Sheikh Hamad: The Arab leader who broke Israel’s siege on Gaza

Following the passing of Qatar’s Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani connected Sunday, his solidarity with the Palestinian radical remains 1 of the defining legacies of his leadership. He is being remembered not lone arsenic a determination statesman, but besides arsenic a steadfast state of the Palestinian radical and the lone Arab person to physically interruption the crippling siege connected the Gaza Strip.

In October 2012, Sheikh Hamad visited the embattled Gaza Strip, six years aft Israel imposed its crippling planetary blockade connected the territory, pursuing the 2006 Palestinian elections.

Accompanied by his wife, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, and a high-level delegation, the emir bypassed the governmental isolation imposed connected the enclave by Western powers and determination actors, starring to a monolithic authoritative and fashionable reception.

The caput of Hamas’s diaspora office, Khaled Meshaal, told Al Jazeera that the sojourn to the Strip means that “Jerusalem, Gaza and Palestine mourn him.”

“He was the archetypal Arab and Muslim person to sojourn Gaza, lasting by its broadside with chivalry and magnanimity, arsenic if officially announcing the breaking of the siege successful its darkest circumstances,” Meshaal told Al Jazeera. “He was intelligent, brave and a antheral of principles.”

Ahmed al-Sheikh, a elder journalist, Arab affairs commentator and erstwhile quality manager astatine Al Jazeera Arabic Channel, said the Father Emir had ”a peculiar benignant of emotion for Palestine”.

“Has immoderate different person successful the Arab satellite done that [visit to Gaza], but Hamad bin Khalifa?” al-Sheikh reflected successful a caller interview.

”Why did helium spell to Gaza? It’s due to the fact that helium saw that everyone astir Gaza is neglecting it”, helium added.

The precocious Emir of Qatar greets radical successful Gaza City arsenic helium arrives for a cornerstone-laying ceremonial astatine a Qatari-funded rehabilitation centre, October 23, 2012 [Hatem Moussa-Pool/Getty Images]

During that landmark visit, Sheikh Hamad announced an summation successful Qatar’s reconstruction assistance to the enclave from $254m to $400m, laying the instauration for captious housing, infrastructure and healthcare projects that benefited thousands of Palestinians.

Addressing crowds astatine the Islamic University of Gaza – which awarded him and Sheikha Moza honorary doctorates for their humanitarian efforts – helium praised the resilience of the Palestinian people, portion criticising the planetary community’s treble standards.

Palestinian leaders and the erstwhile Emir get astatine a cornerstone-laying ceremonial for a caller residential neighbourhood called Hamad successful Khan Younis, October 23, 2012 [Mohammed Salem-Pool/Getty Images]

Personal symptom and the ‘spearhead’ of liberation

His committedness to the Palestinian origin predated the blockade connected Gaza. In 1999, Sheikh Hamad became the archetypal Gulf person to sojourn the Palestinian territories since 1967, gathering with the precocious Palestinian President Yasser Arafat during a captious governmental impasse.

According to al-Sheikh, the emir viewed the Palestinian conflict done a profoundly idiosyncratic lens. When erstwhile Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon besieged Arafat’s office successful Ramallah, the emir was profoundly pained. He told his aides that erstwhile Sharon attacked the Muqata’a, it felt arsenic though helium was attacking Qatar itself.

His transportation to Palestine was coupled with a regret that helium had ne'er visited Jerusalem earlier its concern successful 1967, According to al-Sheikh, that prompted him to committee an extended three-hour documentary connected the beatified metropolis to seizure its past and identity.

Rather than relying solely connected planetary intervention, helium believed successful the bureau of the Palestinian radical and that they were the indispensable spearhead of their movement. “You volition bash the superior enactment and without this enactment determination tin beryllium nary liberation,” the emir erstwhile told al-Sheikh.

Defying determination consensus

This stance enactment him often astatine likelihood with the determination consensus. During Israel’s devastating 2008–2009 warfare connected Gaza, deep divisions emerged among Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members implicit however to respond to the crisis.

Sheikh Hamad called for an exigency Arab acme successful Doha, proposing a $250m reconstruction money and a maritime corridor to bypass the blockade. He famously expressed his disappointment connected unrecorded tv astir the deficiency of an Arab quorum for the exigency meeting. “God is capable for america and helium is the champion disposer of affairs.”

Some of Gaza’s astir captious infrastructure projects earlier the outbreak of Israel’s genocidal warfare successful October 2023 were the effect of fiscal pledges made by Sheikh Hamad.

Qatar funded the rehabilitation of captious highways and the flagship Sheikh Hamad City successful Khan Younis—a $58m nationalist lodging task with 53 modern flat buildings for thousands of low-income families.

The erstwhile Emir with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh astatine a ceremonial for a Qatari-funded rehabilitation centre successful Gaza City, October 23, 2012 [Hatem Moussa-Pool/Getty Images]

Additionally, the Sheikh Hamad Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics, which officially opened successful April 2019, became the territory’s premier installation for amputees and children with proceeding impairments.

Israel’s genocidal warfare connected Gaza has systematically erased overmuch of the infrastructure Qatar helped concern during Sheikh Hamad’s leadership. Satellite imagery from May this twelvemonth confirms that Hamad City and different areas successful confederate Gaza person been wiped from the map.

The Sheikh Hamad Hospital managed to resume its captious services past December, contempt suffering nonstop attacks, terrible shortages and the broader illness of Gaza’s healthcare system. Operating the lone CT scanner successful bluish Gaza, the infirmary has adjacent opened a caller subdivision successful the southbound to header with a 225 percent summation successful amputation cases.

Sheikh Hamad Hospital’s continued operations during the ongoing genocide successful Gaza stay a tangible remnant of the precocious emir’s unprecedented efforts successful the besieged enclave. His enactment for Gaza volition stay for generations to come.

Palestinian children question Qatari flags portion waiting for the erstwhile Emir to get successful Gaza City, October 23, 2012 [Hatem Moussa/AP]