1 Palestinian Personalities A

PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES

Personalities - Alphabetical Listing

ABBAS, MAHMOUD ZEIDAN (ABU MAZEN) (1935-)

Born in Safad in 1935; left as refugee for A Syria in 1948; worked as an elementary teacher and later gained a BA in Law from ABAS, IHSAN (1920-2003) Damascus University (1958); worked as Di- rector of Personnel in Qatar’s civil service in Born in Ein Ghazal near Haifa on 2 Dec. 1920; 1957; began, at the same time, to manage completed high school in Haifa and Acre, then and organize Palestinian groups; found- A attended four years at the Arab College in ing member of Fateh; member of the Fateh Jerusalem (1937-41); worked as a teacher at Central Committee since 1964; member Safad College from 1941-46; received a BA of the PNC since 1968 and the PLO Exec. in Arabic Literature from Cairo University in Committee since 1980; leading Palestinian 1950; taught at private schools in Cairo, then figure devoted to the search for a peaceful solution to the Palestin- moved to Khartoum, Sudan, where he worked ian-Israeli conflict; advocated negotiations with Israelis, since the ear- between 1951 and 1960 as a teacher at the ly 1970s and initiated dialogue with Jewish and pacifist movements; Gordon Memorial College (later known as the University of Khartoum), earned a PhD from the Oriental College in Moscow in History (on Zion- while still continuing his graduate studies; received an MA (1952) and ism) in 1982; led negotiations with Matityahu Peled that resulted in the PhD (1954) in Arabic Literature from Cairo University; was appointed announcement of “principles of peace” based on a two-state solution Professor of Arabic Literature at the AUB in 1961 and remained there in Jan. 1977; became head of the PLO Arab and International Rela- until his retirement in 1985; moved to Jordan in 1986 where he was as- tions Dept. in 1984 (until 2000); elected by the PLO Exec. Committee signed to conduct a research project on the history of the Levant for the to succeed Khalil Al-Wazir (assassinated in April 1988) as chairman University of Jordan; published numerous books, studies and articles on of the portfolio on the Occupied Territories in May 1988; coordinated history and Arabic Literature with a focus on Arab Andalusian Literature, the negotiation process during the 1991 Madrid conference; was the in addition to translating world literature into Arabic, for instance, Her- first PLO official to visit Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War in Jan. 1993, man Melville’s Moby Dick; has published his autobiography in Amman and ‘apologized’ to the Gulf countries for the PLO’s stand during the in 1996; was awarded several honorary prizes like the King Faisal In- crisis; headed the Palestinian negotiating team to the secret Oslo talks ternational Prize in 1980 and the Jerusalem Medal for Culture and Arts and signed the DoP on 13 Sept. 1993 on behalf of PLO; head of the awarded by the PLO in 1990; died in Amman in July 2003. PLO Negotiating Affairs Dept. from 1994 until his becoming a PM in 2003; signed the Interim Agreement (Oslo II) in Sept. 1995 on behalf of the PLO; returned to Palestine in Sept. 1995 after almost 48 years ABBAD, ABDUL RAHMAN (1945-) in exile and took residences in Gaza and Ramallah; authored an account on the Oslo negotiations entitled Through Secret Channels: The Born in Zakariya near Hebron in 1945; Di- Road to Oslo (1995); drafted together with his Israeli counterpart Yossi ploma from the Teachers’ College, Lebanon; Beilin the controversial ‘Framework for the Conclusion of a Final Status BA in Arabic Language and Literature from Agreement Between Israel and the PLO’ (better known as Abu-Ma- Beirut Arab University (1977); MA (1982) zen-Beilin Plan) in Oct. 1995 (although its existence was denied for and PhD (1990) in Arabic Language and Lit- five years before being published in Sept 2000); head of the Central erature from the Jesuit University, Lebanon; Election Commission from 1996 until 2002; was elected in the Jan. teacher at Hebron University from 1982-1990; Professor at Al-Quds 1996 PLC elections in the Qalqilya district; served as head of the Refu- Open University, Bethlehem branch from 1990-92; Associate Professor gee Dept.; became Sec.-Gen. of the PLO Exec. Committee since April at Al-Quds University, Jerusalem, from 1996-99; Professor in the Je- 1996; headed (with Uri Savir) the first session of the Israeli-PA final rusalem branch of Leeds University from 1998-2002; Chairman of the status talks in May 1996; criticized the direction of the Al-Aqsa Intifada Arabic Language and Islamic Culture Dept., UNRWA College, Ramal- in late 2002, calling for an end to all military operations; nominated PM lah; editor-in-chief of Al-Isra’ newspaper; has many publications deal- by Pres. Yasser Arafat on 10 March 2003 and sworn in as PM and PA ing with literary criticism, books for university students, short story col- Interior Min. on 30 April 2003; resigned from the Fateh Central Com- lections, novels and studies related to the Arab-Islamic culture; some of mittee in July 2003; submitted his resignation as PM on 6 Sept. 2003 his works have been translated into French, English, Russian, Czech, (naming mainly Israel’s unwillingness to implement its road map com- and Hebrew; received awards like the Palestine Prize for Literature in mitments and undertake constructive measures, but also blaming the 1989; a prize presented by late Pres. Yasser Arafat in 1997; an award international community and the Palestinian side for its lack of support, by Pope Shenuda of Egypt; and received the Jerusalem Medal, Beirut, incitement and accusations); following the death of Yasser Arafat, was in 2004; member of the General Union for Palestinian Writers; Board of elected the new head of the PLO and endorsed by the Fateh Revolu- Trustees member, Al-Liqa’ Center for Religious and Heritage Studies, tionary Council as its preferred candidate for the Presidential Elections Bethlehem; member, Higher Islamic Council; member, Higher Islamic on 25 Nov. 2004; elected as President of PA in the 9 Jan. 2005 Presi- Sufi Council; Executive Committee member, Union of Arab Historians; dential Elections (gaining 62.52% of the votes) and sworn in on 15 Jan.; Board of Trustees member, Al-Aqsa Islamic Schools; Advisory Board began to reform the government and security services, incl. forcing top member, Faculty of Qur’an and Islamic Studies, Al-Quds University, security leaders into retirement. Jerusalem; his books include Non-Violence in Islam (Arabic, 1995).

1 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

ABBOUSHI, FAHMI (1895-1975) ABDUL BAQI, AHMAD HILMI (1878-1963)

Born in Jenin in 1895; Mayor of Jenin from Born in Sidon, Lebanon, in 1878; moved with 1935-37; dismissed from the post by British the family to Nablus, where he received his Mandate authorities in 1937; as a result, the education; served as General in the Ottoman Abboushi family left and lived in exile in Bei- Army; became Dir.-Gen. of the Ottoman Agri- rut until 1940; had a close relationship with cultural Bank in Nablus and later with the gov- Awni Abdul Hadi, co-founding the promi- ernment in Iraq in 1908; served as Dir.-Gen. nent Arab Independence Party (Al-Istiqlal) of the Ministry of Finance in Syria and in Tran- in the 1930s; chairman of the Arab National sjordan, and, in 1919, as Minister; moved after Bank, Jenin branch in the 1940s; also served the occupation of Syria to Jordan, where he on numerous national committees during and after the British Mandate assisted in establishing the government led by A of Palestine; well known for his oratory skills; died in 1975. Emir Abdullah; was appointed Minister of Finance; moved to Al-Hijaz, then – following British pressure to remove politically-active Ministers from their posts – to Cairo; returned to Palestine and worked as General ABDALLAH, SAMIR see ALI, ABDULLAH SAMIR Inspector of the Palestinian Waqf under Hajj Amin Al-Husseini from 1925-30; co-founder of the Arab National Bank in 1930 with his son- in-law Abdul Hamid Shuman, and served as its Chairman in the early ABDEEN, ABDEL QADER (SHEIKH) (1927-2003) 1940s; helped founding the Agricultural Bank; was active in several fi- Born in Hebron in 1927; raised in Hebron and nancial, credit and economic institutions; early member of the Istiqlal Jerusalem, where he attended Al-Ibrahimi- Party; member and named as treasurer to the first Arab Higher Commit- yyeh School; studied at Al-Azhar University, tee formed in 1936; among those Arab Higher Committee members who Egypt, gaining a degree in Islamic Shari’a got deported to the Seychelles Islands by the British in 1937; established Law in 1950; specialized in Shari’a Law (1952) the Arab National Fund in Aug. 1943, which supported the Istiqlal Party; then in Education (1954); worked as teacher in named by King Abdullah in charge of the administration in Jerusalem Cairo from 1950-57, Saudi Arabia and Jordan; on 15 May 1948; formally appointed Military Governor in Jerusalem in returned to Jerusalem in 1962 and worked June 1948; named first PM of the All-Palestine Government’s cabinet, as a teacher in Rashidiyeh Boys’ School, Al- established in Sept. 1948 in Gaza; then appointed District Military Gov- Ma’muniyeh Girls’ School and the Agricultural School of Al-‘Urub; also ernor under Hashemite rule in the West Bank; appointed representative taught at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Dar Al-Aytam Al-Islamiya (Islamic Orphan- of the All-Palestine Government to the Arab League on 30 Oct. 1948 age School); then worked in the Shari’a Court in 1973; became a member and subsequently moved to Cairo, where he established the Al-Ummah of the Court of Appeals, then its Acting Chairman and Higher Shari’a Arab Bank; left Cairo for medical treatment in Lebanon, where he died Court Judge until his retirement in 1998; member of the Higher Islamic on 29 June 1963; buried in Jerusalem. Council; appointed Mufti of Jerusalem by the Jordanian Government after the death of Mufti Sheikh Suleiman Al-Ja’abari in Oct. 1994; held a separate office from that of the PA-appointed Mufti Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, died in Jerusalem on 18 June 2003. ABDUL FATTAH, KAMAL JABER HASAN (1943-)

Born in Jenin on 9 Feb. 1943; BA Geography, Damascus University, Syria (1964); teacher ABDI, ABED (1942-) of Geography at Jenin Secondary School from 1964-68; Education Supervisor in Jenin Born in Haifa in 1942; paints since his child- from 1968-73; PhD in Geography, Friedrich- hood; held his first exhibit in Tel Aviv in 1962; Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, studied graphics and mural painting at the Germany (1980); Assistant Professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts in Germany, Middle Eastern Studies Dept., Birzeit Univer- graduating in 1971; received the 2nd Prize at sity (1978-80); Dean, Faculty of Arts, Birzeit the University and spent another year, special- University (1980-82); Chairman, Middle Eastern Studies Dept. (1982- izing in murals and environmental sculpture; 83); Dir., Research Center, Birzeit University (1983-84); Associate Pro- returned to Haifa in 1972, where he worked as a graphic designer, painter, sculptor and teacher of arts; received the Young Artist’s Award at the Berlin fessor, Geography Program, Dept. of History, Geography and Political International youth festival in 1972; was awarded the ‘Herman Struck Best Science, Birzeit University (1984-90 and from 1994-present); Visiting Artist of the Year’ Prize in Haifa in 1972 and 1999; prepared murals and Professor, Villanova University (1990-91 and 1995-96); Associate monuments, incl. a sculpture commemorating the 1976 Land Day mas- Professor, Geography Program, Birzeit University (1991-93); Visiting sacre (jointly with Israeli artist Gershon Knispel) and a memorial sculpture Professor, Bayreuth University, Germany (1993-94); Chairman, Con- celebrating 75 years of Shafa Amr Municipality in 1984; teaches Fine Arts temporary Arab Studies MA Program, Birzeit University (since 1996); at the Arab Education College of Israel since 1985; participated in joint Pal- former member of the Council of Higher Education in the West Bank estinian-Israeli exhibits in Germany in 1988-90 and 1995-96; is a founding and Gaza (1982-89); member of the editorial board of Afaq Filastini- member of the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center in Ramallah; exhibited his yya (Birzeit University’s Research Journal); made numerous contribu- works for “solidarity with the Palestinian people” activities in different parts tions to Palestinian organizations, incl. being founding member of the of the world; founding member of the Ibdaa’ Society for the Promotion of Palestinian Geographical Society, Board of Trustees member of the Visual Arts among Arabs inside the Green Line; member of the London- Arab Studies Society, the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study based Artists Without Frontiers; organizes exhibits for young artists. of International Affairs (PASSIA) (since 1987) and the Arab Though Fo-

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rum in Jerusalem; worked together with other Arab Geographers on rested in June 1936 and placed in the Sarafand Detention Camp; banned the Arab Homeland Atlas, published by the Union of Arab Universities from re-entry to the country when the British decided to deport the Arab and served as member of the Union’s Board of Directors (1982-1986); Higher Committee members in 1937; remained in exile until 1941; mem- also member of the German Geographical Society and has participated ber of the Palestinian delegation to the London Conference, St. James’s in the Atlas Vorderer Orient, published by the University of Tübingen, Palace, in Feb. 1939; upon his return to Palestine in 1941, helped revive Germany; holder of the Abdul Hamid Shuman Prize for Arab Scientists the Arab Higher Committee; member and appointed Minister for Social in Social Sciences (1983) and the Palestine Prize for Social Scienc- Affairs of the All-Palestine government, established in 1948; served as es (Geography), 1997; specialist on Palestinian Geography, incl. the Jordan’s Minister (later Ambassador) to Cairo, 1951-55; Minister of Jus- Judaization of the Palestinian cultural landscape and the destruction of tice and Foreign Affairs in Jordan from 1955-58, and later Senator in the Palestinian villages, a topic which he researched extensively (e.g., His- Jordanian Upper House; from 1958 Chairman of the Arab League’s Judi- torical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the cial Affairs Committee in Cairo; died on 15 March 1970 in Cairo. Late 16th Century, co-authored with Wolf Dieter Hütteroth, Fränkische A Geographische Gesellschaft, Erlangen, Germany, 1977; and Mountain, Farmer and Fellah in ‘Asir, Southwest Saudi Arabia. The Conditions of Agriculture in a Traditional Society, (Erlangen, Germany, 1981). ABDUL HADI, FAIHA (1951-)

Born in Nablus in 1951; arrested together with her mother, Issam Abdul Hadi, who, ABDUL GHANI, ABDUL RAHIM AHMAD see AHMAD, ABDUL RAHIM at the time, was the President of the GUPW, in April 1969 and deported from Palestine; earned a BA in Arabic Literature from Jor- ABDUL HADI, AMIN (1897-1967) dan University, Amman (1973) and a BA in Theater Criticism from the Institute of Ad- Born in 1897; Member of the Ottoman parlia- vanced Theatrical Art, Cairo (1973); then ment; appointed by the British Mandate au- studied towards an MA and PhD in Arabic Literature, Cairo University thorities to a provisional Advisory Council (to (1982 and 1990); worked as a poet, writer, journalist, lecturer and reserve as a legislative body until a formal coun- search consultant, particularly on literature, women and oral history; cil dealing with self-government issues was member, GUPW, Cairo, from 1982-98; organized free weekly art and established) in May 1923; appointed member literary sessions for children during 1988-98; founded and organized of the Supreme Muslim Council in 1929; ap- Abbad Al-Shams in 1987 (a youth choir which won first prize at the pointed by the Jordanian government as head ART competition, Cairo Opera House, 1994); lecturer at the Faculty of the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem on 20 Dec. 1948 succeed- of Arabic Literature, Cairo University, Egypt, from 1996-97; lecturer, ing the Grand Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini; moved to Cairo in the late Women’s Studies Dept., Birzeit University, from 2000-2001; Dir.-Gen. 1960s, where he lived until his death in 1967. of the Women’s Affairs Technical Committee from 2001-2002; consultant, MOPIC, Directorate of Gender Planning and Development, from 1998-2003; special coordinator for the OPT to the “1000 Women for ABDUL HADI, ‘AWNI (1889-1970) the Nobel Peace Prize 2005” Association; has widely published, incl. Heroines in Modern Palestinian Novels (Cairo, 1997) and The Palestin- Born in Nablus in 1889; landowner and law- ian Woman and Memory: Papers of the Workshop on the Political Oral yer; pan-Arabist; educated in Palestine, Bei- History of the Palestinian Woman (editor, Ramallah: MOPIC - Directo- rut, Istanbul, and at the Sorbonne University in rate of Gender Planning and Development, 1999). Paris; there he became a founding member of the Al-Fatat nationalist society in 1911, which was devoted to Arab independence and unity; member of the Decentralization Party; among ABDUL HADI, FAISAL QASEM (1948-2006) the organizers of the first Arab Nationalist Congress that took place in Paris in 1913; be- Born in Nablus on 27 Sept. 1948; studied in came the private secretary of Emir Faisal I after WWI; legal advisor to the the schools of Nablus until he was arrested for Hijazi delegation of Sharif Hussein at the Versailles Peace Conference in his Fateh affiliation and subsequently moved 1919; then advisor to Emir Abdullah in 1921 in Transjordan; chief of the to Jordan in Nov. 1967; went to the UK and Hashemite Court in Jordan; returned to Palestine in 1924, where he prac- enrolled at Chelsea University, from where he ticed as lawyer and became one of the chief spokespersons of the Pales- graduated in 1976 as an Aviation Engineer; re- tinian-Arab nationalist movement; elected representative to the 5th (Aug. turned to Jordan and worked for a year; then 1922, Nablus) and 6th (June 1923, Jaffa) Congress of the Arab Executive moved to Dubai to work in the field of shipping Committee for Jenin and to the 7th (June 1928) for Beisan; Secretary of the and freight services (by land and sea); be- Exec. Committee’s Congress in 1928; presented Palestinian viewpoints came a famous businessman in the Arabic Gulf in the 1980s and 1990s; before the 1929 Shaw Commission; member of the Palestinian Delega- after 2000, he contributed to the establishment of the Popular Commit- tion to the UK in 1930; lawyer for the Supreme Muslim Council; founder, tee for the Support of the Intifada in Dubai, UAE; worked as Director of Sec.-Gen. and first elected President of the Palestinian Istiqlal (Independ- the Projects Committee of the Welfare Association in Geneva in 2004; ence) Party, the first Palestinian political party regularly constituted on 2 established several IT companies during 2004-06, the most important of Aug. 1932; member and Sec.-Gen. of the first Arab Higher Committee which was the Arabic Internet Standards Association, which he formed in formed in April 1936; partially responsible for the Revolt of 1936-39; ar- cooperation with Dubai Media City; died on 15 March 2006 in Dubai.

