Bassam Shakaa

Who is Bassam Shakaa?

Bassam Shakaa was elected mayor of Nablus in 1976.

Bassam Shakaa is a member of one of the wealthiest and most distinguished families in Nablus. He became a member of the Jordanese Regional Branch of the Ba'ath Party in the early 1950s and as a consequence was wanted by Jordanian authorities, forcing him to flee to Syria. He was one of the fierce critics of Syria's independence from the United Arab Republic and after being jailed by the Syrian authorities following his resignation from the Ba'ath Party because of the 1966 split within the Ba'ath movement. Following his release, he moved to Egypt until amnesty from the Jordanian government when he moved back to his home-town Nablus. In 1976 he was elected mayor of Nablus, a position he held until 1982, when all Palestinian mayors were replaced with Israeli local rulers. Shakaa had been a Palestine Liberation Organisation supporter and outspoken critic of the Camp David accords, and was subsequently issued with an expulsion order in 1979.