Muhammad Abu Tir - Early Life

Early Life

Abu Tir was born in Umm Tuba, a present neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Abu Tir joined Fatah some time in the early 1970s. Around this time, he was convicted of terror-related activities in Israel and subsequently joined the Muslim Brotherhood. He spent nearly 25 years in Israeli prisons, on and off, for directing terror activities against Israel, including the attempted poisoning in the early 1990s of Israel's water supplies and for directing the activities of Hamas's military arm, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. In 2005, prior to the elections, he was released after serving a term of nearly seven years in prisons. After his release, he was recruited by Hamas to head its national list following its Gaza leader, Ismail Haniyeh. He was most recently arrested and later detained for campaigning near Jerusalem's Damascus Gate after violating a ban that forbade the practice. He was interrogated and later released. The incident transformed Tir into a minor celebrity among the public in his constituency. This incident, in the end, contributed positively to his overall campaign.