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ABDUL HADI, FU’AD (1900-1977) ABDUL HADI, IBRAHIM HILMI (1927-2002)

Born in Beirut in March 1900; studied at Born in 1927; studied at the University of Ten- the Islamic College in Beirut then attended nessee, USA; worked in his chosen field - ag- the Frères and St. Joseph Schools in Jaf- riculture - for several years; settled in Nablus fa; joined his brother Awni Abdul Hadi in and became a successful businessman, who, Paris, where he studied at Hughes College with others, established 17 companies in the in Versailles; also graduated in 1930 with a fields of insurance, real estate and hotels; has law degree from the Palestinian Law School been involved in philanthropic activities and in Jerusalem; worked with Awni in their law projects; has insisted in investing in Palestine office in Jerusalem and looked after the rather than abroad and supported small busi- family property in Nablus, Jenin and Arra- nesses in order to promote the Palestinian economy; passed a policy in A beh between 1930-47; during the 1948 Nakba, became a refugee to his insurance company, which assisted students by paying for their uni- Beirut, Lebanon; returned to Palestine in 1950 and joined the Jordanian versity fees; was a member of various charity organizations and a found- judiciary system; was appointed as District Attorney in Nablus in 1950, ing member of the Patients Friends’ Societies; died on 20 Dec. 2002. then as judge in the Jerusalem District Court in 1953; in 1955, became a Judge in the Jerusalem Court of Appeals, and in 1958 Attorney General in the West Bank; served as Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Justice in Amman from 1960-62; was appointed by a royal decree as member of ABDUL HADI, ISSAM (1928-) the Jordanian Upper House (Jordanian Parliament) and headed its Le- Born in Nablus in 1928; educated at gal Committee, through which he also contributed to the drafting of the A’ishiyyeh School in Nablus and later at the first Jordanian Civil Law in 1963; became a PNC member in 1964; was Friends’ School in Ramallah; involved in Pal- active in its Legal Committee and took part in the drafting of the Palestin- estinian women’s activities in the West Bank ian National Charter; after the 1967 June War, was one of the founding since 1949; attended the first PNC at which members of the Higher Islamic Council and member of the first National the GUPW was formally established in June Guidance Committee; died in Jerusalem on 25 June 1977. 1964; elected Sec.-Gen. of the Arab Women’s Union in Nablus in 1949; long-time leader of the GUPW and its elected President in July 1965; imprisoned by Israel and deported with her daughter Faiha Abdul Hadi, in April 1969 after arranging a sit-in and hunger strike at the Church of the ABDUL HADI, GHADA (1954-) Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem, in protest of the Israeli army’s killing of women in Gaza; worked through the Save Jerusalem Committee in Amman; Born in Nablus in 1954; arrested for the first appointed to the PLO Central Council in 1974; re-established GUPW in time at the age of 11 by the Jordanian author- Lebanon in the mid-1970s; headed the Palestinian delegation to the first ities in 1965 for participating in demonstra- UN International Women’s Conference in Mexico City in 1975; elected tions; following the Israeli occupation of the Pres. of the General Union of Arab Women in 1981; Vice-Pres. of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 was put under International Democratic Union of Women from 1981-92; returned to the house arrest in Nablus, then sentenced by West Bank in 1993; was awarded the Ibn Rushd Prize by the Berlin-based Israeli authorities for one year imprisonment Ibn Rushd Fund for Freedom of Thought in 2002; was one of eight Pales- in 1969 under allegations of joining activities tinian women nominated for the Noble Peace Prize as part of the Project organized by Shadia Abu Ghazaleh; af- “1000 Women for the Noble Peace Prize 2005”. ter her release continued her education and was active in community and political committees; arrested again in 1992 and detained for one month; founded Hawwa Center for Culture and Arts in Nablus in 1994; member in the Higher National Committee - Nablus District, the GUPW, ABDUL HADI, IZZAT (1957-) and the Female Political Prisoners’ Committee; member of the right of return committee and the Committee for the Defense of Freedom; Born in Nablus on 15 Dec. 1957; studied at the involved in community work. Qadri Tuqan Boys School in Nablus; earned a BA in Political and Administrative Sciences (1982) and an MA in Political Science (1983) from the Lebanese State University; editor of ABDUL HADI, HAFEZ (PASHA) (1872- 1916) Palestine Daily’s section for the Palestine Re- search Center in Beirut from 1981-83; worked Born in 1872; Palestinian notable from Jenin; as a researcher and marketing manager at the important landowner in the areas of Nablus, Center for Production Development in Ramal- Arrabeh and Jenin; worked as a tax collec- lah (MATTIN) from 1983-87; founder and manager of the United Clothing tor during the Ottoman times; supported the Company from 1988-89; founder of the Bisan Center for Research and De- Decentralization Party under Ottoman rule; velopment in Ramallah in 1989 and its Director since; conducted a number brother of Salim Ahmad Abdul Hadi (a mem- of training, assessment and evaluation programs for different local and in- ber of the Decentralization Party who was ex- ternational organizations since 1992; member of the PNGO (since 1993), ecuted by the Ottomans); died in 1916. the Arab NGO Network for Development in Beirut (since 1995), and the National Team for Poverty Alleviation in Palestine, led by MOPIC (since 1999); Steering Committee member of the Palestinian Council for Peace

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and Justice (since 1996) and the Women Court in Lebanon (since 1997); in 1977; co-founder and Sec.-Gen. of the Council for Higher Education from 1993-97 enrolled at the Development Studies Dept. of the University in the West Bank from 1977-80; founder and elected Pres. of the Arab of East Anglia, UK in 1997 to study towards a PhD but did not graduate); Thought Forum in Jerusalem from 1977-81; author of the first book on Board of Trustees and Directors member of the Center for Women’s Eco- Israeli Settlements in Occupied Jerusalem & West Bank in 1977, con- nomic Project (Asalah) since 1997; Board of Trustees member of Al-Haq tinued his studies and earned a PhD from the School of Peace Studies (1995-98 and since 2000); member of the International Council of the World at Bradford University, UK (1984); became a member of the Jordanian- Social Forum; was appointed to become the Palestinian representative to Palestinian Joint Committee and special advisor to the Ministry of Occu- Australia in Oct. 2005; has published numerous articles and studies, incl. pied Land Affairs in Amman, Jordan, from 1985-86; fellow of the Center Volunteers and Voluntarism in Palestine (Cairo, 1999). for International Affairs at Harvard University (1985) and of the Salzburg International Seminar (1986); returned to Jerusalem and founded the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PAS- SIA) in March 1987; serves as its elected Chairman since; member of the A ABDUL HADI, LAWAHEZ (1927-) Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace negotiations/multilateral working group on refugees in the early 1990s; member of several Pales- Born in Nablus in 1927; educated at A’ishiyah tinian organizations, incl. the Jerusalem Arab Council headed by Faisal School in Nablus; Diploma in Education, Dar Al- Husseini (1992), the Palestinian Council for Justice and Peace in Ramal- Mu’alimat Institute, Jerusalem (1946); worked lah (1994), the Association of Palestinian Policy Research Institutes (AP- as a teacher in UNRWA schools; attended an PRI); (founding) member of several regional and international organiza- educational supervision/inspection course or- tions, incl. the Black Sea University Foundation in Bucharest (1990); the ganized by UNESCO in Beirut in 1973; earned a Euro-Mediterranean Study Commission (EuroMeSCo), headquartered BA in Arabic Literature, Birzeit University (1981); in Lisbon (1994), the Arab Social Science Research Network (ASSR) worked as a teacher at A’ishiyah School in Nab- in Beirut (1996), and the Arab Group for Muslim-Christian Dialogue in lus from 1946-57 and then in the Aden Protec- Beirut (2000); in July 2006, was awarded the civilian decoration (medal) torate from 1957-59, where she also became the of Commander in the Order of the Crown by King Albert II of Belgium educational supervisor for Arab Language Teaching in 1959 (until 1962); for services rendered to the Belgium-Palestinian relations and his lasting supervisor for UNRWA schools in the Hebron and Bethlehem districts commitment to the cause of peace and justice; author of numerous ar- from 1962-64; Director of Education for UNRWA Schools in Hebron from ticles, monographs, and essays and editor of many publications, incl. 100 1964-67 and in Nablus from 1968 until her retirement in 1987; participated Years of Palestinian History, A 20th Century Chronology (PASSIA, 2001), in the founding of the GUPW in 1965; Vice-Pres. of the Union of Voluntary and Palestinian Personalities, A Biographic Dictionary (PASSIA, 2005). Women’s Societies, West Bank; Board member, Charitable Social Care Society; member, Arab Women’s Union Society since Dec. 1987; became the Director of the Arab Women’s Union Society in Nablus in 1992 and of GUPW in the Nablus area; received an award from the Nablus Municipality ABDUL HADI, MAHMOUD (1945-) on 8 March 1997 and the Charitable Organizations Award in 1998. Born in Jaffa in June 1945 to a family originally from Kufr Qaddoum near Nablus; took refuge with his family in Nablus during the 1948 Nakba; completed his secondary edu- ABDUL HADI, MAHDI (1944-) cation in Nablus in 1964; his family moved to Al-Bireh in 1970; joined Alexandria Univer- Born in Nablus in 1944; son of Fu’ad Ab- sity Business College, graduating with a BA in 1968; MA from Birzeit dul Hadi; spent his early childhood in Jaffa, University (1981); worked at Al-Nuseir Auditing Office in Nablus (Sept. from where his family fled during the 1948 1968); in March 1969 became an Instructor in Business at UNRWA’s Nakba, becoming refugees in Lebanon, Ramallah Women’s Training Center; promoted to Head of the Business where he attended St. Joseph’s School in Dept. in 1975; promoted to Deputy Field Relief Services Officer in Aug. Junieh, Beirut; grew up – after the family 1988 then to Head of the Program for Relief and Social Services in returned to Palestine in 1950 – in Nablus, 1994; serves on the Board of Directors of several local NGOs; repre- Ramallah, Hebron and Jerusalem, where sented UNRWA at several conferences, incl. the World Summit for So- his father served as a judge; was enrolled at several schools, incl. the cial Development; served as the chair of the UNRWA Teachers’ Union Friend’s Boys School in Ramallah and the Rashidiyeh School in Jerusa- (1981-88); was member in the Association of Bookkeepers of London. lem; was arrested by the Jordanian authorities for setting up an Pan-Arab student union in Jerusalem and detained for one month; was released and completed his secondary school (tawjihi) in Cairo in 1963; returned to Jerusalem and worked as a clerk in the Jerusalem District Court until ABDUL HADI, NAIM (1912-1996) 1965; went to Syria to study at the School of Law at Damascus Univer- Born in Nablus in 1912; attended An-Najah Na- sity, graduating with a BA in 1970; did not practice law because of the tional School in Nablus; graduated from the AUB Lawyers’ Strike in protest of the Israeli occupation and annexation of East with a BS in Civil Engineering in 1934; served Jerusalem; co-founder (with Yousef Nasser), and editor of Al-Fajr daily for three years as an engineer in the Public newspaper from 1972-74; left the paper to write two books (one on The Works Dept. under the British Mandate, then as Palestine Question and Peaceful Solutions 1934-1977, Sidon, 1977; and District Governor (1938-48); was appointed by The Evolution of the Arab Flag, Amman, 1977); established the Nadi Al- Jordan’s King Abdullah I as Military Governor of Ghad Youth Club in Jerusalem in 1973 and was elected as its Chairman Lydda in May 1948, but removed following the (serving until 1974); set up the Public Relations office at Birzeit University Nakba; Provincial Governor of Hebron, then of

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Ajlon, until his resignation in 1951 over fraud in the parliamentary elec- Secretary to the first Palestinian delegation to London in 1921 but could tions; was elected Mayor of Nablus in the 1951 municipal elections (until not participate for personal reasons; was appointed by the British au- 1955); contributed much to the city’s development, especially in creating thorities as Assistant District Officer of Jerusalem, then as Assistant a public service infrastructure (construction of road, electricity and water Secretary of the Palestinian Government in 1930; became District Gov- networks); joined Sa’id Al-Mufti’s government and was appointed Minister ernor of Jerusalem and later Senior Assistant Secretary of the Palestine of Public Works but resigned in 1955 in protest against Jordan’s joining Government in 1944; held various ministerial posts in Jordan, incl. FM the Baghdad Pact; was elected as member of the Jordanian Parliament in 1949, and Justice Minister in 1949 and from 1952-53; died on 16 July for Jenin in 1956; joined the Cabinet of Suleiman Nabulsi as Minister of 1954 in Nablus. National Economy in 1956-57 (when the government was forced to resign); was arrested for being part of an attempted coup d’état by Nabulsi’s National Party; placed under house arrest and then in Ma’an Prison; upon release in 1958 sought political asylum in Damascus; lived in Cairo from ABDUL HADI, SALAMEH FU’AD (1945) A 1961 until the 1980s, before a Royal Decree of Pardon allowed him to return to Amman, where he died in May 1996. Born in Nablus on 15 Aug. 1945; youngest son of Fu’ad Abdul Hadi; was educated at a Jesuite boarding school in Lebanon and the Quakers-run Friends’ Boys School in ABDUL HADI, RADI (1900-1982) Ramallah, graduating with a high school diploma; then attended the English School Born in Nablus in 1900; attended Al-Darwishi- in Cairo, obtaining the General Certificate yah School in Nablus; studied in Damascus of Education (GEC) in 1965; enrolled the from 1918-20, then at Salahiyya School in same year at the AUC, graduating with a BA Nablus; joined the Teacher College in Jeru- in Economics and Political Science in 1969; salem in 1922 (from 1925 the Arab College) returned to Jerusalem and taught Economics and graduated in 1926; taught at various and Philosophy at Birzeit University in 1970-71; also taught Economics and schools in Palestine during 1929-34; served Business Admin. at the UNRWA Vocational Training School in Qalandia as school principal until 1948; after the War from 1971-72; in later 1972, joined the US State Dept. as a Middle Specialist, of 1948, ended up in Damascus from where and served there until 1979, first in Washington, Cyprus, Beirut, London, he moved to Jordan in 1950; became principal and finally in Amman; during his tenure in Amman, met HRH Crown Prince of Al-Hussein Secondary College in Amman and later Dir.-Gen. of the Hassan of Jordan and became his Press Secretary and Information Advisor Education Dept. in Hebron, Jerusalem and Ajloun; Under-Secretary at in 1979 (until 1999), later also serving as his special advisor (from 1987); the Jordanian Ministry of Education until 1961, then Provincial Governor was the treasurer of the Geneva-based Independent Commission for for the districts of Karak (1963) and Balqa’ (1964); rejoined the Ministry International Humanitarian Issues (ICIHI) from 1984-88; retired following of Education as Under-Secretary in 1966 until retiring in Aug. 1967; au- the death of the late King Hussein of Jordan in 1999; is a Board of Trustees thor of numerous school textbooks dealing with Arabic language, history, member of the Arab Management Society in New York, co-founder of the geography, and literature, among which are: A Summary of the History Geneva-based Rights and Humanity; co-founder of the New York-based of Arabs and Muslims (Arabic, 1957), Ancient Cultures (three volumes, International Commentary Service, and member of the Washington-based Arabic,1966), The Geography of the Arab Homeland and the Middle East Conference of World Mayors; worked as a consultant for several multi- (Arabic, 1957), and The Martyr (Arabic, 1950); died in 1982. national firms (incl. Impregilo Corp.; Salini Corp.; Sumitomo Corp., and the Dresdner Bank) until 2001; he is still active in the media and business fields and currently works on publishing a book on his personal memoirs.

ABDUL HADI, RAWHI (1885-1954)

Born in Jenin in 1885; attended the Jesuit Col- ABDUL HADI, SALIM AHMAD (1870-1915) lege and the Frères College in Beirut; studied at the Lycée Imperial in Istanbul and gradu- Born in Jenin in 1870; educated in Jenin and ated in 1905; earned a higher degree in Law Nablus; worked as a judge before resigning from the Institute of Law in Istanbul in 1908; in order to work in agriculture; member of worked as a legal translator for the Ottoman the Administrative Council of Jenin; founded Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as teacher of the Decentralization Party in Cairo in 1912, French in the Royal School; served many demanding autonomy for the Arab provinces years in the Ottoman diplomatic and consu- of the Ottoman Empire; founded a Palestinian lar corps, incl. in the post of Deputy-Consul section of that party in the Haifa-Jenin area in 1913; belonged to the 1st General in Greece, Russia and Romania; was arrested by France dur- Arab nationalist group (11 martyrs), who were executed by the Ottoman ing WWI in 1914 and sent to Tolon, then Switzerland, where he was military governor of Syria, Jamal Pasha, in Beirut on 21 Aug. 1915 for released and appointed Secretary of the Turkish Consulate in Bern; in membership in the Decentralization Party, which demanded autonomy charge of Public Administration (1915) and of Private Administration for the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire. (1916) in the Ottoman FM; served in different Ottoman diplomatic posts before moving to Damascus in July 1920; left Damascus three days after the French occupation and moved to Haifa; held senior positions in the Palestinian administration under the British Mandate; was elected

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ABDUL HADI, TARAB (1910-1976) from July 1995-2005; in Oct. 2005, was appointed to become the Pal- estinian representative to Moscow; has translated and authored several Born in 1910; became together with Matiel works on Palestine and other issues in Arabic, English, and Japanese, incl. Moghannam the first official representatives of Palestine in My Heart (Shakaihihyosha, 1991, in Japanese), The PLO and a Palestinian women’s delegation to meet with the Gulf War (Daisanshokan, 1991/992, in Japanese and English); Songs High Commissioner Lord Chancellor in Oct. to Hiroshima (Poems) (Al-Shorok, 1996, in Arabic), and The Wisdom of 1929; gave a speech at the Church of the Holy Japan: Old Japanese Folktales (translation into Arabic) (Al-Shorok, 1996). Sepulcher during the Arab Women’s March to Holy Sites on 15 April 1933, warning of the replacement of the Arab popu- lation of Palestine with Jewish immigrants; one of many activists in the 1930s campaign aiming at the removal of the veil; died in 1976. ABDUL QADER, AS’AD (known as SALAH TA’MARI ) (1943-)

Born in Bethlehem in 1943; studied English A Literature at Cairo University, graduating with ABDUL HAMID, HAYEL (ABU AL-HAWL) (-1991) a BA; became a Nasserist, then joined Fateh in 1965; became Sec.-Gen. of the GUPS Refugee from Safad; lived in Yarmouk RC, in Cairo; after 1967, Fateh commander in Syria; joined Hani Al-Hassan in coordinating Jordan, in charge of the Karameh base; Palestinian activism from West Germany; married King Hussein’s ex-wife Dina joined Fateh in 1963/64 and led Fateh Abdul-Hamid; relocated in South Lebanon groups in Egypt and Syria; received military becoming responsible for the PLO youth; training in China in 1967; became Fateh’s rose through the ranks of Fateh to Lt.-Col. and commanded several army representative in Cairo in 1969, and head units in South Lebanon during Israel’s invasion in 1982; arrested by Israel of Fateh’s security apparatus in April 1973; in Sidon in 1982 and put in solitary confinement for three months, before member of the Fateh Central Committee; being transferred to Ansar Prison Camp in South Lebanon; released at assassinated by the Abu Nidal group in Tunis on 15 Jan. 1991, together the end of 1983; became Chairman of the Internees’ Committee; returned with Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) and Fakhri Al-Omari. to the West Bank after the 1993 signing of the DoP; elected PLC member as an independent in the Bethlehem district in the Jan. 1996 elections; member of the PLO Central Council; appointed spokesman of the PA’s ABDUL JAWWAD, SALEH see HAMAYEL, SALEH ABDUL JAWWAD ‘Emergency Committee for the Defense of Palestinian Lands’ and chair of the PLC’s Land and Settlement Committee since Aug. 1998; member of the Negotiations Affairs Dept., with special responsibility for the issue of Israeli settlements; led the Palestinian delegation to negotiate the fate ABDUL KHALEQ, MUTLAQ (1910-1937) of Palestinian activists hiding in the Church of Nativity, Bethlehem, during Born in Nazareth in 1910; received his Israel’s re-invasion of West Bank towns in spring 2002; strongly supported elementary and secondary education from the no-confidence motion of 11 Sept. 2002 that led to the collective Rawdat Al-Ma’aref College in Jerusalem; resignation of the PA cabinet; appointed Min. of Sports and Youth in the moved to Haifa; became editor of Al-Yarmouk Nov. 2003 cabinet of PM Ahmed Qrei’a (until the cabinet reshuffle in Feb. paper and later of An-Nafir and Al-Difa’; was 2005); appointed as Governor of Bethlehem in 2005. employed at the Arab Bank in Haifa; served as Director of As-Siraat Al-Mustaqim paper in Jaffa; is well remembered for his poetry; ABDUL QADER, HATEM see EID, HATEM ABDUL QADER died when a train hit his car in 1937; was posthumously awarded the Jerusalem Prize for Culture and Arts by the PA Ministry of Culture in 1990. ABDUL RAHIM, TAYYEB (full name: AT-TAYYEB ABDUL RAHIM MAHMOUD ABDUL HALIM) (1944-)

Born in Anabta in 1944; enrolled at Al- ABDUL MUNEIM, BAKER (1942-) Azhar University and graduated with a BA in Born in 1942 in Ramleh; became refugee in Commerce in 1967; involved with Fateh since Amman, Jordan, in 1948; studied Mechanical 1967; Dir. of Fateh Broadcasting from 1969- Engineering at Cairo University (BSc in 1966); 70; Director of Voice of Palestine/Sawt Filastin was head of a Jordanian power station; re- radio from 1973-78; PLO ambassador to China, turned to Cairo University and graduated with Egypt, and Yugoslavia; PNC member since a MSc in 1975; became the Vice-Pres. of the 1977; member of Fateh Revolutionary Council International Union of Students, representing since 1980; represents Fateh in the PLO the GUPS from 1978-1983; PNC member since 1979; PhD in Mechanical Central Council since 1989; PA ambassador Engineering in 1983 (Czechoslovakia); PhD in Economics in 1985 (Germa- to Jordan until 1995, then appointed by Yasser Arafat as Sec-.Gen. of ny); PhD in Political Science in 1988 (US); was elected to the Fateh Revo- the PA, responsible for presidential affairs; elected PLC member (Fateh) lutionary Council in 1989; served as PLO representative to Japan from for the Tulkarem constituency in the Jan. 1996 elections; headed a 1983-95 and as head of the General Delegation of Palestine in Canada Committee appointed by Arafat to oversee dialogue with PLO-affiliated

