,” says Nicholas Pelham of the International Crisis Group. “It has cost Gaza dearly, and led to a huge increase in those beneath the poverty line.” Fresh spurts of violence—including the deaths of 19 Palestinians killed by errant Israeli fire in the village of Beit Hanoun last week and an Israeli woman killed by Palestinian rockets earlier this week—have lent added impetus to the political maneuvering.
Is Shabir the man who can bring the Palestinian Authority back from the brink? At first glance, he’s an unlikely candidate. Born in the town of Khan Yunis, south of Gaza City, he has devoted most of his life to science and education. His resume, provided to NEWSWEEK by the Islamic University, lists more than a dozen research papers and publications, including one titled “The Miracle of Creation of the Human immunodeficiency Virus (HIV, the causative AIDS agent).”
After studying in Egypt at Alexandria and Cairo universities, he went on to receive a doctorate in microbiology from the University of West Virginia, where one of his old teachers remarked this week to a local paper that politics is “not where I expected him to make his mark.” Shabir is a family man with six children and close cultural ties to the United States—two of his children are currently studying at American universities and his youngest daughter has U.S. citizenship. But the Shabir family, a wealthy and successful clan of about 2,000 strong (a Khan Yunis street is named after them) has an active history of involvement in Palestinian affairs. Shabir’s father, Eid Shabir, was an orator at the Grand Khan Yunis Mosque and a local muqtar, the community leader who solved social disputes. He was also a close friend with Yasir Arafat, according to relatives, and Shabir himself maintained regular contact with the late Palestinian leader.
Shabir was born into a religious family—his father was reportedly a member of the Muslim Brotherhood—and the professor is said to be known for his devoutness, but not for fanaticism. One close friend and longtime colleague, Professor Ahmad Saati, describes him as “close to Hamas,” but also an independent…an Islamist, beyond any one faction." His nephew, Omar Shabir, a 24-year-old chemistry teacher, told NEWSWEEK during an interview at the professor’s childhood home in Khan Yunis that his uncle’s focus “is on development, on construction” and that he had “totally distanced himself from politics.”
That distance ended three weeks ago, says Omar, when Palestinian leaders offered him the prime minister’s post. “At first he refused the position,” says the nephew. He liked being a political independent, and was hesitant to get involved in the dicey issues of the day. But the PA assured him that his role would be “to implement the programs” and the policies of the new government, to be more manager than politician, says Omar. “My uncle is a moderate, politically,” says his nephew, though adding he’s suffered as a Palestinian. Evidence of that can be seen at the two-story villa where Shabir lived until 1999—the green door to his old home is covered with metal patches covering the spots where Israeli bullets had struck during the fighting of the past decade.
The fact that Shabir’s political views are still somewhat enigmatic is unquestionably part of his appeal. Without any baggage, he’s more palatable to the international community, especially Washington, say analysts. Both U.S. and Israeli officials are reluctant to comment publicly on Shabir at this stage but have indicated they are willing to hear his views. They maintain the line that what the new cabinet stands for is more important than the personalities in it. “The names don’t make any difference, it’s the policy, it’s the principles which count,” says Ephraim Sneh, Israel’s deputy minister of defense.
Shabir, meanwhile, is keeping his cards close to his chest. Wearing a gray pinstriped suit at the university campus this week, he told NEWSWEEK that he didn’t want to say anything as he had no “official” offer on the position yet. He thanked the media for their interest and then quickly returned to his classroom, where, he said, his students were taking an exam. But if Shabir is reticent, his campus speaks volumes. The university is a pristine, modern oasis in the middle of an otherwise rundown Gaza City of donkey carts, martyr posters and the occasional bombed-out building. Fully veiled young women clutch their notebooks on one side of the school, bearded men and Arab youths study on the other. When Shabir became president in 1992, it was barely a school, with a single building and barracks and tents for the students to study. By the time he stepped down from the job last year to teach part time, Shabir had used his fund-raising and networking skills to build the university into the largest in the Palestinian territories, with 10 colleges and 19,000 students. The campus in Gaza City now consists of 15 buildings. At least three were built with money from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Islamic Bank; Yasir Arafat personally donated $500,000 to complete one construction project.
Aside from Shabir, the new Palestinian cabinet is expected to include two additional moderates in the foreign- and finance-ministry slots. Yet even if these moves lead to the lifting of sanctions, any coalition between nationalist Fatah and Islamist Hamas is unlikely to remain sustainable over the long term. Another sticking point: Israel’s refusal to deal with Hamas until it agrees to stop its attacks on Israel and formally accept its right to exist. Those who know Shabir say his skills are formidable. “He is more than words,” says Kamalain Shaath, the current president of Islamic University. “I know [he] is capable of doing things under extraordinary circumstances.” If Shabir becomes prime minister, that’s a capability he’s going to need in the months ahead.
