Wazir, Intisar Al- (Umm Jihad; 1941–)

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WAZIR, INTISAR AL-(Umm Jihad; 1941–)

Palestinian political figure, born in Gaza City. In 1959 Intisar al-Wazir became the first woman member of Fatah, where she made the acquaintance of Khalil al-Wazir, a movement leader, whom she married two years later. From 1963 to 1965 the couple lived in Algiers, where Khalil al-Wazir was the Fatah representative. An ardent militant, upholding the place of women in the Palestinian resistance, Intisar al-Wazir was one of the founders of the General Union of Palestinian Women, of which she was secretary-general from 1980 to 1985. In the 1960s she helped to found such Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) social service organizations as the Social Affairs Committee, the Martyrs' Families Organization, and the Committee for Prisoners and the Injured, which is responsible for helping the families of dead or imprisoned fidaʾiyyun. In 1974 she became a member of the Palestine National Council. In 1978 she obtained a degree in history from the University of Damascus. In 1981 she joined the revolutionary council of Fatah. On the night of 14–15 April 1988, when she and her husband had been living in Tunis for six years, an Israeli commando assassinated her husband in front of her. That same year she was elected to the PLO Executive Committee. In August 1989, at the fifth congress of the movement in Tunis, she joined the Fatah Central Committee. In 1995 she returned to the Gaza Strip after thirty years in exile and was appointed social affairs minister of the Palestinian Authority. In January 1996 she was elected a deputy from Gaza City in the new Palestinian Legislative Council.