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opposition groups in 1996; appointed by Arafat to head a commission chief of the Social Sciences magazine in Kuwait from 1975-84; became to investigate the PA corruption report in June 1997; made the official the second Dir.-Gen. of the Abdul Hamid Shoman Foundation in 1981, announcement of the death of Pres. Arafat on 11 Nov. 2004 in Ramallah; and was appointed to its Board of Directors in 1997; PLO Exec. Com- was reappointed as Sec.-Gen. of the PA under the leadership of Pres. mittee member in charge of Refugees’ Affairs; head of the PA’s Higher Mahmoud Abbas (until the Jan. 2006 PLC elections). Council for Refugee Camps; resigned in July 2000, saying he is unwilling to take the responsibility for the Camp David results on the refugee issue; has authored several studies on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

ABDUL RAHMAN, AHMAD (1943-)

Born in Beit Shannah, Ramleh, on 12 Nov. ABDUL RAZZEQ, OMAR (1960-) 1943; studied at Damascus School of Law, A graduating with a BA in 1969; joined the Pal- Born in Salfit in 1960; earned a PhD in Econ- estinian resistance and Fateh in June 1967; omy from the University of Iow in 1986a; was one of the founders of the Fateh Tanzim received several awards and honors for his in the Palestinian Student Union in Damas- writings and research, incl. the Abdul Ha- cus; in charge of the Fateh student network mid Shoman Award for Arab Young Schol- in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan between 1967-68; joined the Voice of Al- ars in Social Sciences (1991); has worked Asifa radio in the Cairo Broadcasting Services in 1968; was assigned to as researcher at the Palestine Economic represent Fateh in Sudan in mid-1968; was assigned to represent Fateh Policy Research Institute (MAS) in Ramal- in missions in Latin America in 1969 and 1971; served as a Director of lah worked as Professor of Economics at Voice of Al-Asifa radio when it was broadcasting from Der’a in Syria from An-Najah University in Nablus; was arrested 1970 until it was closed down by the Syrian government in Oct. 1973 twice by the Israelis and held in administrative detention; upon his re- and he was arrested and jailed in Al-Maza Prison in Damascus for a few lease in March 2006, he was appointed PA Minister of Finance in March weeks; became close to Yasser Arafat from July 1973, when he joined 2006; was arrested (along with other PA ministers and PLC members) him at the International Youth Festival in Berlin; served editor-in-chief of in an Israeli military sweep against Hamas on 29 June 2006, and is still Filastin Ath-Thawra from Jan. 1974 until 1994 (the paper was printed in imprisoned as of July 2006. Lebanon from 1974-82, then moved to Cyprus from 1982-94); elected Sec.-Gen. of the Palestinian Union of Writers and Journalists in 1974 (until 2005); enrolled at the AUB and studied towards an MA in Political Science but was unable to graduate due to the Israeli June 1982 invasion ABDUL RAZZEQ, HISHAM ALI HASSAN (1953-) into Lebanon; left with the PLO to Tunis following the PLO’s exodus from Beirut in 1982; PNC member in 1983; appointed as a PLO spokesperson Born in Rafah, Gaza Strip, in 1953 to a refugee and the PNC since 1983; was sent back to Lebanon in 1983 to challenge family originally from Zarnuqa; Fateh member Abu Musa’s splinter Fateh Uprising; remained in charge of the unified and leading activist in Jabalia RC; spent 21 media of the PLO; Fateh Revolutionary Council member since 1984; re- years in Israeli jails for political activism; was turned to Palestine with Mahmoud Abbas in Sept. 1994 for a short pe- finally released in 1994; studied Geography riod, then went back to Tunis; eventually settled back in Palestine in Jan. for two years; holds a BA in Israeli Politics 1996; was appointed as a PA Cabinet Sec.-Gen. and given the title of a from Al-Quds University, Jerusalem; mem- Minister in May 1996 (until 2003); appointed by Pres. Arafat as Advisor ber of the Fateh Higher Committee in Gaza for Political Affairs in 2003; was reappointed to that post by Pres.-elect since 1994-95; spokesperson for Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas in Nov. 2004; observer in the PLO Exec. Committee political prisoners held in Israeli jails in 1995; elected to the PLC in 1996, since Jan. 2005; wrote numerous articles as well as a booklet about the representing the Jabalia District; appointed PA Minister of Detainees and need to establish a Palestinian state under a pen name in 1974. EX-Detainees’ Affairs in 1998; reappointed to that position in the cabinet of PM Mahmoud Abbas on 30 April 2003 and the successive cabinet of PM Ahmed Qrei’a on 12 Nov. 2003 (until the cabinet reshuffle in Feb. 2005); was among the negotiators of the so-called ‘Geneva Accord’ in 2003; run ABDUL RAHMAN, AS’AD (1944-) in the Jan. PLC 2006 elections (Fateh, Jabalia) but was not re-elected.

Born in Jerusalem in 1944; BA in Public Admin- istration from the AUB (1965); became close to ABDUL SHAFI, HAIDAR (1919- ) the PFLP in the late 1960s; became PNC member in 1969; left Palestine in 1970 to become an Born in Gaza in 1919; son of Sheikh Muheid- assistant researcher at the Palestinian Research din Abdul Shafi; received his early education in Gaza, secondary education at the Arab Center in Beirut (1966-67); then took charge of College in Jerusalem, graduating in 1936; the research section at the Center from 1968-70; studied Medicine at the AUB, graduating with continued his higher education and earned an MA in Public Administra- a MD in 1943; while in Beirut, joined the ANM; tion and PhD in Political Science from the University of Calgary, Canada after graduation, worked in the British Gov- (1973); returned to the Palestinian Research Center in Beirut as research ernment Hospital of Jaffa; joined the Jeish Al- consultant from 1973-74; began a teaching career as Assistant Professor Badiah (Desert Army) of the British Jordanian in Political Science at the University of Kuwait in 1974 and became full Army in 1944 as medical officer; returned to Professor in 1984; member of PLO Central Council since 1977; editor-in-

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Gaza in 1945 and opened a private practice; co-founder and member of ABDULLAH, ABDULLAH (1939-) the Arab Medical Society since 1945; participated in the first Palestine Medical Congress in 1946; provided medical aid to Palestinian guerillas Born in Jerusalem on 1 April 1939; received in the clashes that erupted in the wake of the 1947 UN Partition Plan, then a BA in Philosophy from the University of helped in humanitarian relief efforts until UNRWA was established in 1951; Damascus, Syria, in 1965, and a Diploma in left for further studies in surgery at the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Psychology from the Beirut Arab University, Ohio, US, returning in 1954; worked as surgeon at the Tal Zahur Hospital Lebanon, in 1969; worked as Director of the in Gaza; named member of a municipal council installed by Israel during Fateh Foreign Relations Office in Beirut from its 1956 invasion/occupation of Gaza, but refused to serve; appointed by 1969-72; PNC member since 1979; continued the Egyptians as Director for Medical Services in the Gaza Strip, 1957- his studies and earned an MA in Sociology 60, then returned to private practice; first head of the Gaza Parliament’s from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, in Legislative Council from 1962-65; member of the first all-Palestinian con- 1982; also was a PhD candidate in Interna- ference in Jerusalem in 1964, which established the PLO, and elected tional Relations but did not graduate; served as head of the Palestine A one of three assistants to chair Ahmed Shuqeiri; member of the first PLO Mission and Director of the PLO Office in Canada from 1972-90; then Exec. Committee established in Aug. 1964 and member of the opposition became Ambassador of Palestine to Greece from 1990-Oct. 2003; also against Shuqeiri; volunteer at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza during the War served as Vice-Pres. of the Institute for Middle East Studies - Al-Ma’moun of 1967; in 1967, temporarily detained by Israel, in 1969 expelled for three (IMSAM) in Athens, Greece, in 1997; Chairman of the Parliamentary Re- months to Nahal, Sinai, and in Sept. 1970 deported for two months to lations Dept. in the PNC since 1996; served also as the PA’s Deputy FM Lebanon – all for support of PLO activities; founded the Palestinian Red since 28 Oct. 2003 (until after the Jan. 2006 PLC elections); was elected Crescent Society in Gaza in 1972 and served as its head since; prevented as PLC member (Fateh list) in the 2006 elections and subsequently ap- from leaving Gaza after publicly opposing the 1978 Camp David talks; pointed as head of the PLC Political Committee. head of the Palestinian team of the Palestinian-Jordanian delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference in Oct. 1991; led the Palestinian negotiation team for 22 months in the subsequent Washington talks; called for ABDULLAH, SAMIR see ALI, ABDULLAH SAMIR a referendum in the OPT on whether or not to pursue the peace process in Sept. 1992; resigned in April 1993 (over the issue of settlements), then resumed position under pressure but eventually left the Palestinian ABED, GEORGE T. (1938-) negotiating team over the Oslo Accords, predicting its collapse from the Born in Jifna near Ramallah on 18 Dec. 1938; outset; strong critic of the lack of democracy within the PLO; led a delega- PhD in Economics from the University of Cali- tion to Tunis in Jan. 1994 to demand that Arafat share power and set up fornia, Berkley (1972); Assistant Professor of collective leadership; among the Palestinian figures from various political Economics, University of California (1973); backgrounds who met in Amman in Dec. 1994 to establish the Palestinian worked with the International Monetary Fund Democratic Party; elected to the PLC in 1996 (Gaza Constituency); ran (IMF) from 1973-83; co-founder of the Pales- for the post of PLC speaker, but lost to Ahmed Qrei’a by 57-31 votes; be- tine Welfare Association in Switzerland and its came head of the PLC’s Political Committee; walked out of the April 1996 Dir. Gen. until 1993; rejoined the IMF in 1993 PNC meeting after being denied to express his opinion for not amending and became Deputy Director of its Fiscal Af- the PNC Charter until Israel gave reciprocal recognition; resigned from fairs Dept. from 1997-2002, and later Director of its Middle Eastern Dept. PLC in Oct. 1997 (effective from 30 March 1998) on the grounds that it from July 2002-Dec. 2003; then became Special Adviser to the Managing lacked real power to change the Palestinians’ situation; initiated unity talks Director of the IMF; appointed Governor of the Palestine Monetary Au- for all factions in Gaza in April 1998; highly respected secular nationalist thority in 2005; published widely on Economics, Development and Fiscal leader and non-partisan figure in Gaza; founding member of the Palestin- Reform; among his publications are: The Palestinian Economy: Studies ian National Initiative (Mubadara), launched in Ramallah in Jan. 2002, in Development Under Prolonged Occupation (editor, London: 1988); The together with Mustafa Barghouthi and Ibrahim Dakkak; member of the Economic Viability of a Palestinian State (Washington: Institute for Pales- Birzeit University Board of Trustees; Commissioner-General of the Pales- tine Studies, 1990), Governance, Corruption, and Economic Performance tinian Independent Commission for Citizen’s Rights (PICCR) until 2004. (co-edited with Sanjeev Gupta, IMF, 2002), Growth and Globalization in the Middle East and North Africa (with H. Dawoodi, IMF, 2003).

ABDUL SHAFI, MUHEIDDIN (SHEIKH) (1872-1954) ABED, SAMIH see ABID, SAMIH Born in 1872; Palestinian notable from Gaza; father of Haidar Abdul Shafi; Al-Azhar graduate; member of the ‘ulama (religious ABED RABBO, YASSER (ABU BASHAR) (1945-) notables); served in many posts for the Ot- tomans until WWI; Director of Waqf proper- Born in Jaffa in 1945; became refugee in 1948; ties; Shari’a Court judge in Gaza; Custodian MA in Economics and Political Science from of the Holy Places in Gaza and Hebron from the AUC; in 1968, co-founder (with Nayef 1925-27; appointed member of the Supreme Hawatmeh), former leader and Deputy Sec.- Muslim Council for Gaza and Southern Pal- Gen. of the DFLP after it split from the PFLP; estine in 1930 until 1948; held this position DFLP representative to the PLO Exec. Com- until his death in Gaza in 1954. mittee from 1971 and head of its Information and Culture Dept. from 1973. In Aug. 1973, he first proposed establishing a state in the WBGS

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rather than claiming all of historic Palestine; believed to be the main force as a cultural consultant; represented Jordan in different conferences; behind the 1988 adoption of the two-state solution of the PNC in Algiers; elected in 1976 as the head of the Jordanian Writers Union; part-time took part in dialogue with Jordan and the US during the period 1988-90; lecturer of Archaeology at the University of Jordan; wrote 38 books on expelled from the DFLP politburo in April 1991 after quarrels over leader- topics related to history, archaeology, education, literature and the Arab- ship; subsequently formed a new group – FIDA (Palestinian Democratic Israeli conflict; died in 1978. Union) in Sept. 1991, which abandoned Marxism-Leninism and accepted the proposed peace conference; FIDA Sec.-Gen. ever since; head of the PLO Information Dept. in Tunis; member of the Palestinian delegation to ABU AL-ABBAS see ZEIDAN, MOHAMMED ABBAS the 1991 Madrid talks; helped in the secret Oslo talks in 1993; Minister for Information and Culture in the PA since 1994; won a seat in the Tulkarem Constituency in the Palestinian elections in Jan. 1996; considered a lead- ABU ‘AITA, MITRI TANAS JIRIES (1941-) ing PLO moderate; member of the PLO Exec. Committee (FIDA), head of A the PLO Media Dept. and close advisor to Arafat; since 1998, head of the Born in Bethlehem in 1941 to a Christian PLC Committee for Education, Culture and Science; appointed to head family; graduated with a BA in Law from Da- the negotiating team to the final status talks in 1999, but resigned – al- mascus University; practiced as lawyer and though with no effect - in May 2000 over the revelation of ‘secret’ talks in served as the Chairman of the Jordan Bar Stockholm, Sweden; member (Minister of Culture and Information) of the Association from 1994-98; then got involved reduced PA cabinet of June 2002 and the new cabinet of 29 Oct. 2002; in the hotel and tourist industry for over 20 since 29 April 2003 Minister of Cabinet Affairs in the cabinet of PM Mah- years; elected PLC member (independent, moud Abbas (until the Nov. 2003 cabinet reshuffle under PM Ahmed Bethlehem district) in the Jan. 1996 elections; Qrei’a); co-initiator (with Israeli Yossi Beilin) and signatory to the unoffi- elected Deputy PLC Speaker from 1996 to cial Dec. 2003 Geneva Accord; head of the Palestinian Peace Coalition, 1998; appointed PA Minister of Tourism in 1998 until June 2002, when a non-governmental grassroots institution that aims at promoting a strong he was appointed Minister of Transport; part of the PA team to negoti- partnership for a just and lasting Palestinian-Israeli peace. ate an end to the Church of Nativity standoff in April/May 2002; became Minister of Tourism in the cabinet of PM Mahmoud Abbas on 30 April 2003, and of the successive cabinet of PM Qrei’a on 12 Nov. 2003 (until the Feb. 2005 cabinet reshuffle under PM Ahmed Qrei’a). ABID, SAMIH (1947-)

Born in Al-Bireh in 1947; BSc in Urban Plan- ning and Architecture, Al-Azhar University, ABU ‘ALA, see QREI’A, AHMED Cairo (1970); received an award by Al-Ah- ram newspaper for his project ‘Re-planning the Old City of Jerusalem,’ Cairo, June 1970; ABU ‘ALI IYAD see NIMR, WALID AHMAD continued his studies and earned an MA in Urban Design from the North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA (1973); worked as ABU ‘ALI MUSTAFA see ZABRI, MUSTAFA a community planner at the State Dept. of Transportation in Raleigh from 1974-76; Assistant Director, Central Plan- ning Dept., Ramallah from 1976-80; received a PhD in Regional Plan- ABU AMR, ZIAD MAHMOUD (1950-) ning from Liverpool University, UK, in 1987; lectured in Architecture at Born in Gaza City on 22 June 1950; received Birzeit University from 1987-92; Director of the Engineering Center for a BA in English Literature and Language Planning and Design, Ramallah, from 1992-93; Head of the Architecture from Damascus University in 1973; lived and Dept., Birzeit University, and team advisor for PECDAR, 1993-94; team worked as teacher and translator in Syria, leader for the Infrastructure Group (a Palestinian expert team assisting Bahrain, and Oman, during the 1970s; studied the World Bank mission in Palestine) from 1994-95; PA Deputy Minister towards an MA in Arab Studies at Georgetown of Planning since 1995 (until after the Jan. 2006 PLC elections); Board of University, Washington, DC, US, graduating Trustees member of the Arab Studies Society; member of the Council of in 1979; taught at Georgetown from 1979-83; Higher Education; member of the Higher Planning Committee; member worked as Research Director at the Center for of the Palestinian negotiation team to the Camp David (July 2000) and Research and Publishing in Washington, DC, Taba (Jan. 2001) talks; supervised numerous projects and studies; au- from 1983-85; earned a PhD in Philosophy thor of Palestinian Diseur: The Role of the Third Party (2004). and Comparative Politics from Georgetown University in 1985; returned to the West Bank and became a Assistant Professor of Political Science (and a year later also of Cultural Studies) at Birzeit University in 1985 (until ABIDI, MAHMOUD (1906-1978) 1993); served as Exec. Committee member of the Arab Organization for Political Science from 1987-2000; went back to his teaching position at Born in ‘Assira Ash-Shamaliyeh in 1906; Birzeit University, also serving as Chairman of the Philosophy and Cultur- graduated from Dar Al-Mu’allimin (Teach- al Studies Dept. in 1988-89; received a Diploma in US Foreign Policy Pro- ers’ College) in Jerusalem in 1927; worked cess from the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland; was a as teacher in Nablus, Bethlehem and Safad; Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University and a member of the Brookings after the Nakba of 1948, opened an evening Working Group on Arab-Israeli Peace during 1990-91; was a member school; worked in the Education Ministry and of the Exec. Committee of the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine in in the Archaeology Dept. in Amman and then Washington, DC, from 1991-96; Associate Professor of Political Science

10 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

at Birzeit University since 1993; was a Senior Fellow at the Center for Pal- ABU ARAFEH, KHALIL (1957-) estine Research and Studies (CPRS) in Nablus from 1993-96; served as Deputy Chairman of the Independent Group for Palestinian Elections in Born in the Old City of Jerusalem in 1957; 1994; was a Visiting Scholar at the State University of New York in 1995; holds an MA in Architecture from Kiev Uni- was elected PLC member for Gaza City in the 1996 elections; Chair of the versity, Ukraine (1983); worked - besides PLC Political Committee and member of the Human Rights and Oversight drawing cartoons - as an architect ever since; Committees from 1996-2003; Pres. of the Palestinian Council on Foreign was imprisoned several times by Israel and Relations in Gaza since 1998; Board of Directors member of Miftah since spent a total of 14 months in Israeli jails dur- 1998; member of the PLC Political and Budget Committees since 2003; ing the years 1986-1992; editorial cartoon- became Minister of Culture in the cabinet of PM Mahmoud Abbas on ist for Al-Quds daily newspaper; adopted 30 April 2003 (until Oct. 2003); member of the Higher Education Council; the pen-name ‘Ghassan’ in the mid-1980s; member of the PLO Central Council; was re-elected as PLC member received the Ghassan Kanafani Award for (Independent, Gaza City) in the Jan. 2006 elections; has written numer- excellence as a cartoonist in 1996; prepared cartoons to supplement A ous articles and research papers as well as authored several books, incl. several Palestinian brochures and books; held exhibitions locally and The Origins of Political Movements in the Gaza Strip: 1948-1967 (Arabic; internationally; collected some of his cartoons in a book in 1996; head- Dar Al-Aswar, Acre, 1987), The Intifada: Causes and Factors of Continuity writer to the Palestinian version of the Sesame Street TV program in (Jerusalem: PASSIA, 1989), Emerging Trends in Palestinian Strategic Po- 1997; some of his cartoons were censored by Israeli authorities. litical Thinking and Practice (Jerusalem: PASSIA, 1992), Islamic Funda- mentalism in the West Bank and Gaza (Bloomington: 1994), Civil Society and Democratization in Palestine (Cairo: Ibn Khaldun Center, 1995). ABU ASSAD, HANI (1961-)

