Muhammad Sawalha is a former Hamas leader in the West Bank who now lives in London as president of the British Muslim Initiative, named in a 2004 US indictment over the funneling of money to Hamas operatives. Through October 6, 2023 the opening said he signed the 2009 Istanbul Declaration, which "reaffirms resistance as a valid means to oppose Israeli state terrorism, illegal occupation and war crimes against the civilian Palestinian population." Today the word does not appear in the opening at all, surviving once in the body, and the opening no longer mentions the declaration or that he heads the British Muslim Initiative. A reader today does not learn that Sawalha personally signed a document endorsing armed resistance against what it called Israeli state terrorism.
Read line by line and written up by hand.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01. “occupation” appeared 2 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 1.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the October 6, 2023 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in October 6, 2023
Mohammad Kathem Rashid Maruf Sawalha (born 1961), also known by the name Abu Obada, is a political activist.1He is the president of the British Muslim Initiative (BMI) and currently resides in London , to which he fled from the West Bank in 1990, to escape the Israeli regime that was targeting those resisting its occupation. Before emigrating to the UK, Sawalha was Hamas’s West Bank military chief.2 In addition, he is accused of supervising the allocation and supply of large amounts of money to Hamas operatives, an allegation that led to his being named in a 2004 U.S. indictment against Hamas operative Muhammad Salah. In addition to his work with Hamas and BMI, Sawalha is a frequent guest on the Al-Hiwar television station, and is affiliated with numerous Palestinian and Islamic charities. He has had a hand in organizing several of the flotillas and land convoys attempting to reach the Gaza Strip , through which he has transferred financial aid to help the besieged Palestinian people. Sawalha helped found the Muslim Association of Britain and was also requested by the London's Metropolitan Police to become a trustee of the Finsbury Park Mosque. In addition, he signed the 2009 Istanbul Declaration, which reaffirms resistance as a valid means to oppose Israeli state terrorism, illegal occupation and war crimes against the civilian Palestinian population.3
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1172104464.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Muhammad Kazem Rashid Maruf Sawalha (born 1961), also known by the name Abu Abada, is a senior Hamas activist. He is the president of the British Muslim Initiative (BMI) and currently resides in London , to which he fled from the West Bank in 1990, using forged documents to escape Israeli security authorities. Before emigrating to the UK, Sawalha was Hamas’s West Bank military chief. In addition, he supervised the allocation and supply of large amounts of money to Hamas operatives, an activity that led to his being named in a 2004 U.S. indictment against Hamas operative Muhammad Salah. In addition to his work with Hamas and BMI, Sawalha is a frequent guest on the Islamist Al-Hiwar television station, and is affiliated with numerous Palestinian and Islamic charities. He has had a hand in organizing several of the flotillas and land convoys attempting to reach the Gaza Strip , through which he has transferred financial aid to Hamas. Sawalha helped found the Muslim Association of Britain and is also a trustee of the Finsbury Park Mosque . In addition, he signed the 2009 Istanbul Declaration, which reaffirms jihad as the proper means to achieving goals such as unifying Israel under Palestinian control.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 598724376.
The opening as it stood in 2025 4 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Palestinian activist Mohammad Kathem Rashid Maruf Sawalha (born 21 July 1961), also known by the name Abu Obada, is a former leader of Hamas in the West Bank .He is the president of British Muslim Initiative (BMI) and currently resides in London . He is accused of supervising the allocation and supply of large amounts of money to Hamas operatives, an allegation that led to his being named in a 2004 U.S. indictment against Hamas operative Muhammad Salah. In addition to his work with Hamas and BMI, Sawalha is a frequent guest on the Al-Hiwar television station, and is affiliated with numerous Palestinian and Islamic charities. He has had a hand in organizing several of the flotillas and land convoys attempting to reach the Gaza Strip , through which he has transferred financial aid. Sawalha helped found the Muslim Association of Britain .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1288867109. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
“occupation” appeared 2 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 1. Read the current article and compare.
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
terror
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0
1
0
islamist
1
1
0
0
jihad
1
1
0
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Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
Where the word went
It left the opening. It did not leave the article. Wikipedia moved it down the page, where a reader arriving from a search result will not reach it.
“occupation” now appears 1× under Activities in Britain, 20% of the way down the article
“terror” now appears 1× under 2004 U.S. indictment of Salah, 40% of the way down the article
Sections that no longer exist
Present on 6 October 2023, absent today. A heading can vanish because the section was deleted or because it was renamed or merged, and we have not separated those here, so treat this as a list of what to check rather than a verdict.
Early activities in the West Bank817 characters
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
