Ismail Haniyeh, 46, was prime minister of the failed Fatah-Hamas unity government. Born in a Gaza refugee camp, he became a close associate of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin. He was expelled by Israel to south Lebanon in 1992, returned to Gaza a year later and became the dean of the Islamic University. In 1998, he took charge of Yassin’s office and served as a liaison between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. He rose to prominence after Israel’s assassinations in 2004 of Yassin and Yassin’s successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi. He has been a member of the political leadership of Hamas since the 1990s.
Haniyeh has often appeared to be at odds with Khaled Meshal, the movement’s leader who lives in exile in Syria. Working free of Israeli control, Meshal has worked as a de facto ambassador and fund-raiser, a crucial role after the United States and European Union cut aid when Hamas came to power.
Mohammed Abu Teir, the second-in-command of Hamas, is originally from Jerusalem. He has spent 25 years in Israeli jails and is a member of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and a former member of Fatah. With his bright orange beard, dyed with henna in line with Islamic tradition, Sheikh Abu Teir preaches in local mosques.
Parliamentarian Jamila Shanti was born in 1955 holds a doctorate in English, and taught at the Islamic University in Gaza before resigning to campaign for the elections. She is a founder of the women’s section in Hamas. Last year she led a women’s march that allowed 70 gunmen holed up in a mosque escape an Israeli siege. Shanti has made statements in support of suicide bombing. ";
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Dogged by accusations of corruption, Fatah suffered a shocking defeat in the election to Hamas. The party of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization), Fatah is headed by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Secular-based and long dominated by the late Yassir Arafat, the party is now split between the old guard and younger leaders seeking power. The party is formally committed to a peace deal with Israel. As Palestinian Authority president, Abbas dissolved the Hamas-led unity government in June, 2007, after a week of fierce fighting left Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip.
Marwan Barghouti was the most popular leader of the second uprising. He is considered a possible successor to Abbas, but is serving five consecutive life terms in an Israeli prison for involvement in attacks that killed four Israelis and a Greek monk. A former ally of Israeli peace activists, Barghouti backs the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, but says Palestinians should use force to drive Israel from the West Bank and Gaza. Israel has said it would not grant him early release, though there is speculation he would be freed in the right political context.
Mohammed Abu Ali Yatta, who has been in Israeli prison for more than 26 years, was sentenced to life for killing an Israeli settler. He has not previously occupied any position in Fatah. His place on the 2006 list of candidates was believed to be a gesture to the thousands of Palestinians held by Israel.
Intissar Wazir was born in Gaza City in 1941 and is a longtime leader of the Palestinian women’s movement. She has been welfare minister since 1996 and is the widow of PLO military chief Khalil al-Wazir, who was killed in an Israeli commando raid in Tunis in 1988. She has been a member of the Palestine National Council since 1974.";
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Headed by former presidential candidate Mustafa Barghouthi and now information minister the Independent Palestine List advocates social reform and non-violent resistance.
Mustafa Barghouti, who was born in Jerusalem in 1954, leads the new party on a platform of clean government. A physician known throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip for running a health care think tank and a pro-democracy lobby group, he ran against Abbas for the Palestinian Authority presidency last year, winning about 20 percent of the vote. He has campaigned against Israel’s separation barrier.
Rawya Al Shawa is a member of the Legislative Council and was No. 2 on Barghouti’s list of candidates in the 2006 elections. Al Shawa is from a prominent family in Gaza. She waged an anti-corruption campaign in parliament and was an outspoken critic of Yasser Arafat.";
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The Third Way, led by finance minister Salam Fayyad, seeks to achieve Palestinian statehood through civic action.
Salam Fayyad was born in 1952. He founded the new Third Way Party, which favors negotiations with Israel and sweeping reform to root out corruption. He has been minister of finance since 2002 and is credited with doing much to clean up the Palestinian Authority finances. He was formerly a senior executive at the International Monetary Fund and received postgraduate degrees from the University of Texas.
Hanan Ashrawi emerged as a prominent figure in Palestinian politics during the first Palestinian uprising. Eloquent and assertive, she was official spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East Peace talks 1991-93. She was appointed minister of higher education in 1996 but quit her post in a high-profile rebuke to Arafat over corruption in 1998. A legislator in the parliament, she serves on a number of international bodies, including the Council of Foreign Relations. She is a member of the Palestinians’ Christian minority."; // END editorial data