Born in Nazareth in 1961; educated in the ABU ARAFEH, ABDEL RAHMAN (1948-) field of Aviation Engineering in the Neth- erlands (1981-87), where he also worked Born in Jerusalem in 1948; was a leader as an assistant film-maker; founded with of the Palestinian Students Union while in Rashid Masharawi the Aylul Company secondary school; was arrested in March for Film Productions; returned to Palestine 1969 for his activism and imprisoned for 18 in 1989-90; his films include: Ford Transit months; received a BA in Agricultural Sci- (Fiction, 80min, 35mm, 2002), Rana’s Wed- ence, University of Mousel, Iraq; one year of ding (2002) and Paradise Now (a German- MSc studies in Economic Development with French-Dutch production) which won the a Hubert Humphrey Fellowship, Colorado AGICOA’s Blue Angel Award for the best State University in 1987; foundingmember of European film in Feb. 2005, received three major prizes in the Berlin the Palestinian Coalition for Accountability Film Festival, and was nominated for “Best Foreign Language Film” in and Integrity (AMAN), the PNGO Network, and the Palestinian Council the 2006 Oscar awards. for Peace and Justice; Director of the Arab Thought Forum, Jerusalem, and editor-in-chief of its quarterly Shu’un Tanmawiyeh (Development Af- fairs); contributed to several studies on democratization in Palestine and Israeli settlement policies; also known for his paintings depicting angles ABU AL-ASSAL, RIAH HANNA (1937-) from the Palestinian culture. Born in Nazareth in 1937 to a Christian family; fled with his family to Beirut in 1948; returned to Nazareth in 1949; took Israeli citi- ABU ARAFEH, KHALED (1961-) zenship in 1959; attended Bishop’s College in 1960’s specializing in Islamic Studies; was Born in Jerusalem in 1961; received a BSc in ordained Deacon of the Anglican Church in Electrical Engineering from the Technology Uni- 1965 and Priest in 1966; served as Vicar of versity in Baghdad in 1983; was repeatedly ar- the Christ Episcopal Church in Nazareth from rested and imprisoned by the Israelis between 1967 for over 30 years; co-founded the Naza- the early 1980s and 1995; served as head of reth Democratic Front in 1975; was a founding member of the Commit- Public Relations in the Silwan Charitable Soci- tee for Defense of Arab Land in 1976, of the Progressive Movement in ety; headed also the Holy Qur’an Home Insti- 1981, and the Progressive List for Peace in 1984 serving as its Sec.- tute in Ras Al-Amud, Jerusalem; is a member Gen. from 1985); was banned from traveling by the Israeli authorities of the Land Defense and Silwan Real Estate during the years 1986-90 for his contacts with Yasser Arafat; became Committee; one of the Hamas leaders in Je- Archdeacon of the Jerusalem Diocese in March 1989; became Co-Ad- rusalem; was appointed Minister of Jerusalem jutor Bishop of Jerusalem in June 1995, and the 13th Anglican Bishop of Affairs in March 2006; was arrested (along with the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East in Aug. 1998; other PA ministers and PLC members) in an Israeli military sweep against published his autobiography, entitled Caught in Between, in 1999. Hamas on 29 June 2006; refused to resign from the PA government as demanded by Israel and had his Jerusalem residency permit and Israeli ID card subsequently revoked by Interior Minister Roni Bar-On on 30 June 2006; is still detained as of July 2006.

11 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

ABU AYYASH, RADWAN (1950-) ABU GHARBIEH, NIHAD ‘ULAYYAN (1913-)

Born on 15 June 1950 in the Askar Refugee Born in Jerusalem to a Hebronite family in 1913; Camp near Nablus to a family originally from received his early education in Hebron and at the destroyed village of Jamazin; moved to Al-Rashidiyyeh School in Jerusalem, where he Ramallah in 1965 to study at the Teacher graduated in 1929; obtained a certificate from Training Center, where he gained a Diploma the Arab College in 1931; worked as Director in 1970; worked with Ash-Sha‘ab newspa- of the Ibrahimieh National School in Jerusalem per in Jerusalem from 1975; earned a BA in from 1931-45 (the sole proprietor of which he English Language and Literature from Birzeit became in 1935) and developed it into today’s University (1982); Fateh member; worked as Ibrahimieh Community College, serving as its editor-in-chief of Al-Awdah magazine (1982-86); imprisoned, put under Pres. since 1945; member of the Jerusalem Municipal Council from 1951- A house arrest and restricted from traveling by Israeli authorities; head of 67; received a BA in History, University of London, Britain, 1955; became the Arab Journalists’ Association in the OPT from 1985-91 and later of the Director of the Arab Farms in 1966; member of the Higher Islamic Council Palestinian Journalists’ Association; Director of the Arab Media Center in from 1967-73; member of the Young Muslim Men Association, from 1967- Jerusalem since 1988; head of the Advisory Committee of the Palestinian 1973; President of the Committee of Private Schools in Jerusalem since delegation to the 1991 Madrid conference; chaired the Palestinian Coor- 1991; Board of Trustees member of the College of Science and Technol- dinating Committee of NGOs at the UN in 1991; appointed head of the ogy, Abu Dis, of Al-Quds University, and of the Industrial School of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), Ramallah, since 1993, until Arab Orphans’ Committee; Pres. of the Board of Trustees of Ibrahimieh 2005, when he was appointed as Dep. Min. for Culture (until after the Jan. Community College since 1983; of the Wajdi Abu Gharbieh Institution (lat- 2006 PLC elections). er Wajdi Abu Gharbieh Institute of Technology, named after his son who died in 1999 at the untimely age of 38) since 2002.

ABU BAKR, TAWFIQ (1942-2004) ABU GHARBIYEH, BAHJAT (1916-) Born in Ya’bad on 10 Dec. 1942; graduated Born in Khan Younis in 1916; participated in from Damascus University, Dept. of Ara- armed resistance during the revolts of 1939 bic Language and Literature (1966); lived in and the Nakba of 1948; among the leaders of Kuwait from 1969 to 1990; worked as com- the Holy Salvation Army and in the battles at mentator for several Arab papers like the Jor- Al-Qastal in 1948; co-founder (with Abdullah danian Al-Dustur, the Palestinian Al-Ayyam, Rimawi and Abdullah Ni’was) of the Ba’ath and the London-based Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, Arab Party’s branch in Ramallah (Renais- among others; Exec. Director of the Amnesty sance Party) in 1952 and member of its lead- International chapter in Jordan in the early ership from 1949-59; member of the first PLO 1990s; established the Jenin Center for Strategic Studies in Amman, Exec. Committee established in Aug. 1964, where he headed the op- Jordan, in 1997 and serves as its Director since; PNC member; member position to Ahmed Shuqeiri; member of the PNC; formed, together with of the Palestinian Council for Justice and Peace, Ramallah; member Subhi Ghosheh and Ishaq Duzdar, the Civilian Resistance Committee of the Arab Thought Forum in Amman; awarded the Arabic Journalism in Jerusalem in May 1967; once more on the PLO Exec. Committee in prize by the European Commission in 2003; conducted a number of 1971-72; joined the Rejectionist Front in 1974; stood for PNC presidency interviews for different papers and wrote a several books, incl. Palestine in 1977, but was defeated by Khaled Fahum; later head of the Ibrahimi- and the World (1977), and Issues of Reform & Democracy in the Pales- yyeh College in Jerusalem; published his war memoirs - In the Midst of tinian Arena (1994); died on 10 Dec. 2004. the Struggle for the Arab-Palestinian Cause: The Memoirs of Freedom Fighter Bahjat Abu Gharbieh, 1916-1949 (Arabic, Institute for Palestine Studies, 1993), describing his role in the Palestinian resistance particu- ABU EISHEH, SAMIR (1960-) larly during the Great Rebellion (1936-1939) against the British and the 1948 War; addressed a major right-of-return rally in Amman in December Born in 1960 in Nablus; earned a PhD in Ur- 2001; a second volume of his memoirs covering the period between the ban Planning from the University of Pennsyl- Nakba and the Intifada (1949-2000) is published by the Arab Institute for vania; served as Vice-President for Develop- Research and Publication in 2005. ment and Planning at An-Najah University, Nablus; was also Dean of the Engineering Faculty; has published over 60 studies on planning and related issues; was appointed ABU GHARBIYEH, OTHMAN ABDULLAH PA Minister of Planning in March 2006; was (ABU ABDULLAH) (1946-) arrested (along with other PA ministers and PLC members) in an Israeli military sweep Born in Jerusalem in 1946; moved in the ear- against Hamas on 29 June 2006, and is still ly 1950s with his family to Hebron, where he imprisoned as of July 2006. completed his secondary education; involved in different political activities, leading to his arrest in 1963 by Jordanian authorities; member of Fateh since 1963; studied at the Faculty of Law, Damascus University; arrested again

12 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

and jailed in Hebron Prison in 1966; left the university following the War of Citrus Producers Union, 1967-84 and member of the Cooperative Cit- 1967 and joined Al-’Asifa forces; enrolled at the Nankin Military Academy, rus Market; Chairman, Society for the Care of Handicapped Children in People’s Republic of China, graduating as a Lieutenant in 1969; appointed Gaza from 1975; in charge of a program involved in sending teachers to General Officer of Al-’Asifa forces in Jordan; became Assistant Command- home-staying mothers; community activist and public speaker; his stud- er of the 201 Battalion in Jerash and the Jordan Valley; participated in the ies include a needs analyses on children in the Gaza Strip. battles between Lebanese forces and the fedayeen in the Fall of 1969; started a military cadres school for Al-’Asifa forces in Lebanon; among the Palestinian fighters in Jordan during the Black September events; left Jor- dan following the offensive of the Jordanian army on the fedayeen and ABU GHAZALEH, HATEM SIDDIQ ABDUL KHALEQ (1932-) the death of Walid Nimr (Abu Ali Iyad); took different Palestinian military posts in Lebanon; assigned by Fateh on various military missions, incl. a Born in Nablus on 3 Feb. 1932; received visit to the Republic of Yemen; participated in the 1973 resistance in South- his primary and secondary education from ern Lebanon and then in the Golan Front; graduated from a Military Acad- schools in Nablus; graduated with the high A emy in the USSR in 1976; returned to Fateh military missions in Lebanon; school diploma from the Salahiyyah Sec- was briefly imprisoned by the Lebanese Kata’eb forces during the War in ondary School in 1948; enrolled at the Uni- Lebanon; joined the Fateh Mobilization and Organization Office in 1977, versity of Damascus in 1949 and graduated while continuing his work with the military cadres school; appointed to the in 1956 with BSc in Science and a PhD in Fateh Dept. for European and Asian Issues, facing different battles with Zi- Medicine; was several times arrested during onist organizations; survived an assassination attempt in Istanbul; elected demonstrations in Syria under the Shishakli Fateh Revolutionary Council member in 1980; Vice-Commissioner of the regime; joined the Algerian revolutionists and Fateh Mobilization and Organization Office; assigned to lead Fateh’s forces worked as a doctor in the hospital of Ghali- in Syria following the moving of PLO leadership to Tunisia in 1982; joined zan, Algeria; after Algeria earned its independence, moved to Jordan in Fateh in Tunisia in 1983; PNC member since 1984; PLO Central Council 1962, where he was elected as a member of parliament, representing member; opposed to the Oslo Accords but returned to Palestine follow- Nablus, until the parliament dissolved six months later; was arrested ing the establishment of the PA; served as an assistant of Pres. Arafat on afterwards and imprisoned for eight months in the Jafar Prison; was re- Fateh’s Political and National Guidance Dept.s; survived another assas- leased in 1965 and left for Saudi Arabia, where he worked as a doctor in sination attempt near his home in Ar-Ram, near Jerusalem; became Chair- a Kuwaiti-Saudi company; was again arrested after ten months on sus- man of the PNC’s Parliamentary and External Affairs Committee; member picion of conspiring against the regime and put in Ad-Damman Prison, of the PLO Higher Military Committee; elected by the Fateh Revolution- then exiled; returned to the West Bank and was arrested in 1967 by ary Council as head of the Membership Committee (sub-committee of the Israel for resisting the occupation; was released in 1968, re-arrested in th Conference Preparation Committee) at its 6 conference in Feb. 2005. 1969 and imprisoned for one year and a half followed by a 3-year house arrest; however, was shortly re-arrested after the 1970 Black September events and kept as a hostage (in return of kidnapping planes in Septem- ber by Palestinians at Al-Mafraq Airport); was banned from leaving the ABU GHAZALEH, DAOUD SULEIMAN (1913-1972) West Bank for ten years from 1967-1977; owns and operates a private Born in Amman in 1913; BA in History and clinic in Nablus; is an elected member of the Nablus Municipal Council; Political Science from the AUB, 1935; law has written several books on economics, history, politics and sociology, degrees from the Lawyers’ Union in London and contributed numerous articles in Palestinian newspapers. and London University in 1940; continued his higher education in the field of philosophical law in 1942; practiced law in Palestine from 1944-48; worked as a deputy at the Appeals ABU GHAZALEH, HIYAM (1934-) Court in Jerusalem from 1948-51; appointed member of the Jerusalem Appeals Court Born in Jaffa on 17 June 1934; BA in Soci- from 1951-52; became deputy of the High Court in Khartoum, Sudan, ology from Birzeit University (1976); MA in from 1956-59; then appointed as Dir.-Gen. of Al-Aqaba Port from 1959- Adult Education and Community Develop- 61; made Governor of Jerusalem in 1961; appointed Minister of Transport ment from Manchester University, UK (1987); in Dec. 1962; re-instituted as Governor of Jerusalem in 1963 (until Dec. from 1952-67, worked as a social worker and 1965); then Jordan’s Ambassador to Spain, and in 1967, its Ambassador Director of the Girls’ Education Club, run by to Iran; died in Jerusalem in 1972. the Jordanian Ministry for Social Affairs; founder and Director of a dept. for technical developmental activities in literacy and adult education at Birzeit University from 1976-99; founder the Palestinian ABU GHAZALEH, HATEM (1935-) Net for Literacy and Adult Learning in 1999 and serves as its director since; member of the Executive Council for the Arab Net for Literacy Born in Jerusalem in 1935; BSc, Medicine, & Adult Education in Cairo since 1999; advisor and consultant for the Kings College, Cambridge, 1960; BSc and distance learning program of the Development Studies Department, MSc in Surgery, Kings College, Cambridge, Birzeit University (1999-2000); authored several publications in the field 1960 and 1962; Vice-Chairman, Board of Di- rectors, Bank of Palestine (early 1970s); mem- of literacy and adult learning; supervised and participated in the writing ber, Arab Municipal Council, Gaza, 1970-71; of educational books for adults; received two awards from Birzeit Uni- Vice-Chairman, Bank of Palestine, 1967-84; versity (most recently in 1999) and two awards by the Arab Organiza- founding member and Vice-Chairman of the tion for Education, Culture & Science (most recently in 2000).

13 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

ABU GHAZALEH, ILHAM (1939-) from Cairo University focusing on Arabic Literature; established the Palestinian Women’s Union in Cairo in 1963; was one of the founders Born in Jaffa on 2 Dec. 1939; BA in English of the GUPW in Jerusalem in 1964; was elected to the PNC; member of Language and Literature from Cairo Univer- the PLO Central Council since 1985; her writings include: Diaries of an sity (1964); worked as teacher at the Ramal- Arab Girl (Arabic, Cairo, 1962). lah Girls’ School and at Al-A’ishiyah School in Nablus during the years 1964-1976; became an English language teacher at An-Najah Col- lege in Nablus from 1972-74; returned to uni- ABU GHAZALEH, SHADIA (1949-1968) versity and earned an MA in Applied Linguis- tics from the University of Wales (1977); became Associate Professor at Born in Nablus on 8 Jan. 1949; early educa- the English Language and Literature Dept. at Birzeit University (1970-77 tion from Al-Fatimieh School and Al-’A’ishiyah A and 1983-present); founding committee member of Al-Zaituna Theater School in Nablus; joined the ANM in 1964; in Nablus in 1976; founding member of the Arab Students’ League in studied for a year at the Faculty of Psycholo- Florida in 1979; earned a PhD in Text Linguistics from Florida University gy and Social Sciences at Ein Shams Univer- in 1983; upon return, became head of the English Language Dept. at sity in Cairo but left following the occupation Birzeit University, 1984-85 and Al-Ibrahimieh College, Jerusalem, 1984- of the West Bank in 1967 and moved to An- 86; Pres. of the Birzeit University Linguistics’ Program Committee, 1983- Najah College in Nablus; joined a local PFLP 90, and of the English Dept. Council, 1985; member, Dept. of English group; organized and led women’s military Language and Literature, Nazareth College, Rochester, New York (1990- units; was among the first Palestinian women 91); affiliated with the Women Studies Program at Birzeit University since to participate in military resistance after the 1967 occupation; died in 1990; founding member of the Institute of Women Studies, Birzeit Uni- her home while preparing an explosive in Nov. 1968. versity; Board of Trustees member of Al-Ibrahimieh College in Jerusalem since 1991; founding member of various organizations, incl. the Institute of Arab Women Studies, Washington (1989) and the Discourse Analysis Program at Birzeit University in cooperation with the University of Am- ABU GHAZALEH, SIHAM (1940-) sterdam (1993-94); Advisory Board member of the National Committee for Palestinian Theater since 1995, and the Arab Thought Forum since Born in 1940 in Jaffa; moved to Nablus in 1997; member of the editorial board of The Jerusalem Daily (1965-66), 1947; attended courses in Political Science Al-Fajr Daily (1975-76) and Al-Kateb journal (1991-93); writings include and Economics at Dartmouth College, Women of Silence (Union of Palestinian Writers, 1997). USA, in 1965; earned a BSc in Philosophy, Psychology and Social Science from Kuwait University in 1970; became Assistant Director of the Cultural Dept. at Kuwait University ABU GHAZALEH, RAJA’ (1942-1994) from 1972-80; volunteered as head of the GUPW’s Folklore Committee in Kuwait Born in Beirut in 1942; educated in Beirut; from 1975-90 and was responsible for the organization of a number of moved to Amman; studied English Literature exhibitions and other cultural events both regionally and internationally; in London; worked as writer, artist, and trans- worked as a consultant at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research lator; contributed with a weekly article in Al- in 1979; volunteers as head of the cultural committee of the Palestinian Ra’ie newspaper in Jordan; was a member Cultural Society in Jordan since 1991. of the General Union of Jordanian Writers; was awarded three prizes by the Jordanian Dept. for Culture and Arts; passed away in 1994; published several poetry and short ABU GHAZALEH, TALAL (1938-) story collections and a novel which came out after her death. Born in Jaffa in 1938; studied Business Administration at the AUB, graduating with a BA in 1960; worked at the Saba & Partners Inc. from 1960-70; founded the Talal Abu- ABU GHAZALEH, SAMIRA (1928-) Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP) firm in Kuwait in 1972 and serves as Chairman Born in Nablus in 1928; studied in Ramleh of its Board of Director since; founded the and Jerusalem; graduated from the Teach- International Arab Projects Co. in 1980; ers’ College for Women in Jerusalem in 1947; established the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Graduate volunteered with the Egyptian Red Crescent School of Business and Management at Society in Al-Ramleh in 1948; established the the AUB in 1980, the Talal Abu Ghazaleh Young Arab Women’s Association in 1950; Research Center at Canisius College, Buffalo, US in 1988 and the Abu was elected Sec.-Gen. of the Jordanian Red Ghazaleh Cambridge IT Skills Center in Amman in 2001; serves as Crescent Society in Jerusalem; worked as a Chairman of many bodies, incl. the Licensing Executives Society Arab teacher at Dar Al-Mu’allimat in Ramallah; in Countries in Amman, the Arab Knowledge & Management Society in New 1952 enrolled at the AUB to study Education and Psychology, but was York, the Arab Society for Intellectual Property in Munich, and the Arab dismissed for her political activity; obtained a BA (1956) and MA (1962) Society of Certified Accountants in London; serves as Board member of

