The Shawa family

The Shawwas were the newcomers of Gaza politics — and within two generations they were the establishment. The family’s rise begins with Khalil al-Shawwa (1818–1884), a butcher from the Tuffah quarter who became head of Gaza’s butchers’ guild — the family name itself is said to derive from the trade — moved to the Shuja’iyya neighborhood, and grew wealthy on tax farming and land. Most branches of the family trace their lineage to him. His son Muhammad carried the name into the municipality as mayor of Gaza in the late 1890s, and his grandson Sa’id al-Shawwa (1868–1930) made it synonymous with the office.

Sa’id al-Shawwa chaired Gaza’s municipal council from 1906 until the British conquest — building the town hall, the Amiri school and the municipal hospital — then turned, after a brief British arrest for his Ottoman wartime loyalties, to the national movement. He represented Gaza in the Palestinian congresses of 1919–22 and sat on the Supreme Muslim Council from its creation in 1922 until his death, the Mufti of Jerusalem’s strongest ally in the south; in 1926–27 he supervised the restoration of Gaza’s Great Omari Mosque. When he died in October 1930 he owned some 50,000 dunums around Gaza and Beersheba, and PalQuest judges it fair to call him the most powerful of Gaza’s notables. The mayoralty stayed in the family: his son Rushdi served as mayor of Gaza in turn, and the Gaza municipality’s own roll of mayors is thick with Shawwas.

The family’s third mayor of the century governed under occupation. Rashad al-Shawwa (1909–1988), Sa’id’s youngest son — exiled by the British to Jordan in 1938 for nationalist militancy — was appointed mayor of Gaza City in the early 1970s and served until 1982, known to Israelis and Palestinians alike as the pro-Jordanian “father figure” of the Strip. The line continued into elected politics: his niece Rawia al-Shawwa, Rashad’s daughter, sat in the Palestinian Legislative Council from 1996, elected again in 2006. From the guild hall to the town hall to the legislature, the Shawwas’ arc is Gaza’s own municipal history in miniature.

Notable members

• Khalil al-Shawwa (1818–1884) — the family’s founding figure; head of Gaza’s butchers’ guild who built its fortune in tax farming and land.
• Muhammad al-Shawwa (d. 1904/05) — his son; mayor of Gaza in the late 1890s.
• Sa’id al-Shawwa (1868–1930) — mayor of Gaza (1906–17), member of the Supreme Muslim Council (1922–30), and one of Palestine’s largest landowners.
• Rushdi al-Shawwa — Sa’id’s son; mayor of Gaza, continuing the family’s hold on the municipality.
• Rashad al-Shawwa (1909–1988) — Sa’id’s youngest son; mayor of Gaza City through the 1970s until 1982.
• Rawia al-Shawwa — Rashad’s daughter; member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, elected 1996 and 2006.

Sources

• Said al-Shawwa — PalQuest biography
• Said al-Shawwa (1868–1930) — Institute for Palestine Studies
• Johann Buessow, “Structural Portraits” — on Gaza’s notable families (University of Tübingen, PDF)
• Rashad al-Shawwa — Wikipedia