Salah M. Shehada “Abu Mustafa”
A candle breaking the darkness
(1953-2002)

 Biography

Name: Salah Mustafa Mohammad Shehada
Nickname: Abu Mustafa
Birth date: 1953
Hometown: Yafa
Residence: Shati refugee camp & Beit Hanoun
Education: BA in Social Service
Martyrdom date: 22 July 2002

Salah Shehada was a Palestinian refugee. It was a label that would ordinary enough after 6 decades of usage after the 1948 uprooting and disposition of more than 80% of the Palestinian population by Zionist militias that established a Zionist state on the ethnically-cleansed land. However, the injustice and suffering would only increase with the passing of the days; and so would the longing for the restoration of justice and the rights of the dispossessed.

The Palestinian refugee from Yafa lived 49 years of exile and longing. But more than half of those years were dedicated work to achieve the dream of his nation. From the most difficult years of refuge through the times of occupation and brutality, Salah Shehada moved around and over obstacles standing in the way of fulfilling his mission.

He didn’t want to occupy another nation or ethnically-cleanse another country. He didn’t harbor hatred for another religion or another people out of superiority or victimization. He wanted to return to his home.

Salah Shehada was born in the village of Beit Hanoun in 1953. He was born to parents who were uprooted from the city of Yafa in 1948.

He attended primary and preparatory schools in Beit Hanoun. He graduated from Palestine Secondary School in Gaza with honors.

Despite receiving university admission to study medicine or engineering in Turkey and the USSR, Salah’s family could not afford the expenses of travel and education in those countries.

Salah enrolled in the Social Service Institute in Alexandria, Egypt. There, he started to develop his Muslim identity. And after returning from Egypt, he started working in the propagation of Islamic life in Gaza.

From graduation and till 1979, he worked in social services in the city of Al-Arish in northern Sinai. His last post was “inspector” of social affairs in Al-Arish.

After the liberation of Al-Arish, he moved back to Beit Hanoun and was appointed as inspector of social services in the Gaza Strip.

In 1982, he resigned from the governmental post and started working in the Student Affairs Department at the Islamic University of Gaza.

In 1984, occupation forces arrested him on suspicion of anti-occupation activities. They could not prove charge against him; and he spent two years in prison under exceptional military orders.

After his release in 1986, he was appointed as the Director of Student Affairs at the Islamic University of Gaza.

On 18 August 1988, he was arrested and subjected to interrogation and torture for months. However, occupation interrogators could prove nothing against him.

In 14 May 1989, another prisoner confessed under torture that Salah Shehada was the person in charge of the military branch of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). Consequently, Salah Shehada was subjected to 200 days of interrogation and torture. He was sentenced for 10 years for a leadership position in Hamas, leading the Hamas military branch, leading the Hamas media branch in the northern Gaza Strip, and for issuing the orders to kidnap two occupation soldiers.

After the completion of his 10-year sentence, Salah Shehada was kept in prison without charges for 20 months under the “administrative detention military order.”

Salah Shehada is the founder of the first Hamas military branch, code named “Al-Mujahidoon Al-Filistiniyoon” (The Palestinian Mujahideen). He formed the cells of the branch, supervised the weapons training, and issued orders to target the occupation’s military targets.

Salah Shehada was married and had 6 daughters and 6 grandchildren. His wife and one of his daughters (14 years old) were murdered in the air strike that killed him.