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numerous Arab and international organizations, incl. World Links World responsible for several suicide attacks on Israeli targets since 1997; Wide, Washington, King Hussein Cancer Center, Amman, National Music escaped an Israeli assassination attempt in ‘Assira Ash-Shamaliyya Conservatory, Amman, and the World Bank Development Gateway; has on 26 Aug. 2000, in which three Israeli special forces were killed by received several honors, incl. an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters friendly fire; escaped to Nablus, where he was taken into custody by from the Canisius College, the French Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, PA police and - on 1 Sept. 2000 - sentenced by a State Security Court and decorations from Tunisia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan. to 12 years in prison on charges of having established military cells; remained in prison until 18 May 2001, when Israeli jets bombed Nablus prison and the PA released prisoners to ensure their safety; eventually killed - together with two aides Ayman and Mamoun Aweissa - on 23 ABU HAMDA, SHAWKAT MAHMOUD (1931-) Nov. 2001 by an Israeli missile attack on the car he was driving outside Yassid village near Nablus. Born in Kharbath village near Ramleh in 1931; was raised and studied there until the A 1948 Nakba, during which he became a refugee in Jerusalem; studied at Ibrahimieh ABU HIJLEH, ABDUL MAJID (1919-1972) College from 1948-51; joined the Royal Military College in Jordan from 1951-56, Born in Deir Estia in 1919; early education in graduating as a police officer; serving in local schools; then attended AUB, graduating the Jordanian Police Force until 1962, then as a physical doctor in 1946; opened a clinic joined the Jordanian intelligence services as in Nablus which also became a meeting director of the Hebron Office until the War of venue for different thinkers; became member 1967, when he became a refugee for the second time; was appointed first of the Jordanian parliament in 1950 and was Director of the Executive Office for Occupied Land Affairs in Jordan in elected representative of Nablus in 1952; 1971; was a member of the Jordanian-Palestinian Joint Committee since active in the Communist Party, which at the its establishment in 1979, serving until 1985, in charge of municipality time founded the Farmer Reform Union, affairs, land and housing issues, as well as Jerusalem, incl. renovation the Youth Union and the Peace Supporters of the Old City; became first Undersecretary of the Ministry of Occupied Movement; gathered 140,000 signatures Land Affairs in 1980, and its Minister in 1984; retired in 1985. denouncing nuclear weapons; won a seat in the parliament elections in Oct. 1956; left Jordan for some time to Egypt after the fall of the Nabulsi government a couple of months later in 1957; returned and worked as a physician in Gaza until 1965; became a ABU HANNA, HANNA (1928-) member in the National Guidance Committee; died in Nablus in 1972. Born in Al-Reineh, near Nazareth, in 1928; educated in Nazareth; then attended the Teachers’ College in Jerusalem in 1948; published articles in different Palestinian ABU HIJLEH, IMRAN AHMAD (1928-) newspapers, incl. Al-Ittihad, Al-Difa’ and Filastin, promoting his progressive leftist Born in Deir Istia, near Nablus, in 1928; ideas related to revolution and resistance, attended the Ramallah Friends’ School; incl. solidarity with Cuba and Africa; impris- completed his secondary education at Al- oned in Al-Ramleh in 1958 for his activism Rashidiyeh College in Jerusalem in 1948; against Zionism; received a degree in English Language and Literature volunteered with the Iraqi Army during the from Haifa University; became Director of the National Orthodox Col- 1948 War, based in ‘Anin village near Jenin; lege in Haifa; lectured in the Arabic Language and Literature Dept. at was wounded during the confrontations and Haifa University; renown poet, writer and translator from Romanian into resigned in 1949; was appointed English Arabic; many of his poems depict the struggle of the Palestinians inside language teacher at Al-Fadiliyyah School the Green Line for freedom. in Tulkarem; moved to Saudi Arabia in 1950 and worked as Arabic language teacher for foreign students; returned to Palestine in 1953 and became teacher at Al-Sa’diyyah School in Qalqilya and later at Al-Fadiliyyah School ABU HANOUD, MAHMOUD (full name: MAHMOUD MOHAMMED in Tulkarem; after 1957, taught in Syria; moved to Beirut in 1959 and AHMAD ABU HANOUD ASH-SHOULI) (1967-2001) wrote under the pen name of Omar Al-Dirawi; worked as translator for the publications of Dar Al-’Ilm Lil Malayin educational publishing house Born in ‘Assira Shamaliyya, near Nablus, on in Beirut; served as Secretary of Al-’Ulum scientific magazine in 1964- 1 July 1967; attended the village school; was 65 and as editor of the English section of Al-Risala magazine in Beirut active in the first Intifada that started in Dec. from 1962-66; earned a degree in History and a Diploma in Education 1987; earned a BA in Shari’a Law from Al- from the Beirut Arab College in 1968; studied towards a PhD at the Quds University, Jerusalem; was among the Lebanese University; has authored and translated numerous books, deportees to Marj Az-Zuhur, South Lebanon, incl. Two Women by Italian writer Alberto Moravia (Beirut 1962). in Dec. 1992; was arrested by the PA for firing at settler vehicles near Nablus in 1994; wanted by Israel as top commander of Hamas’ ‘Izz Eddin Al-Qassam brigades in the West Bank,

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ABU HILAL, ALI ABDULLAH MOHAMMAD (1955-) ABU AL-HUMMUS, NA’IM (1955-)

Born in Abu Dis, near Jerusalem, in 1955; Born on 28 Jan. 1955 in Birzeit to a refu- detained in 1974 and 1975, while still in gee family from Lydda; Fateh member since high school, by Israel for membership in the 1969; studied Education at the University National Front; obtained a BA in Law from of Jordan (BA, 1976) and at San Francisco Egypt; member, DFLP; worked in the Public State University (MA, 1980); from Jan. 1982- Works Union in Abu Dis in 1979 and served Sept. 1988, Instructor at the Education and as its secretary until 1985; co-founder and Psychology Dept., An-Najah University, and secretary of the Workers’ Unity Block Union the Dept. Chairman, Nablus; during this time in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from 1980- he also continued his education and received 85, for which he was put under house arrest a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of San Francisco A by Israeli authorities; member of the General Federation of Palestin- in 1985; served as Sec.-Gen. of the Palestinian Council for Higher Edu- ian Trade Unions from 1982-85; imprisoned in 1985 on suspicion of cation from Feb. 1989-Aug. 1994; became Deputy Minister of Education organizing guerrilla cells and deported to Jordan in 1986, where he in Aug.1994 (until June 2002); appointed PA Minister of Education and worked with the PLO; PNC member since 1989; returned to the country Higher Education in June 2002, a post to which he was reappointed in the cabinet of PM Mahmoud Abbas on 30 April 2003; member (as Edu- in Sept. 1991 as part of a prisoner exchange between the DFLP and the cation Min.) in the Oct. 2003 Emergency Govt. of the PA, and the subse- Israeli authorities; founded the Freedoms’ Defense Institute in 1992 and quent Qrei’a govt. of 12 Nov. 2003; PNC member; observer member of served as its Director until 2000; founder and general coordinator of the the Fateh Revolutionary Council; member of the Central Elections Com- Jerusalem Center for Democracy and Human Rights since 2003; writes mittee; Chairman of the Palestinian General Examinations Board and the and lectures on issues related to democracy and human rights. Palestinian Curricula Development Committee; author of several books on education and politics like The Palestinians: Generation of the Intifada (1990); received different awards, incl. the Academic Palm Award from the French Gov. in 1994; nominated as Minister of Education in the Cabi- ABU AL-HUDA, TAWFIQ (1895-1956) net of PM Ahmed Qrei’a, approved by the PLC on 16 Feb. 2005 (until Born in Acre in 1895; relative of Suleiman after the Jan. 2006 PLC elections). At-Taji Al-Faruqi; attended school in Acre, then completed his secondary education at ABU IYAD see KHALAF, SALAH the Sultani School in Beirut; started studying Law in Istanbul but could not continue when WWI broke out and he had to join the ABU JARIR see DIRINI, NUR EDDIN Ottoman army as a reserve soldier in 1915; was trained in a military school to become a deputy officer and appointed as a clerk ABU JIHAD see AL-WAZIR, KHALIL for the Ministry of War in Istanbul; was an active member of the Arab literary circle (Al-Muntada Al-Adabi, established in Istanbul in 1909), which the Ottomans soon prohibited for its pan-Arab ideas; served with ABU KHADRA, SALWA (1929-) the Ottoman army in Iran but fled to Aleppo, where he witnessed the entry of the Arab Army to Syria led by Emir Faisal in 1918; moved to Born in Jaffa on 1 May 1929; Brevet from the Lebanon, then back to Acre; was appointed as clerk in the office of the St. Joseph Sisters School in Jaffa (1945); Dean of the Law Institute in Damascus in 1920; moved to Amman in General Certificate of Education from Oxford 1921 and was appointed head of the Imports Dept. in Emir Abdullah’s (1947); Diplome d’Etude Literaire Superieur Emirate of East Jordan, then head of the accounting section in the Min- Française from the Jesuit University in Beirut istry of Finance (in the government of Ahmad Hilmi Abdul Baqi); be- (1952); volunteered with the delinquent girls’ came Dir.-Gen. for the Land Registration Dept.; served as Sec.-Gen. section at the Syrian Social Committee in Da- for PM Hassan Pasha Abul Huda from Oct. 1929-Feb. 1931, then for mascus during 1952-53; became Director of PM Sheikh Abdullah Al-Sarraj until Oct. 1933; was appointed as head an UNRWA center for girls’ education in Gaza from 1955-57; worked as Exec. Secretary at of the Jordanian Agricultural Bank in Oct. 1933; was bestowed the title the Educational Medical Service Dept. in Kuwait from 1960-63; founded of ‘Pasha’ by Emir Abdullah; was first appointed PM in 1938 and served the Pioneer Nursery in Kuwait in 1963 and worked there until 1989; mem- in that position with several short interruptions until 1955, holding, at ber of Fateh since 1965; founded Dar Al-Hanan Private School in Kuwait times, also the posts of FM, Justice Minister, and DM; represented Jor- in 1965 and worked there until 1990; member of the GUPW Board of Di- dan at the 1939 St. James Palace conference in London; became head rectors since 1967; became a PNC member in 1972 (until 1997); chaired of the Arab Establishment Project in Jerusalem in 1945; participated the second (1974) and third (1980) conference of the GUPW; member of in the talks that led to the Anglo-Jordanian Treaty of 1948; committed the Palestinian Higher Council for Culture, Science and Education since suicide in his house in Amman on 2 July 1956. 1976; member of the Fateh Revolutionary Council since 1980; chair of the Palestinian delegation to the NGO Forum of the Second World Con- ference for Women, Copenhagen in 1980; chaired the official Palestin- ian delegation to the Third World Conference for Women, Nablus, 1985; member of the PLO Central Council; Sec.-Gen. of the GUPW; Sec.-Gen. of the Fateh Women’s Bureau; member of the Palestinian Constitution Consultative Committee.

16 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

ABU KISHEK, SHAKER (SHEIKH) (1900-???) ABU LUGHOD, IBRAHIM (1929-2001)

Born in Jaffa in 1900; studied in Al-Rashidi- Born in Jaffa on 15 Feb. 1929; educated at yeh School in Jaffa; after the death of his fa- Amariyya School; while in high school, in- ther he became the chief of the Abu Khishek volved in the struggle for Palestinian rights family at the age of 16; was sentenced to 15 and against British and Zionist policies; fled years imprisonment for participating in the Jaffa in 1948 and moved to the US via Beirut; 1929 Palestinian uprising, but after the pro- gained his BA and MA from the University of test of Arab leaders, the British High Com- Illinois (1953 and 1954) and his PhD in Mid- missioner replaced the prison sentence with dle East Studies from Princeton University a fine of 2,500 Egyptian pounds; member of the National Front and (1957); worked three years as a field expert for UNESCO in Egypt, then head of the village society of Jaffa. returned to the US; founded in 1968 and led thereafter the Association of Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG); taught Political Science A at American universities in the 1970s and 1980; was elected to the PNC in 1977 and began work on the establishment, under the auspices of ABU KWEIK, SAMIH (QADRI) (1941-) UNESCO, of a Palestine national Open University in Beirut (which came to an end with the Israeli 1982 invasion of Lebanon); one of two PNC Born in 1941; Ba‘athist, who joined Fateh in members (with Prof. Edward Said), who met US Sec. of State Shultz the early 1960s; member of the Fateh Revo- in March 1988 to discuss his peace proposals; resigned from the PNC lutionary Council from 1968-1983; became in 1991 in order to be able to return to the West Bank as an American Fateh’s Secretary for the regional command passport holder the year after; was appointed Vice-President of Birzeit in Jordan in 1969 (briefly replaced by Hani University and helped establishing the Faculty of Graduate Studies; au- Al-Hassan in early 1970); was an assistant thor and editor of many works on the question of Palestine, incl. The to Salah Khalaf in Fateh’s Jordan Bureau; Transformation of Palestine: Essays on the Origin and Development of leader of Fateh’s leftist branch; elected to the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Northwestern, 1971); co-founder of and active the Fateh Central Committee in 1980 (until in the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights (PICCR), 1983); elected member of the PLO Central Council from 1980-1984; the Palestinian Curriculum Development Center, and the Qattan Cultural outspoken Arafat critic who supported, along with Nimr Saleh, a mem- Center in Ramallah; one of the leading Palestinian academics and intel- orandum presented in Jan. 1983 by Sa‘id Musa Muragha (Abu Musa) lectuals; died on 23 May 2001 of cancer in Ramallah, and was buried next to the Fateh Revolutionary Council in Aden, strongly criticizing the po- to his father in the family plot, at the Ajami district cemetery in Jaffa. litical direction of the movement, incl. the Fez Summit resolutions, the PLO-Jordanian dialogue, and PLO contacts with Egypt and the Israeli peace camp (leading to the formation of the Fateh Uprising group); his Fateh membership was subsequently suspended; merged with the Abu ABU MARZUQ, MUSA (1951-) Nidal group to take charge of the Anti-Arafat dissident movement, but Born in Rafah, Gaza, in 1951 to a family the alliance ended quickly when Syria seized their office and exiled the originating in Yabna (Al-Majdal); completed supporters; left politics in the 1980s; runs a law office in Damascus. his basic education in the Gaza Strip; studied Engineering at Ein Shams University in Cairo, graduating in 1977; managed an aluminum factory in the UAE and worked as En- ABU LIBDEH, HASSAN (1954-) gineer at the Abu Dhabi Petroleum Co. until Born in Arrabeh, near Jenin, in 1954; holds 1981; left to the US to continue his studies, a PhD in Statistics from Cornell University; earning a MA in Construction Management Deputy-Director of the technical committees in 1984 and a PhD in Industrial Engineering in 1991; gained US residency rights while staying there; returned to Jor- supporting the Palestinian negotiating team dan and was elected as Chairman of Hamas’ politburo in Jordan in 1991; during the Madrid/Washington talks; stated was expelled from Jordan in July 1995 and arrested by US authorities his belief in an ultimate federation between at New York’s JFK International Airport “for plotting acts of terrorism” Jordan and a Palestinian entity; began work but without any charge; spent 22 months in a solitary confinement; re- on an Emergency Assistance Program leased for lack of evidence and returned to Jordan in May 1997; a US for the World Bank via PECDAR in 1994; federal court ordered to extradite him to Israel upon Israeli requests in serves as Deputy Director of PECDAR and early 1997, but then Israeli authorities preferred not to receive him; was as Pres. of the Palestinian Central Bureau of subsequently deported to Jordan in May 1997; became Deputy Chair- Statistics; writes short stories; was assigned by PM Ahmed Qrei’a’s as man of the Hamas politburo; was arrested again and expelled when the his Chief Bureau Minister in 2004; approved by the PLC as Minister of Jordanian government closed the Hamas offices in Aug. 1999; now op- Labor and Social Affairs in the Qrei’a Cabinet on 16 Feb. 2005 (until the erates from Damascus; led the Hamas delegation to the Fateh-Hamas 2006 PLC elections). talks in Cairo in Nov. 2002, aimed at ironing out tensions between the two factions, strengthen the Al-Aqsa Intifada and halt suicide attacks in Israel; was one of six senior Hamas leaders named by US Pres. Bush in Aug. 2003 as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, freezing any as- sets in the US and prohibiting transactions with US nationals; founding and Board member of the Al-Quds Foundation.

17 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

ABU MAYZAR, ABDUL MUHSIN (1931-1992) ABU AN-NAJA, IBRAHIM MUSA (1943-)

Born in Hebron in 1931; became a Ba‘ath Born in Khan Younis in 1943; received a BA Party member in the early 1950s; studied in Psychology and a Diploma in Education Law in Cairo in 1951; became a lawyer and from the University of Alexandria, Egypt, in member of the Jerusalem City Council from 1965; Fateh member; returned to the OPT 1955; elected Secretary of the Ba‘ath Party in after Oslo in 1994; was assigned to be the Jerusalem from 1956, but went underground Political Commissioner for National Security in 1957; left to Syria where he became a lead- in Gaza from Aug. 1994-1996; held the title ing Ba’athist; leader of the Palestinian Nation- of Brigadier General; was elected PLC mem- al Front (PNF); editor of Al-Wihda newspaper ber (Fateh) for the Khan Younis district in the (1958-60), Al-Sahafa (1961-62), and Al-Ba‘ath (1963-65); member of the Jan. 1996 elections; was elected first deputy PLC speaker from 1996- A committee that drafted the Syrian constitution in 1964; returned to Je- 2003; Director of the Higher Follow-up Committee for the Intifada since rusalem in 1965; after 1967, became member of the Islamic Supreme Oct. 2000; was acting PLC speaker from Nov. 2003 (replacing Ahmed Council and leader of the Higher Committee for National Guidance; Qrei’a who had been appointed PM) until March 2004 (when Rawhi deported for PNF membership in Dec. 1973; member of the PNC from Fattouh was elected new speaker); was appointed Minister of Agricul- 1973-1987 became head of the PNF in March 1974; member of the PLO ture on 10 June 2004 until the cabinet reshuffle of Feb. 2005; served Central Council from 1974-87; appointed to the PLO Exec. Committee in as Secretary of the Follow-Up Committee of the Palestinian Higher Na- June 1974 (until 1984) and served as its official spokesman; became of- tional Committee in summer 2005; was involved in Palestinian national ficial spokesman of the PNF in 1984; died in Damascus in 1992. dialogue for unity talks in the last few years; ran unsuccessfully in the 2006 PLC elections (Fateh, Khan Younis district).

