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- Country of residence: Portugal
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Daoud Mahmoud Eid Mahmoud Shuqair, known as “Zakaria Muhammad,” was born on December 27, 1950, in the village of Al-Zawiya in the Salfit Governorate, northern West Bank. He is married and has a son and a daughter. He completed his primary education at Al-Zawiya and Bidya schools, and his secondary education at Salfit Secondary School, graduating in 1969. He earned a bachelor's degree in Arabic Literature from the University of Baghdad in 1975.
He worked in journalism while living in Beirut, Amman, and Damascus, and was a writer and editor for several Palestinian newspapers, magazines, and publications specializing in political and cultural affairs, including Al-Hurriya magazine, Al-Fikr Al-Dimuqrati magazine, and Al-Ayyam newspaper. He became deputy editor-in-chief of Al-Karmel magazine in 1994 and worked as an editor at the Muwatin Foundation in Ramallah. He was a founding member of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research (Masarat Center) and a member of the board of directors of the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center.
Early in his life, he joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and was active in student activism at Libyan universities. He was also active as a student at the University of Baghdad. Later, he joined the Palestinian Communist Workers' Party (PCP) and was active in its clandestine cells while in Jordan. Upon his clandestine arrival in Beirut, he adopted the pseudonym "Zakaria Muhammad," where he began writing for the party's newsletter, "On the Path to Victory." At the time, he was living in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp. He witnessed the Lebanese Civil War and the 1982 invasion of Beirut. He switched allegiance to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) in 1982, lived in Damascus, and wrote for the DFLP's magazine, "Al-Hurriya" (Freedom). He later chose to join the Palestinian Democratic Union (FIDA) and, along with his comrades, founded the newspaper "Rayat al-Istiqlal" (Banner of Independence).
He was known for his opposition to the political choice of the PLO and Palestinian Authority leadership after Oslo, especially in the last years of his life. He raised his voice in criticizing the Oslo Accords, and his opposition became more intense after the killing of the dissident Nizar Banat. He participated in demonstrations in downtown Ramallah against the security services’ suppression of freedom of expression and against political arrests, and he wrote articles and tweets on this matter.
He was active in the cultural and research field during his residence in Ramallah since 1994, giving public lectures, presenting interventions and research papers at cultural and academic conferences, and participating in international poetry festivals, including the Arab World Institute Festival in Paris in 2001. He published a number of publications in the fields of poetry, novels, mythology, children's literature, and history, as well as a number of analytical political studies and articles. His publications include: The Palm Tree of Tayy – Unveiling the Secret of the Ancient Palestinians (2003), The Worship of Isis and Osiris in Pre-Islamic Mecca (2009), The Two-Sided Woman: Pre-Islamic Proverbs Between Ritual and Myth (2011), The Religion of Mecca in the Pre-Islamic Era: The Hums, the Tals, and the Hilla (2012), The Religion of Mecca in the Pre-Islamic Era: The Book of Gambling and Divination (2014), The Stone-Blower: The Book of Title and Myth (2014), and The Riddle and the Key: The Deir Alla Tablet and Early Sinai Inscriptions. (2015), and When Moses’ Serpent Was Crushed: The Rise of Judaism in Persian-Era Palestine (2018).
He also published children's literature, including *The First Flower on Earth* (2008) and *The Rain Singer* (2010). His novels include *The Dark Eye* (1997) and *The Shepherd's Staff* (2003). His poetry collections include *Last Poems* (1980), *Handicrafts* (1990), *The Horse Crosses Üsküdar* (1994), *Sunstroke* (2003), *The Stone of Deception* (2008), *Thimble* (2014), *Alandi* (2016), and *Zarwand* (2021). One of his works has been translated into Korean. He received the Mahmoud Darwish Award for Culture and Creativity in 2020.
Zakaria Muhammad suffered throughout his life, as he was pursued by the Jordanian regime and sentenced in absentia by Jordanian courts to fifteen years. He was detained by Arab security services more than once, and was briefly arrested by the Palestinian Authority on August 25, 2021. He suffered from leukemia and died in Ramallah on August 2, 2023.
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