Shakaa had been a Palestine Liberation Organisation supporter and outspoken critic of the Camp David accords, and was subsequently issued an expulsion order in 1979.

Moshe Zer, one of the first Israeli settlers in the northern West Bank, led the Jewish Underground "hit team" that tried to assassinate Shakaa.

Zer was convicted of causing grievous injury and belonging to a terror group, but was sentenced to only four months in prison, the time he was in jail awaiting trial, because of the state of his health and the fact that he was badly injured in an attempt of a Palestinian to murder him.

[6] In the spring of 1982, the Israeli administration removed Shakaa as mayor and installed an army officer who ran the city for the following three-and-a-half years.

In 1999, the Palestinian Authority put him under house arrest following "The 20 Declaration", which was signed by 20 anti-PA figures, criticizing the line the PA was going down and calling for an end to the Oslo Accords.