ABU MAZEN, see ABBAS, MAHMOUD ZEIDAN ABU NIDAL see AL-BANNA, SABRI KHALIL

ABU MEDDIEN, FREIH HAMED (1944-) ABU ODEH, ADNAN (1933-) B o r n in G a z a in 19 4 4 to a B e d o uin f am i l y ; L L B graduate from Alexandria University, Egypt, Born in Nablus on 10 Nov. 1933; received his in 1971; returned to Gaza and practiced law; primary and secondary education in Nablus, member of various Palestinian councils and graduating from high school in 1952; received associations; elected Chairman of Gaza Bar a Diploma from the Teachers’ Training Association from 1989-94; Board of Trustees College, Amman, in 1954; worked as a member of PASSIA from 1991-94; member school teacher in Jordan until 1958; BA from of the Palestinian negotiating team to the the School of Arts, Damascus University, 1991 Madrid peace conference and the 1959; worked as a teacher in Kuwait and the subsequent Washington talks; in the 1996 United Arab Emirates from 1959-66; joined elections, elected PLC member for the Deir Al-Balah district (Fateh); Jordan’s General Intelligence Dept. as a PA Minister of Justice from 1994 until the 2002 cabinet reshuffle. political analyst in 1965; became Minister of Culture and Information in Jordan from 1970-72 and in 1973-74; Board of Trustees member of the University of Jordan from 1972 (until 1985); fellow at the Center for International Affairs, Harvard University (1975-76); worked as ABU MEDDIEN, SHEIKH FREIH (1871-1955) (Jordanian) Minister of Information (1976-79 and 1980-84) and Minister of the Court (1984-88); member of the Jordanian Higher Council of Born in 1871; sheikh of a tribe from the Education from 1985 until 1991; served as political advisor to King Beersheba, Negev and Gaza area; head of Hussein Bin Talal of Jordan from 1988-91; appointed Chief of the Royal the tribal court in the Negev; took part in the Court in Amman in Nov. 1991 (until March 1992); appointed permanent Arab Revolt of 1916; helped the British, when representative of Jordan to the UN, New York, from March 1992-July they entered Palestine in 1917, to enter Gaza; 1995, and as non-resident Ambassador of Jordan to Cuba from Feb. as a reward he was made a member of the 1993-July 1995; senior fellow at the US Institute of Peace, Washington Consultative Council representing the clans DC in 1995; was hosted by the Woodrow Wilson International Center of Beersheba; became the first mayor of and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington in Beersheba in 1922; took refuge in Gaza after 1997; served as political advisor to King Abdullah II of Jordan in 1999, the Nakba of 1948; owned much of the land; but resigned in 2000; member of several organizations, incl. the Arab died in 1955. Thought Forum in Amman, and the International Consultative Group on the Middle East (ICG); since July 2004 elected member of the ICG Board of Trustees; has widely published, incl. Jordanians, Palestinians and the Hashemite Kingdom (Washington DC, 1999). ABU MUSA see MURAGHA, SA’ID MUSA

18 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

ABU RAHMEH, FAYEZ (1929-) various administrative and academic positions at local universities; became a delegate to the Middle East peace negotiations, working as part Born in Gaza on 23 Dec. 1929 to a renowned of the Multilateral Working Group on Environment; has authored several merchant family; graduated from the Arab publications on the issue of water and the environment in Palestine. College of Jerusalem in 1947; studied Law at Fu’ad I University (now Cairo University), graduating with a BA in 1951; began studies in Journalism at Cairo University in 1952 but ABU SALAH see MUSALAM, ABDUL KARIM stopped to join the Attorney General’s office in Gaza in 1953; resigned in 1955 and worked as a lawyer; was chosen to become a member of the first Afro-Asian Solidarity Conference in Cairo in 1957; ABU SALEM, FRANÇOIS (1951-) member of the High Committee of the Palestinian National Union of Gaza Born in Jerusalem in 1951 to a French moth- A from 1961-67; head of the Gaza Bar Association from 1976-85 and again er and a Palestinian father; grew up in Je- from 1987-89; served as Vice-Chairman of the Palestinian Red Crescent rusalem; attended a Jesuit college in Beirut; Society in Gaza since 1979; was, together with Hanna Siniora, the only was engaged as an actor to the Théâtre du Palestinian accepted by the US and Israeli governments in Aug. 1985, Soleil in Paris in 1968; returned to Jerusalem to become part of a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation to the peace in the early 1970s, worked as actor, director talks; Board of Trustees member of An-Najah National University since and author; established Al-Hakawati (today 1986; after its establishment in 1994, became a legal adviser of the PA; Palestinian National Theater) in Jerusalem was appointed by Pres. Yasser Arafat in July 1997 to replace Khaled in 1977; transformed the - Nuzha Cinema in Al-Qidrah as Attorney General; resigned in May 1998. Jerusalem into the first drama theater in Palestine in 1983 and became its Artistic Director; inaugurated a cafe-theater / cabaret in the theater in 1987; directed in Hebrew Doron Tavori’s The White Sect at the Haifa Mu- ABU RISH, MOHAMMED (known as ABU SAID ABU RISH) (1909-2005) nicipal Theater the same year; co-wrote and directed The Story of Kufur Shamma in 1988, which toured Europe, the USA, the Arab World and Born in Bethany, Jerusalem, on 1 May 1909; Latin America for three years; other plays he co-wrote, staged or direct- schooled in Bethany and two years in the ed, and went on tour with include In Search of Omar Khayyam, Passing Frères College in Jerusalem; close to Mufti by the Crusades (1991), Saint Genet en Coulisses, Conference of Birds Haj Amin Al-Husseini, who assigned him (1992-93), and Jericho in the Year Zero (1994); in 1995, filmed Gates during the Arab Revolt of 1936 to assassinate to the City, a documentary on Jerusalem; returned to France the same British District Governor Hugh Foot, a mission year; wrote and performed in Motel, directed Mozart’s Die Entführung he failed to carry out after British military intel- aus dem Serail, in 1997-98; received the Palestine Prize in 1998; more ligence discovered the plot (Foot, later known recent works include Shams (1999), Carmen, Roméo et Juliette (2000- as Lord Caradon, authored UN Resolution 242 in 1967); opened together 1), Shams & Co. (2000-1), the rock opera Qui est fou? (Who is Mad?) with two friends the Orient Taxi Company, through which he met many (2002), He is Not Dead (2002), and The Epic of Gilgamesh (2003); took journalists to which the Mufti asked him to explain the Palestinian cause; a Sabbatical in 2004 and studied Psychology; re-staged in 2005, acting then became a journalist himself, working as assistant to Daily Mail Corre- in a Palestinian version of the epic Gilgamesh 3. spondent O’Dowd Callagher; was sacked by the Daily Mail for withholding information about the bombing of the Palestine Post in 1948 while using it to boost his reports; assistant correspondent to the New York Times in Bei- rut; moved to work with Newsweek after being asked to open its bureau in ABU SALEM, IBRAHIM SA’ID HASAN (ABU ISHAQ) (1948-) Beirut; switched to Time Magazine in 1952; was arrested by Lebanese authorities in 1963 under allegations of an attempted coup d’état in Beirut but Born in Sidreh village near Ramleh in 1948; released after charges were dropped; retired from Time in 1989 and moved graduated from Al-Aqsa High School in 1967; to Seattle, US, to live with one of his sons; died there on 3 May 2005. received a BA in Shari’a from the University of Jordan in 1971; returned and worked as a teacher in Ma’had Al-Mu’alimin in Ramallah from 1976-80; works as lecturer in Shari’a at ABU RISH, SAID see ABURISH, SAID Al-Quds University since 1980; received an MA in Fiqh and Shari’a from Al-Azhar Ash- Sharif, Egypt, in 1981; was arrested at least ABU SAFIEH, YOUSEF (1949-) 13 times by Israel since 1986; continued his studies and earned a PhD Born in Gaza on 8 Dec. 1949; enrolled at the in Comparative Fiqh from Al-Jenan University, Tarablus-Tripoli, Libya, in AUB and received a BSc in Public Health in 1992; was among the deportees to Marj Az-Zuhur, South Lebanon, in 1972 and a MSc in Parasitology in 1977; later Dec. 1992; has published widely on Islamic Fiqh and related issues; was continued his studies at the University of Tex- arrested by Israel and has been in administrative detention since Sept. as, where he earned a PhD in Environmental 2005; was elected as PLC member (Change and Reform, Jerusalem Science in 1986; was appointed PA Minister district) in the Jan. 2006 elections, while still under administrative deten- of Environmental Affairs in Aug. 1998; was tion; he was released on 2 March 2006 but re-arrested (along with other nominated Chairman of the PLC Committee PA ministers and PLC members) in an Israeli military sweep against on Natural Resources, in Aug. 1998; held Hamas on 29 June 2006 and is still imprisoned as of July 2006.

19 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

ABU SALMA see AL-KARMI, ABDUL KARIM ABU AL-SAUD, HASSAN (SHEIKH) (1896-1957)

Born in Jerusalem in 1896; studied at the ABU SAMHADANA, JAMAL ATTAYA ZAYED (ABUL ATAYA) (1963-2006) American School in Jerusalem, and at Salahiyyah College, Jerusalem, which was Born on 8 Feb. 1963 in Al-Maghazi RC, Ra- founded by Jamal Pasha to turn out Arab fah, Gaza; finished high school and joined youth who would contribute to the advance- Fateh; spent time in Damascus and Moroc- ment of the Arab and Islamic Worlds after co and studied at officers’ schools in Ger- the WWI; continued his higher education at many and Algeria; lost two brothers, one in Al-Azhar University in Cairo; co-founder of fightings in Lebanon in 1975 and one during the Rawdat Al-Ma’arif School in Jerusalem the first Intifada; became wanted by Israel in in 1916; the location of his house near Al- A 1982, but fled to Egypt, then to Damascus, Buraq (Western Wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque) Morocco, and Tunisia where he stayed for was among the reasons of his flaming the first spark of Al-Buraq revo- two years; joined a Military School in Ger- lution in 1929; he was also an orator; one of the prominent persons of many, graduating in 1989; moved on to live in Algeria and Baghdad, the Palestinian Arab Party (established in 1935) advocating Arab unity where he stayed during the 1991 Gulf War; returned to Algeria after and opposing the policies of the British Mandate; Mufti of Al-Shafi’yah the War, then to Gaza in 1994, after the Oslo Accords were signed, Madhab (School of Islamic Jurisprudence) in Palestine; Shari’a Court though opposing them; was known for his opposition to coordination Judge in Ramleh; controller of Shari’a Islamic courts; captured by Allies and cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces and in 1945 in Berlin, where he had fled with Mufti Amin Al-Husseini at to normalization activities with Israel; criticized the PA for imprisoning the end of WWII; managed to leave to Switzerland while the rest of the members of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad; was himself arrested by the Palestinian leaders were taken into custody by the Americans; Vice- PA Preventive Security in 1997 and put in jail in Gaza for 19 months (ac- Chairman of the All-Palestine Government, established in 1948; died cused of involvement with Islamic Jihad operations against Israel); was in Cairo in 1957. a member of Fateh and the Tanzim before he founded of the Popular Resistance Committees during the Al-Aqsa Intifada; was appointed by PA Interior Minister Said Siam as Dir.-Gen. of the Police Forces in the Interior Ministry in April 2006 (a move that sparked new criticism on the ABU AL-SAUD, HUSSAM EDDIN (1874-1938) Hamas government from the US and Israel and intensified the internal struggle for control of the security forces); was considered the number Born in Jerusalem in 1874; studied Medicine in th two (after Mohammed Deif) on Israel’s most-wanted list (for his alleged Istanbul in the last decade of the 19 Century, involvement in several attacks, incl. one on a US diplomatic convoy in then served as physician of Sultan Abdul Oct. 2003 in Gaza) and escaped several Israeli assassination attempts; Hamid; returned to Palestine, where he worked was eventually killed by an Israeli air strike in Rafah on 8 June 2006. as a doctor in the Islamic clinic in Jerusalem; member of the solidarity committee with Syrians suffering from the French attack on Damascus in 1925; advocated for the national liberation; ABU AL-SAUD, AZZAM (1948-) was brought before a Military Tribunal in ‘Aleh, Lebanon, together with other members of the Born in Jerusalem on 4 June 1948; received Al-Muntada, an Arab association established in Damascus around 1910 a BA in Commerce from Cairo University during the Jamal Pasha period, but managed to escape trial; became (1971) and an MA in Association Manage- a member of the Jerusalem Municipal Council in the 1920s; one of the ment (2003), American Society of Associa- active members of Al- Dif’a Party, 1934; died in 1938. tion Management, Washington DC (2003) and Faculty member of the International School of Association Management; owner and manager of Technical Supplies Company ABU AL-SAUD, TAHER (SHEIKH) (1855-1920) in Ramallah from 1971-83; Commercial Manager, Al-Bireh Trading Co., 1975-80; Director of the Tenders and Supplies Dept. at Birzeit Univer- Born in Jerusalem in 1855; studied in Is- sity from 1982-96; representative of 32 main international publishers in tanbul and at Al-Azhar University in Cairo; Palestine and Jordan and promoting academic textbooks and journals, Judge and Mufti of the Shafi’i Mathhab 1996-1999; Director of the Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry (School of Islamic Jurisprudence) in Pales- since Jan 1999; contributes in activating cultural life in East Jerusalem tine from 1902-1920; was an enthusiast of through studies and working with various organizations, incl. the Pales- arithmetic and astronomy studies; wrote sev- tinian National Theater, the Arab Thought Forum, the Jerusalem Society eral books in Turkish and Arabic on various for Welfare and Development, and the Jerusalem Center for Social & sciences; commissioned the two sun clocks Economic Rights; works as a columnist, contributing to Al-Quds newspa- at the southern outside wall of the Dome of per and other Palestinian magazines; his work as playwright includes two the Rock Mosque in Jerusalem; died in 1920. TV series Khirbet Mabroke and Bab El-Silseleh, Palestine TV (awaiting for production finance since 2004); publishes satirical writings related to the daily life of the Palestinians, incl. Mish Heik Ya Balad (Arabic, 1999) and Tar El-Hamam (Pigeons Flew) (Arabic, 2004).

20 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

ABU AL-SAUD, TAWFIQ (1902-1981) ABU SHARAR, MAJID (1936-1981)

Born in Jerusalem in 1902; educated in Born in Dura, near Hebron, in 1936; re- Jerusalem; became a scholar, lingual received his elementary and preparatory searcher, politician and orator; wrote sev- school education in Gaza (where his father eral radio acting plays for the Jerusalem had moved with the Egyptian forces as part Broadcasting Service during 1935-1960; of Al-Jihad Al-Muqaddas in the 1940s and his main grammar research work as well as was working as a Judge); received a Law seven volumes authored by him were lost in degree from Alexandria University in Cairo 1948; served as Sec.-Gen. of the National in 1958; became a Muslim Brotherhood Committee in Lydda during 1947-1948; member; returned to Dura, then moved to worked as teacher, headmaster and inspec- Jordan, where he worked first as teacher, then as school principal; tor of education in Jerusalem and other Pal- since 1959, editor of Al-Ayyam in Saudi Arabia, where he also joined A estinian cities; lecturer at Birzeit College; became the first Chairman of Fateh in 1962; Fateh leader since 1966 and active in its Tanzim; moved the Board of Trustees at Birzeit University from 1976-1981; co-founder to Jordan following the 1967 War and worked with Fateh’s Media Dept. and Board member of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (1949), under Kamal Adwan and as editor-in-chief of the Fateh magazine; Al-Maqassed Society (1962) and the Higher Islamic Council (1967); served as Sec.-Gen. of the Fateh Revolutionary Council from Sept. reopened the Arab schools in Jerusalem after the wars of 1948 and 1971; became Director of the PLO Information Dept. following the as- 1967; wrote down a version of the Arab legend King Seif Ben Thy Ya- sassination of Adwan in 1973; in charge of the media and the opera- zan (1946); died in 1981. tions section in the PLO; PNC member; was elected to the Fateh Cen- tral Committee in May 1980; active member of the General Union of Palestinian Writers and Journalists since 1972; played a role in the dialogue between Fateh and other factions; killed by an explosion in his ABU SHANAB, ISMAIL (ABU HASSAN) (1950-2003) hotel room on a visit to an international Palestinian solidarity conference in Rome on the eve of 9 Oct. 1981; was buried in Beirut. Born in Gaza’s Nuseirat RC in 1950 to refugee parents originally from Al-Jiyah (near Asqa- lan); joined the Teachers’ College in Ramal- lah where he majored in English Language; ABU SHARIF, BASSAM TAWFIQ (ABU OMAR) (1946-) studied Engineering at Al-Mansura Univer- sity in Cairo, graduating in 1975; worked as Born in Jerusalem in 1946; graduated from engineer for the Gaza municipality; founded the De La Salle Frères College; grew up in the Palestinian Engineers’ Association and Amman; moved to Beirut in 1963 and grad- the Islamic Society in Gaza in 1976; contin- uated from the AUB in 1967; was an active ued his studies at Colorado State University, student leader at both the student council graduating with an MA in Engineering in 1982; and the GUPS; became involved with the became an instructor of Engineering at An-Najah National University in Arab National Movement while in Beirut; Nablus (began studying towards a PhD but then returned to teaching at founding member of the PFLP, in its Cen- An-Najah, which was in dire need of Engineering instructors); became tral Council (1968) and politburo member the head of the Civil Engineering Dept. from 1983-88 (the university (1972); elected Secretary to the General was closed down during the first Intifada from 1988); participated in the Union of Palestinian Journalists and Writers reform committee aimed at reconciliation between different Palestin- (GUPJW) in 1972; became deputy editor and editor of the Lebanese ian factions in 1986; worked as engineer with UNRWA from 1988-89, weekly magazine Al-Hadaf; seriously wounded and partially blinded when he was imprisoned on 30 May for his role in establishing Hamas by a Mossad letter bomb on 25 July 1972 in Beirut; after months of and serving as a deputy to Sheikh Ahmad Yassin; was released in operations and rehabilitation, he resumed his work at Al-Hadaf and April 1997; elected - on the Hamas slate - chairman of the Palestinian as PFLP politburo member in charge of information in 1973; elected Engineers’ Association in 1996; became an instructor of Engineering as PNC member in 1974; Secretary to the International Organization at Gaza Islamic University; served as Hamas’ observer to the PLO of Journalists in 1974; in 1978, elected as a member of the Board and Central Council; one of the leaders and spokespersons - especially with Vice-Pres. of the GUPJW; favored closer cooperation of the PFLP with regard to the foreign press due to his good English skills - of Hamas’ Fateh; was removed from the politburo in 1981 and drew closer to Yas- political wing in Gaza, considered the movement’s leading pragmatist ser Arafat; during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, in charge and a moderate voice; Hamas representative to the 2002 talks in Gaza of information for the joint Palestinian-Lebanese leadership; left Beirut of all major factions towards a unified Palestinian position as well as to with the rest of the Palestinian leadership in Sept. 1982; was expelled the summer 2003 talks with PM Mahmoud Abbas on a (temporary) from the PFLP in 1987 and became special advisor to Arafat, advocat- ceasefire agreement (hudna); Hamas’ liaison with PM Abbas; was as- ing the two-state solution and non-military means in solving the Pal- sassinated by Israel on 21 August 2003 along with his two companions estine problem; published a statement about negotiated peace in the in an air missile strike at a car carrying him in the Rimal neighborhood Middle East on 5 June 1988 (‘Abu Sharif Document’), which led to an of Gaza City. internal Palestinian debate and the adoption by the PNC of a political program calling for a two-state solution; played a central role in drafting Arafat’s address at the UNGA in Geneva on 13 Dec. 1988, renouncing

