Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, the former Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad movement, whose name I want to perpetuate in the hearts of the Palestinians a lover of Jerusalem and its defender, a national icon that brings together the parties on the Palestinian scene, a wise intellectual leader and a brilliant professor in the economy with a high charisma.

Shallah was born in 1958 in the Al-Shajaiyah neighborhood, east of Gaza City, and spent all of his early education in the Gaza Strip.

After obtaining a high school diploma, he traveled to Egypt to complete his university education in economics at the end of the seventies.

Meeting with Al-Shaqaki,
who was Shallah during his studies in Egypt, he met Fathi Al-Shaqaqi, who later founded the Islamic Jihad movement, where he was studying medicine at the same university at the time, in his second year.

The meeting resulted in a friendship between Shallah and Shikaki, who was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time, and he presented books to Shallah on the group.

In 1978, Shallah suggested that Shaqaqi form an organization, but the latter told him that he was heading a small group bearing the name of Islamic Vanguards, as he belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood, and Shallah joined him.

After a while, and in light of the activity within that organization, dozens of Palestinian students joined him in Egyptian universities, to form the Islamic Jihad movement at a later time.

In 1981, Shallah obtained his BA in Economics from Zagazig University in Egypt.

After graduating, Shallah returned to the Gaza Strip and worked as a professor in the Department of Economics at the Islamic University.

Al-Khatib and the preacher
At that point in his life, Shallah was known for his speeches calling for resisting the occupation, which infuriated Israel, which forced her to impose house arrest, and prevented him from working inside the university.

In 1986, Shallah left the Gaza Strip to the British capital, London, to complete his university studies, where he obtained a doctorate in economics, from the University of Durham, in 1990.

Shallah stayed for a while in London, and continued his religious activity there, to leave for Kuwait, where he got married.

From Kuwait, Ramadan Shallah went to Britain, and then left again for the United States, where he worked as a professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of South Florida for two years (1993-1995).

In 1995, he left the United States to Syria, hoping to return to the Palestinian territories.

That visit brought me together in Al-Shikaki, where they worked together for six months in developing plans to develop the movement's work.

In that year, the Israeli Mossad assassinated Shikaki, the founder of the Islamic Jihad, to meet the members of the movement and elect Shallah, Secretary-General of the movement.

Jihad operations
During the second Palestinian uprising, the Israeli occupation accused Shallah of direct responsibility for a large number of "jihad" operations against Israeli targets, by giving him direct orders to implement them, which prompted the occupation to treat him as a military leader, along with his political role.

Shallah continued his duties, Secretary-General of the movement until September 28, 2018, when Ziyad Nakhleh was elected to take over the General Secretariat of Islamic Jihad, after the illness prevented Shalah from continuing on his site.

Washington included Shallah on the list of terrorist figures in 2003, and in 2007 the US administration included him for a rewards for justice program and offered $ 5 million in exchange for his arrest.

At the end of 2017, the FBI put him on the wanted list along with 26 personalities worldwide.

Initiatives to end the Palestinian division

Shallah had launched several initiatives to end the Palestinian division between Hamas and Fatah, which has been continuing since 2007, and several Arab mediations have not succeeded in ending it.

The Palestinian leader became famous for his constant defense of the issue of Jerusalem, and he said in one of his press interviews that Jerusalem "is part of my religion and belief, and whoever tells me to give it up is as if he tells me to delete Surat Al-Israa from the Holy Quran."