Interview with Khalid Mashaal

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 rele