21 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

terrorism and recognizing Israel; authored several books about Libera- ABU SITTA, ABDULLAH MUSA (1918-1970) tion Movements and Middle East politics, incl. Tried by Fire (UK: Little Brown, 1995 – entitled Best of Enemies in the US), co-authored with Born in Ma’in Abu Sitta, Bir As-Saba’, in Israeli former intelligence officer Uzi Mahnaimi; returned to Ramallah 1918; attended Al-Rawda College in Je- in 1996 after 28 years in exile; served as Arafat’s special advisor and rusalem; joined the Arab Revolt (1936-39) PNC member since and writes op-eds for Arabic and English papers, and became leader of the southern district incl. Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat; editor-in-chief of One Palestine, published in of As-Saba’; liberated with his comrades Bir Ramallah since 2002. As-Saba’ from the British in 1938 and established a national rule in the area for a year; following British recapture of Bir As-Saba’, moved to Egypt as a political refugee; re- ABU SHBAK, RASHID (ABU HATEM) (1954-) turned to Palestine in the 1940s and formed A a force, which coordinated with volunteers from the Muslim Brother- Born in Jabalia Refugee Camp in 1954 to hood, to defend the district of Bir As-Saba’ from 1947 until the Egyptian refugee parents; holds an MA in Political Army entered Palestine on 15 May 1948; after the War of 1948, he Science; joined Fateh while at secondary formed a political organization for refugees and became the Sec.-Gen. school in 1971; was arrested and detained for the Executive Committee of the Refugees Conference; reformed the by Israel numerous times, first in 1972, and fedayeen inside Palestine in the 1950s; elected to the first Legislative longest in 1973, when he served 14 years; Council in Gaza in 1961; represented Palestine in a number of non- soon after his release he was jailed again in aligned conferences; appointed the first Palestinian Ambassador to 1988 for 6 months; then was out in adminis- Qatar; returned to Jordan in 1970 to gather support for the Palestinian trative detention 27 months; was in charge of cause; was assassinated by the Jordanian Army in Sept. 1970. Fateh’s military wing (Black Panthers, later Fateh Hawks) in 1990; left for Tunis in 1991; returned to Palestine following the establishment of the PA in 1994; served for many years as deputy head of the Preventive Security Ser- ABU SITTA, HAMED MAHMOUD (1925-) vice (PSS) under Mohammed Dahlan; appointed head of the PSS in Gaza by Pres. Yasser Arafat in June 2002, following Dahlan’s resig- Born in Ma’in Abu Sitta, Bir As-Saba’, in nation; offered to resign on 16 July 2004 in complaint over the state of 1925; earned a BSc in Civil Engineering chaos and the lack of reforms in the security services; was removed from Cairo University in 1949; while a stu- from Israel’s list of wanted terrorists as a goodwill gesture toward Pres. dent, underwent three months of military Mahmoud Abbas in early 2005; was promoted by Pres. Abbas to over- training with a group of volunteers aiming all PSS chief in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in April 2005; member of to defend their home village in May 1948; the Fateh Higher Committee. worked as a civil engineer and contractor in Saudi Arabia in the 1950s; contributed half of the money he earned to establishing the PLA in the early 1960s; worked closely with ABU SHILBAYEH, MOHAMMED (1926-1995) Ahmad Shuqeiri, visiting many Palestinian communities to promote the idea of forming the PLO; consequently became a founding member Born in the destroyed village of Al-Abbasi- of the first PNC in Jerusalem in 1964; PLO Exec. Committee member yeh (near Jaffa) on 15 May 1926; ended up since the late 1960s (until he retired at the onset of the Oslo process in in the Aqabat Jabr Refugee Camp after the 1993); played a moderating role during the 1970 clashes between the War of 1948; enrolled at Fuad I University PLO and the Jordanian government (‘Black September’); served for 20 (now Cairo University) graduating in 1950 years as head of the Occupied Homeland Dept., which aimed to sup- with a degree in Literature, Political Science port the Gaza, West Bank and Golan populations’ resistance against and Journalism; taught in Aleppo, Syria, at Israel’s occupation. Birzeit School (now Birzeit University), Al- Sadee School in Qalqilya, and at Al-Ibrahi- mieh School in Jerusalem (now Al-Ibrahim- ieh College); wrote in several local and Arab ABU SITTA, SALMAN HUSSEIN (1937-) newspapers; well-remembered for his column in Al-Manar Newspaper titled “Hakatha Daa’at Biladi” (This is How My Country Was Lost) be- Born in Ma’in Abu Sitta, Bir As-Saba’, in tween 1964 and 1967; joined the staff of Al-Quds newspaper, where he 1937; studied Civil Engineering, graduating worked for some time; established a weekly political newspaper called with a BSc from Cairo University in 1959 Sawt Al-Jamahir (Voice of the Masses); translated and published sev- and with a PhD from the University of Lon- eral books; known for his sarcastic style in writing about Palestinian don in 1964; became a Chartered Engineer history; was among the first to advocate a two-state solution with Jeru- and Member of the Institution of Structural salem as a capital of two cities in a book entitled No Peace Without a Engineers, UK; member of the Association Free Palestinian State (Arabic, 1971); passed away on 24 March 1995 of Professional Engineers, Ontario, Canada; in Jerusalem after a long struggle with cancer; buried in Jerusalem. co-founder of the Canadian Arab Federa- tion in 1967; served as member of the British Institute of Arbitrators, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Executive Council of the

22 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

International Association of Spatial Structures and the (US) Commit- from 1994-95; Research Fellow at the International Institute for Islamic tee for the Design and Construction of Power Structure; PNC member Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), University of Malaysia, from 1995- (Independent) since 1974; Chairman, UNRWA/ Welfare Joint Commit- 96; joined Al-Quds University, Jerusalem, as Associate Professor of tee, Welfare Association, Geneva; member of the Welfare Association Philosophy and Islamic Studies in 1996; was a visiting Fulbright Schol- Board of Trustees; member of the Advisory Board of several institu- ar-in-Residence, Wilkes Honors College, Florida Atlantic University in tions, incl. Badil Center in Bethlehem, the Palestinian Return Center 2003-04; Director of the Islamic Research Center at Al-Quds Univer- (PRC) in London, and the Canadian Palestinian Educational Exchange sity since 2000 and Coordinator of the MA Program in Contemporary (CEPAL) in Canada; founder and Pres. of the Palestine Land Society Islamic Studies from 2000-02; won the Science and Religion Course (an independent non-political scholarly society devoted to research and Award of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Berkeley, information on Palestine Land and People); General Coordinator of the in 2001; member of the American Academy of Religion since 2001; Right of Return Congress (RORC), an international Palestinian lobby to member of the International Editorial Advisory Board of Islam and Sci- defend the right of return; has published maps and books related to the ence; Board of Trustees member of PASSIA since 2005; has widely A Nakba of 1948 and the refugee issue, incl. Palestine 1948 – The Towns published in several papers on Islamic Epistemology, Al-Ghazzali and and Villages Depopulated by the Zionist Invasion of 1948 (Map); The contemporary Islamic issues; has also co-authored and edited several Palestinian Nakba 1948 – The Register of Depopulated Localities in publications, incl. Al-Thaqafah Al-Islamiyyah (Islamic Culture) (Jerusa- Palestine (London: PRC, 2001); The Atlas of Palestine 1948 (Palestine lem: PASSIA, 2005). Land Society, Dec. 2004).

ABU TER, SHEIKH MOHAMMED HASSAN (1951-) (official name: ABU SNEINEH, SULEIMAN MAHMOUD (1945-) MOHAMMED MAHMOUD HASAN)

Born in Hebron on 18 June 1945; enrolled Born in Jerusalem in 1951; from the East at Cairo University, Egypt, in 1964 and re- Jerusalem village of Umm Tuba; joined ceived a BSc in Law in 1969; was an active Fateh in the early 1970s; was imprisoned for member of Fateh since 1970 and member his political activism; while in jail, became of its southern leadership (Hebron area) religious and joined the Muslim Brother- from 1980-85; was for this activism impris- hood; later became member of Hamas; was oned by Israel for one year; practiced as detained in Israel on several occasions, lawyer with a private legal office in Hebron spending, on and off, nearly 25 years in from 1970-95; Steering Committee member Israeli prisons; was released in 2005 after of the West Bank Lawyers’ Union, Jerusa- serving seven years in prison; ran on the lem, from 1981-97; treasurer of the Board second spot on the Change and Reform of Directors of the University Graduates Union in Hebron since 1986; (Hamas) list in the 2006 PLC elections and Secretary of Fateh’s Institutions Committee from 1987-93; Secretary of was elected PLC member in Jan. 2006; was the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee since 1994; Dir.-Gen. in the PA arrested (along with other PA ministers and PLC members) in an Israeli Ministry of Interior from Aug. 1995-March 1996; elected PLC member military sweep against Hamas on 29 June 2006; refused to resign from (Fateh) for the Hebron area in the Jan. 1996 elections; member and re- the PLC as demanded by Israel and had his Jerusalem residency per- porter of the PLC Legal Committee from March 1996-April 2002; Chair- mit and Israeli ID card subsequently revoked by Interior Minister Roni man of the PLC Legal Committee from April 2002-Nov. 2003; Board Bar-On on 30 June 2006; is still detained as of July 2006. member of the Palestinian Housing Council, Jerusalem, since Sept. 2003; was a Minister of State in the PA Council of Ministers from Nov. 2003-Jan. 2006; ran unsuccessfully in the 2006 PLC elections (Fateh, Hebron district). ABU TURK, MAHFOUZ (1948-)

Born in Hebron on 2 July 1948; raised in Je- rusalem; enrolled in photography courses in ABU SWAY, MUSTAFA (1958-) Jerusalem (1989-90) and Italy; participated in a number of exhibitions; covered news Born in Amman on 21 Jan. 1958; completed scenes for different magazines and agen- high school at the Arab-Jordanian Institute cies, incl. Reuters; founding members of the in Jerusalem in 1975; received a Diploma Palestinian Photojournalists’ Committee in in Education and a BA in English Literature Jerusalem in 1998 and serves as its trea- from Bethlehem University in 1984; con- surer; founding member of the Arab Union of tinued studying towards an MA (1985-88), Photographers in Baghdad in 1999; was de- then PhD (1988-93) in Philosophy at Boston tained on several occasions and treated for back and head injury from College, US; became a Teaching Fellow in Israeli army assaults during the Al-Aqsa Intifada; works as freelance Philosophy at Boston College from 1989-93; photojournalist through his Sunbula Media office; serves as spokes- served as President of the Islamic Society person for homeless Palestinians at the Sumud (Steadfastness) Camp of Boston (1990-92); member of the American Philosophical Associa- in Jerusalem. tion from 1993-99; Assistant Professor at the International Islamic Uni- versity, Malaysia, from 1993-95 and head of its Dept. of Philosophy

23 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

ABU ZAYYAD, ZIAD ALI KHALIL (1940-) ABURISH, SAID KHALIL (1935-)

Born in Bethany, Jerusalem, in 1940; gradu- Born in Bethany (near Jerusalem) in 1935; ated in Law (LLB) from Damascus University attended university in the US and subse- (1964); worked as supervisor to the Passport quently became a correspondent for Radio Dept. for the Jordanian Government (until Free Europe, where he served as a reporter 1967); in 1969, worked as part-time teacher in lieu of his US Army service; later became and wrote columns for Al-Quds newspaper; a correspondent for The Daily Mail; con- became translator for Al-Quds newspaper sulted on Middle East business for 12 years in the early 1970s; Israeli news editor for Al- and was an advisor to the Iraqi government Fajr newspaper from 1977-86; practiced as in the 1970s/80s; returned to full time writ- lawyer in Ramallah from 1983-86 and was ing in 1983 and contributing to different pa- A Executive Director of the Arab Council for Arab Affairs; editor and pub- pers, incl. The Sunday Times, Observer, Mail on Sunday, Washington lisher of his own bi-monthly Hebrew language paper Gesher (Bridge) Post, Spectator, Liberation, La Vanguardia, LA Times, Jolland-Posten since 1986; held under arrest by Israel in 1990 for six months; noted for and Al-Quds where he was a columnist for three years, and authoring his willingness to make compromises with Israel; head of the advisory many books, incl. Children of Bethany: The Story of a Palestinian Fam- committee to the Madrid process; elected PLC member (Fateh) for the ily (Tauris, 1988), The Forgotten Faithful: The Christians of the Holy Jerusalem district in the Jan. 1996 elections; served as PA minister Land (Quartet Books, 1993), A Brutal Friendship: The West and the without portfolio and head of the PA’s ‘Office for Jerusalem Affairs’ in Arab Elite (St. Martin’s Press, 1998) and his controversial biographies Abu Dis, established in Aug. 1999 (until 2006); ran unsuccessfully in the Saddam Hussein (Bloomsbury, 2001), The Rise, Corruption and Com- 2006 PLC elections (Fateh, Jerusalem district). ing Fall of the House of Saud (Palgrave MacMillan, 1996), Arafat: from Defender to Dictator (Bloomsbury. 1999) and Nasser: The Last Arab (Thomas Dunne Books, 2004); writer and journalist based in London.

ABU ZUHRI, SAMI (1967-)

Born in Rafah, Gaza, in 1967; began to study AL-ADHAMI, ALI NAJI AWAD (NAJI AL-ALI) (1937-1987) at the Islamic University in Gaza but was imprisoned for over five years for his politi- Born in Shajara village (Galilee) in 1937; his cal involvement; was released in 1994 and family was forced out of Palestine during continued his studies, graduating with a BA the 1948 Nakba and ended up in Lebanon; in History from the Islamic University; was grew up in Ein Al-Hilweh Refugee Camp, elected Head of the Islamic University Stu- near Sidon, Lebanon; finished his school dent Council between 1994-97 and head of education in Sidon; then enrolled in an art the Islamic bloc until 2002; worked as coordinator of the Continuing institution but was unable to continue due Education Dept. at the same University from 1998-2001; pursued his to his family’s difficult financial situation; his graduate studies in History in the Islamic University while also lectur- talent in drawing was discovered by Pales- ing in the History Dept. and earned his MA in 2004; continues his work tinian poet Ghassan Kanafani while on a as lecturer; official spokesman of Hamas in Gaza; serves as Hamas’ visit in the late 1950s; left to Kuwait in the representative to the Follow-Up Committee of the Palestinian Higher early 1960s to work in Al-Taliah magazine; returned to Beirut in 1971 National Committee since summer 2005; was Involved in ceasefire and and joined the Editorial Board of the Al-Safir newspaper; began also Palestinian unity talks in the last few years. contributing drawings to Al-Khalij newspaper in the UAE; campaigned against the absence of democracy, corruption and inequality in the Arab World, for which he was repeatedly detained and censored in the 1950s-60s; after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, he decided to ABU ZULOF, MAHMOUD (1924-2005) return to Kuwait where he worked for Al-Qabas newspaper, and from 1984 also for Al-Khalij newspaper; was expelled from Kuwait for politi- Born in Jaffa in 1924; received a degree in cal reasons in 1985 and resettled in London, from where he continued Media from the AUB; returned to Jaffa and to work for Al-Qabas and to contribute his work to Al-Khalij; his car- worked as a journalist for Al-Difa’ (owned toons became famous and were published in numerous newspapers in by Ibrahim Shanti) (until his resignation in the Middle East as well as in London and Paris; famous for his satiri- 1953); founded Al-Jihad newspaper in Jeru- cal drawings showing the struggle and plight of the Palestinian people salem (1951) (together with Salim Sharif and though the eyes of a spectator – the little boy Hanthala who appears Mahmoud Yaish); following a Jordanian law in his cartoons; was shot on 22 July 1987 in London as he left the Al- to limit the number of daily newspapers, Al- Qabas offices; died after five weeks in a coma in a London hospital Jihad and Al-Difa’ were joined together to on 30 Aug. 1987; was posthumously awarded the annual Golden Pen form the Jerusalem daily, Al-Quds, on 21 award of the International Federation of Newspaper Publishers (FIEJ) March 1967 (closed during the War of 1967 and reopened on 19 Nov. in 1988. 1968), of which he was chief editor and owner until his death on 28 March 2005.

24 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

ADWAN, KAMAL (ABU HISHAM) (1925-1973) to head the Fateh High Command in Gaza since mid-1994; PA Minister for Housing from 1994-96; ran as a Fateh candidate in the Jan. 1996 Born in the village of Barbara (near Gaza) in elections for the PLC, but lost; independent member of the PLO Exec. 1925; became refugee in the course of the Committee since April 1996 (one of three members from – for the first 1948 Nakba; was involved with the Popu- time – ‘inside’ the OPT); known as Arafat loyalist; led the Fateh delega- lar Resistance Front against occupation in tion to the Palestinian national dialogue talks in Cairo in Nov. 2002. Gaza during 1956-57 and was arrested by Israel; worked as teacher in Qatar in the late 1950s; later studied Petroleum Engineering in Cairo; founding member of Fateh and one AGHAZARIAN, ALBERT (1950-) of its lifetime key figures; attended the first Born in the Old City of Jerusalem on 18 Aug. PNC in 1964; among the top leaders of the 1950; of Armenian descent; educated at the Black September Organization; PLO leader in charge of operations in A Frères College; received a Diploma in Middle the OPT; in charge of Fateh’s Occupied Homeland Bureau from Sept. Eastern Studies from Birzeit College and a 1971; Fateh Central Committee member since 1971; killed in an Israeli BA in Political Science from the AUB in 1972; retaliatory commando raid on Beirut on 10 April 1973. worked as editor of Al-Quds daily newspaper from 1973-76; then worked in a bank in charge of foreign exchange; founding member of the Arab Thought Forum in Jerusalem AL-AGHA, RIYAD (1940-) in 1977 and Board of Trustees member since; continued his studies at Born in Khan Younis on 1 Dec. 1940; received Georgetown University, Washington, DC, graduating with an MA in Con- a BA in Education from Alexandria University, temporary Arab Studies in 1979; returned and worked as Professor of His- Egypt, and an MA in Education (1976) as well tory and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University, then became its Director of as a PhD in Educational Planning and Instruc- Public Relations in 1980 (until his resignation in 2003); advocated for the tion (1978) from Kansas University; worked freedom of education under occupation, especially following the closure of Birzeit University during the first Intifada in the late 1980s; was Director as Assistant Professor at Riyadh University, of the Palestinian Media Center in the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference; Saudi Arabia from 1978-79; founded the Gulf currently works as freelance consultant, writer, translator/interpreter, and Arab States Educational Research Center in lecturer; known also for his historical-cultural tours of Jerusalem. 1979 and served as its director until 1980; returned to Palestine and became Pres. of the Islamic University in Gaza from 1980-83; the worked as consultant for Hebron University from 1983-87; Board of Trustees member of the Al- AHMAD, ABDUL RAHIM (full name: ABDUL RAHIM AHMAD AB- Hakawati Palestinian National Theater, Jerusalem (after 1986); Board DUL GHANI (1944-1991) member of the Arab League program on Higher Education - Technical In- stitutions, Cairo; Pres. of the College of Science and Technology in Khan Born in Al-Haditha village near Lydda on 12 Younis since 1990; was brought before court in 1995 under accusations Aug. 1944; lived with his family in the Ra- of misuse of state money; Director of the Palestinian Center for Strategic mallah area after the 1948 Nakba; moved Studies in Gaza; was briefly arrested by PA Preventive Security forces in to Jordan two years later; received his el- July 2005 after criticizing the PA security apparatus in a program aired ementary and secondary education in Am- on the Palestinian Satellite TV. man; attended Damascus University to study Civil Engineering; left his studies for a while to avoid being arrested for his political activism; later continued his studies and graduated as Agricultural Engineer AL-AGHA, ZAKARIA (1942-) in 1970; worked an instructor in the same University for one year; was put in charge of the ALF office in Baghdad in the early 1970s; moved Born in Khan Younis in 1942; studied Medi- to Beirut in 1974, serving as Sec.-Gen. of the ALF; was elected PLO cine at Cairo University and graduated in Exec. Committee member at the PNC meeting in Cairo in 1977; died in 1965 with an M.B.B.Ch and an MD in General Amman on 30 June 1991. Medicine; worked as a physician and head of the medical section at Nasr Hospital in Khan Younis until his dismissal by Israel for making political statements to the press without AL-AHMAD, AZZAM NAJIB (1947-) military permission in Aug. 1987; member of the Executive Committee of the Arab Medi- Born in Rumaneh, near Jenin, in 1947; edu- cal Association from 1977-85 and its chair- cated in Jenin, then attended Baghdad Uni- man from 1985-92; member of the Executive Committee of the Council versity, studying at the Faculty of Economy on Higher Education from 1985-92; Fateh Central Committee member; and Business Administration; served as worked at Al-Ahli Arabi Hospital since 1989 and became part of its chairman of the GUPS in Iraq from 1971-74 administration; Chairman of the Council of Health Services in Gaza and as Vice-Chairman of the GUPS Execu- since 1990; member of the delegation to the 1991 Madrid conference tive Committee from 1974-80; PNC member and the subsequent talks in Washington; appointed by Yasser Arafat since 1974; Chairman of the General Union

25 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

of Arab Students from 1976-80; arrested in Jordan and Syria in 1976 Luke’s and Al-Ittihad Hospitals in Nablus, and the St. Joseph Hospital and in Egypt following Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem in 1977; appointed in Jerusalem; since the mid-late-1980s Board of Trustees member of PLO representative to Iraq in 1979 (until 1994); elected member of the several Palestinian organizations, incl. the Arab Studies Society, the Fateh Revolutionary Council in the Fateh conference in Tunisia in 1989; Medical Association, the Palestinian Center for Arts and Culture, and supervisor on Palestinian-Iraqi relations; returned to Palestine in 1994; the Friends’ School in Ramallah; arrested by Israel in 1991 and de- elected PLC member (Fateh) for the Jenin constituency in the Jan. 1996 tained for 45 days in solitary confinement for being an Intifada activist elections; PA Minister of Public Works from May 1996-June 2002; PA and belonging to the UNLU; founding member of the Mandela Institute Minister of Public Works and Housing in the reduced PA cabinet of June for Palestinian political prisoners in 1989; member of the Palestinian 2002 (until Oct. 2002) as well as in the new cabinet of 29 Oct. 2002; delegation to the 1991 Madrid Peace conference and the subsequent became Telecommunications and Technology Minister in the cabinets Washington talks, where he was head of a sub-committee on human formed in April and Nov. 2003 (until cabinet reshuffle in Feb. 2005); rights issues; co-founder of PICCR in 1993; member of Muwatin, the was re-elected as PLC member (Fateh, Jenin district) in the Jan. 2006 Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy; member of the Board A elections. of Directors of the Palestinian National Theater in Jerusalem; co-founder of the first Palestinian School of Medicine at Al-Quds University in 1994; Commissioner General for PICCR since Sept. 2003; practices as a senior consultant urologist in several hospitals and is a Clinical As- AL-AHMAD, NAJIB (1920-1995) sociate Professor at Al-Quds University’s Medical School.

Born in Rumaneh near Jenin in 1920; educated in Jenin and at An-Najah College in Nablus; participated in the Palestinian re- ALAFENISCH, SALIM (1948-) volts in 1935/36, for which he was arrested; served as a reserve officer in the Iraqi Born in the Negev in 1948 to a Bedouin fam- army and among the armies participating in ily; spent his childhood and early youth as the War of 1948; became Secretary of the a camel shepherd and only learned reading Refugee Affairs Committee, then inspector and writing at the age of 14; completed high in the ICRC in 1949; co-founder of the Na- school in 1971 in Nazareth; went to London’s tional Socialist Party in Jordan headed by Princeton College for one year, then moved Suleiman Nabulsi in the early 1950s; was to Heidelberg, Germany in 1973 to study elected representative of Jenin in the Jorda- Ethnology, Sociology und Psychology; lives nian Parliament for four consecutive times until the end of 1963; was there since; from 1984-89 he worked in the imprisoned by the Jordanian Government in 1957 (after the dismissal field of adult education; he serves as cultur- of Suleiman Nabulsi’s government); was sent – together with other MPs al ambassador for the German Agro Action – incl. Yasser Amro, Ishaq Al-Duzdar, and Daoud Al-Husseini) to (Deutsche Welthungerhilfe); has written numerous novels, tales and Al-Jafar Detention Center on 21 April 1963 (following the declaration of essays about Bedouins and their lives, incl. Das versteinerte Zelt (The the Charter for Arab Federation between Egypt, Syria and Iraq on 17 Tent turned into Stones - 1993), Amira, Prinzessin der Wüste (Amira April and the resignation of PM Samir Al-Rifa’i on 20 April 1963); was - Princess of the Dessert - 2001), Das Kamel mit dem Nasenring (The released in Oct. 1963; PNC member from 1964-95; was arrested by Camel with the Nose Ring - 2003), and Die acht Frauen des Großvaters Israeli authorities in 1968 and imprisoned for two years, then deported (The Eight Wives of the Grandfather - 2004). to Jordan; became Chairman of the PLO Exec. Committee in Jordan; returned to Palestine following the Oslo Accords in 1994; served as a consultant for Pres. Yasser Arafat; died in 1995. AL-ALAMI, FAIDI (1865-1924)

Born in 1865; father of Musa Al-Alami; AL-AKER, MAMDOUH (1943-) served as tax official and judge in the Ot- toman government; was appointed District Born in Nablus on 17 Oct. 1943; finished high Director of Bethlehem in 1902; mayor of school at An-Najah College in Nablus; left in Jerusalem from 1906-09, then serving on 1962 to join Cairo University Medical School, the administrative council for the Jerusalem graduating in 1969 (M.B.B.Ch.); joined the governorate; elected member of the Admin- ANM and then the PFLP from 1967-70; istrative Council for the sanjaq of Jerusa- worked in Kuwaiti hospitals as physician from lem in the Ottoman Parliament, from 1914- 1970-73, then went for further training to Ed- 18; scholar and publisher of a concordance inburgh (1976-77), acquiring the specializa- of the Qur’an; died in 1924. tion in General Surgery as fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; returned to Kuwait and worked as general surgeon; in 1979, went to London to specialize in Urology at King’s College Hospital (until 1981); member of the British Association of Urologic Surgeons since 1981; returned to Palestine and practiced as an urologist at the Al-Maqassed Hospital in Jerusalem from 1981-86, then moved to St.

26 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

AL-ALAMI, IMAD KHALIL (1956-) the establishment of the League of Arab States in 1945; landowner; created a special fund to help Palestinian farmers to retain their land in Born in the Gaza Strip in 1956; holds a BA 1945; founded Palestinian-Arab Information offices in Beirut, London in Civil Engineering from Alexandria Univer- (1945), Jerusalem (Al-Maktab Al-Arabi, 1946), and Washington; after sity, Egypt; was arrested by Israeli authori- the Nakba of 1948, founded the Arab Development Society in Jericho; ties in Sept. 1988 on charges of incitement died on 8 June 1984 in Jerusalem. through his work with Hamas’ Information Committee and imprisoned until Sept. 1990; was deported by Israel to Lebanon in Jan. 1991; took up residence in Amman but was AL-ALAMI, MUSTAFA (1922-) expelled - together with Musa Abu Mar- zouq - in April 1995; moved to Teheran, then settled in Damascus; was Born in Jerusalem in 1922; attended Rawdat elected member of the Hamas politburo in Damascus; served as head Al-Ma’aref School; moved to Beirut in 1937, A of foreign operations for Hamas in the late 1990s; currently Hamas chief and studied at the AUB for two years; returned of staff and operations commander, based in Lebanon. to Jerusalem and joined the family business (crops and food industry) following his father’s health deterioration in 1939; co-founder of the Jerusalem Electricity Company and its Trea- AL-ALAMI, LAMIS (1943-) surer and Board member until his resignation in 1968; co-founder, of the Jerusalem Ciga- Born in Jerusalem on 27 Nov. 1943; graduat- rette Company in Bethlehem in 1960; served ed from the Schmidt’s Girls College in 1960; as its General Manager and Board of Trustees Chairman; tried to establish received a BA in English Language and Lit- with other businessmen a Palestinian cement company but was denied erature and Education from the Beirut Col- the permit by Israeli authorities; founded the Arab Investment Company in lege for Women, Lebanon (1964), an MA in 1994 and the Arab Care Company for Medical Services in 1995. English Literature from the AUB (1967), and a Higher Diploma (M.Lit) in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh, UK (1974); worked as a teacher training instructor from AL-ALAMI, SA‘AD EDDIN (SHEIKH ) (1911-1993) Sept. 1966-Nov. 1975; was also a part-time lecturer at Bethlehem Uni- versity (1974-75) and at Birzeit University (1976); served as Deputy Di- Born in Jerusalem in 1911; worked as rector (Dec. 1975-July 1983), then Director (Aug. 1983-Sept. 1994), of Shari‘a Judge in Ramallah from 1948-51 the UNRWA Ramallah Women’s Training College in At-Tireh; then Chief and in Nablus from 1951-53; renown reli- of the UNRWA Field Education Program from Oct. 1994-May 2004; gious leader; became Mufti of Jerusalem since July 2004, Dir.-Gen. of PICCR; Board member of various Pal- in 1953; also member of the Shari‘a Appeal estinian organizations, incl. the Arab Studies Society, the Palestinian Court in Jerusalem from 1967; was head of Human Rights Information Center (PHRIC), Jerusalem Link, Jerusalem the Islamic Board and Chief Shari’a Judge Center for Women, Women Center for Legal Aid and Counseling, and in the West Bank in the 1970s and 1980s; the Palestine-Israel Journal; member of the Palestine Central Elections called for Hafez Al-Assad’s death after he Committee both in the elections of 1996 and 2005. expelled Yasser Arafat and Khalil Al-Wa- zir from Syria in June 1983; threatened Muslims who sell land to Jews with excommunication in Feb. 1985; died on 6 Feb. 1993.

AL-ALAMI, MUSA (1897-1984)

Born in Jerusalem in 1897; son of Faidi Al- ALAWNEH, ATEF (1949-) Alami; graduated in Law from Cambridge University in 1922; returned to Palestine and Born in Azmut, near Nablus, on 3 April 1949; worked as junior legal advisor for the British received an MA in Economics (1977) and one administration (1925-29), then as assistant in Political Science (1979) from the Ludwig- gover nment advoc ate (1929 - 32), pr ivate Sec - Maximilian University in Munich, Germany; retary to the High Commissioner (1932-33), later earned a PhD in Economics from the Lud- and again as government advocate (1933- wig-Maximilian University in 1983; returned 36); held a series of talks with Jewish Agen- and worked as a Professor of Economics at cy leader David Ben-Gurion during 1934-36; An-Najah National University in Nablus from appointed Sec.-Gen. of the Legal Dept. in Jerusalem in 1936, but fired 1983; became Chairman of the Economics Dept. at An-Najah in 1984 in 1937 for his participation in the 1936-39 Revolt alongside the Mufti (until 1986); worked as part-time instructor at the Ibrahimieh Community Haj Amin Al-Husseini; lived in exile in Beirut and Baghdad from 1937- College in Jerusalem from 1986-87 and at the Islamic University of Gaza 42; member of the Palestinian delegation to the London Conference at from 1987-89; was Chairman of the Palestinian Economists Association St. James’s Palace in Feb. 1939; sole representative of the Palestinian from 1988-90; became a member of the Consult Committee of the Rural Political Parties to the Preparatory Conference for the Establishment Research Center and of the Data Bank Committee at An-Najah in 1990; of the Arab League, held in Alexandria in Sept./Oct. 1944, preceding serves as Vice-Pres. of the Ibrahimieh Community College in Jerusalem

27 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

since 1991; served as Chairman of the Al-Quds Open University’s Ramal- AL-ALI, NAJI see AL-ADHAMI, ALI NAJI AWAD (NAJI AL-ALI) lah Center from 1991-94; Board of Trustees member of the Arab Studies Society since 1992; was a member of the Technical Committees in Jeru- salem during 1992-94; was a member of the Palestinian delegation to the Regional Economic Development Working Group of the multilateral talks ‘ALLOUSH, LAILA (1946-) in Rabat in 1993; member of the International Institute of Public Finance in Saarbrücken, Germany, since 1994; serves as PA Deputy Minister of Born in Jerusalem in 1946; literary writer; her Finance since 1994; is a member of the Ad-hoc group of Experts of Inter- poetry portrays life under occupation like her national Cooperation in Tax Matters, UN, New York, since 1995; member collection: Spices on the Open Wound (Jeru- of the Administrative Boards of the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA) salem, 1971). since 1996, of the Palestinian Industrial Estate and Free Zone Authority (PIEFZA) since 1997, the Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency (PIPA) A since 1999, and of the Association of the Arab Certified Public Accountant since 1999; Chairman of the Steering Committee of the PA Tax Adminis- ‘ALLOUSH, NAJI (1935-) tration Computer System since 1998; Steering Committee member of the Born in Birzeit in 1935; graduated from Al- Local Infrastructure and Capacity Building Project of the Belgian Technical Ahliyyeh College in Ramallah; worked as a Cooperation since 2001 and of the Municipal Development Project of the teacher in Jordan, while also writing in lit- German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) since 2002; Vice-Pres. of the Pales- erary magazines; immigrated to Kuwait in tinian National Pension Committee since 2003; head of the Pension Coordi- 1957 and served as a civil servant in the nation Unit , World Bank Project since 2004; has been and still is involved in government; was an early recruit to Fateh many additional boards, committees and projects; since Aug. 2005, CEO of and close to its left wing; moved to Baghdad, the Capital Market Authority in the West Bank; has conducted numerous re- where he first cooperated with Abu Nidal; search activities in the fields of finance, trade, taxation and other economic served as Board of Trustees member of the issues and written many articles, papers and studies on those subjects. Center for Arab Unity Studies in Beirut and used to write for the periodical Dirasat Arabiyyah (Arab Studies) from 1965-72; joined Abu Nidal’s leftist alliance against Yasser Arafat during Fateh’s Third Congress in Damascus in 1971; became a member of ALI, ABDULLAH SAMIR (known as SAMIR ABDULLAH) (1950-) Abu Nidal’s Fateh Revolutionary Council from 1970-79; worked as an Born in Abu Kash, Ramallah, in 1950; earned editor for various newspapers and magazines before returning to Leba- a BSc in Economics from Jordan University non, where he became chief editor for At-Tali’a Publishing House; was (1976), then enrolled at the Prague School of a PNC member from 1974-77; was the only Fateh delegate to oppose Economics, from where he graduated with the “phased program” in the PNC in June 1974; has published numer- an MSc in Economics in 1980 and a PhD in ous books, poems, translations and studies, incl. The Contemporary 1984; joined An-Najah National University as Arab Revolutionary (Beirut, 1960), Marxism and the Jewish Question Assistant Professor of Economics in 1985, (Beirut, 1969), a study on the Vietnamese experience (Beirut, 1973) and served as Chairman of its Dept. of Eco- and his reflections on the Oslo Accords (1996); among his poems are nomics from 1986-1989; was a Fulbright Vis- A Small Gift (Arabic, 1967) and Windows Opened by Bombs (1970); a iting Scholar at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA, in 1990- compiled collection of some of his poetry as published by the Iraqi Min- 91; member of the Palestinian Delegation to the 1991 Madrid peace istry of Culture in 1979; currently lives in Jordan; was twice elected as conference as well as the subsequent bilateral negotiations and the Sec.-Gen. of the General Union of Palestinian Writers and Journalists, Multilateral Middle East Economic Working Groups during 1991-1993; first serving in total from 1972-80. chairman of the Arab Economists’ Association in Ramallah; founded the Palestine Center for Peace and Democracy (PCPD) in Ramallah in 1992 and serves as Chairman of its Board of Directors since 2003; head of the Palestinian Counterpart Team to the World Bank from 1992-1994; AL-ALOUL, MAHMOUD OTHMAN (1944-) Dir.-Gen. of the Economic Policies and Project Selection Office at PEC- DAR from 1994-1996; General Manager of the Arab Palestine Invest- Born in Nablus in 1944; became a political ment Bank (APIB) from 1996-1999; publisher of the Palestine Economic activist following the 1967 Israeli occupation Pulse from 1995-97; Dir.-Gen. of PALTRADE from 1999-2002; Dir.-Gen. of the West Bank and Gaza; was jailed by Is- of MAS - the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute in Ramallah rael for four years; deported upon his release since March 2004 and part-time lecturer in Birzeit University; conducted in 1971; continued to help organizing the In- numerous research projects on the Palestinian economy and its rela- tifada in Nablus from exile; returned in Nov. tion with Israel and the region; active also in various NGOs and public 1995 and was appointed Governor of Nablus institutions; member of the Advisory Board of the Micro-enterprise and a month later; lost a son - Jihad - in Oct. 2000; Micro-credit Project (MMP) since its establishment in 1999; co-founder was among the signatories of a declaration and Chairman of the Arab Center for Agricultural Development (ACAD); (published in Al-Ayyam daily newspaper in member of the Board of Directors of the Palestinian Corporation for Mi- March 2004) calling to turn to the Intifada into cro-credit and Development (FATEN); member of the National Accredi- an unarmed struggle; was elected as PLC member (Fateh, Nablus dis- tation and Quality Assurance Commission for Higher Education Institu- trict) in the 2006 elections. tions since May 2002; member of the Advisory Board for the Israeli-Pal- estinian Public Health Magazine (Bridges).

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AL-AMAD, ANDALIB (1899-1979) Palestinian Peace and Democracy Center in Jerusalem from 1996- 2003; founding member of the Exec. Committee of the Jerusalem Cen- Born in Nablus in 1899; being a woman she ter for Social and Economic Rights, Jerusalem, since 1997; member could not continue her higher education and of the Palestinian Ministerial Committee on Jerusalem from 2002-04; became a tailor instead; opened her own was elected as Sec.-Gen. of the PPP (together with Mustafa Bargh- shop, in which she also trained girls in dress- outhi and Abdel Majid Hamdan) at the 3rd PPP convention in Ramal- making; active in a women’s group, founded lah in Oct. 1998; PLO Exec. Committee member since 2001; received by Mariam Hashim in 1922, which involved an MA in International Security from the Warnborough University, UK, women in social and national issues, incl. in 2002; works as columnist and political analyst in many papers and participation in the strike of 1936; also par- magazines, incl. Al-Yassar and Al-Ahali (Egypt), Al-Quds (Jerusalem), ticipated in founding the Cooperation and Al-Tariq (Ramallah), Al-Jamaheer (Jordan), and Al-Haqa’eq (France). Steadfastness Committee, a female branch of resistance against the Zionists; co-founder of a cultural and sports club in Nablus in 1945; A Pres. of the Arab Women’s Union in Nablus from 1948; during the 1948 Nakba, initiated a first-aid committee run by women and opened a ma- AMIRI, MOHAMMED ADIB (1907-1987) ternity home for exiled Palestinians; after the War, established an or- phanage for girls; was chief of the team that established the Arab Wom- Born in Jaffa in 1907; graduated from Jaffa en’s Union Hospital, followed by a refugee children hospital in 1950, Secondary School in 1924; then enrolled at and the An-Nour Institute for Blind Women in 1962; was Chairperson of the AUB, graduating in Biology and Chemis- the Union of Charitable Societies in the Nablus District from 1958-75; try in 1930; during his university years, co-es- attended the first PNC in 1964; was a founding member of the Exec. tablished the ‘Student Club’ (a branch of the Committee of the Red Crescent in Amman; died on 23 Oct. 1979. 1925 Student Congress of Beirut) and was elected its Chairman in 1928; later became Chairman of the Palestinian Student Congress of Jaffa; in 1929, moved to Jordan to escape arrest with which members of the Student Congress AL-AMAD, MOHAMMED (1916-) were threatened; worked as a science teacher, then as Principal at the Al-Salt Secondary School in Jordan; General Inspector in the Education Born in Nablus in 1916; studied at An-Na- Dept. in Amman; member of An-Nahda Al-Arabiyya (Arab Renaissance jah School, where he also got involved with Union) in Palestine in 1943; resigned in 1945 and worked in the literary the pan-Arab movement and very much section of the Palestinian Radio, eventually as its Dir.-Gen.; wrote in dif- influenced by two national activists Wasif ferent regional papers; served as Sec.-Gen. in the Jordanian FM from Kamal and Mamdouh Sukhun; graduated 1950-67; then as Dir.-Gen. of the Import-Export Dept., and as Deputy from An-Najah School in 1935; worked at Minister of the Education Dept.; became Jordanian FM after 1967 and the Arab Bank in Jerusalem for a while; then head of the Jordanian delegation to the UN; also served as Jordanian continued his higher education at the Dar Ambassador to Egypt; in 1969, appointed Minister of Education, then Al-Ulum in Egypt, which later became the Minister of Culture and Information; resigned to become a freelance writ- Arab Language and Islamic Studies Dept. er; his works include: Arab Jerusalem (1971); died in 1987. at Cairo University; returned to Nablus and taught Arabic Language at An-Najah College and then University from 1939-71; was arrested under the Jordanian rule for his political activities and jailed in Nablus, Amman and the H4 prison in the Jordanian AMIRY, SUAD (1951-) desert; served as Deputy Mayor in the Nablus Municipality from 1951- 76; after 1967, was repeatedly arrested by Israeli occupation forces; Born in Damascus in 1951 to a Palestinian retired from his teaching job; still resides in Nablus. family originally from Jaffa; elementary and secondary education in Amman; General Certificate of Education from the Zamalik Girls’ College in Cairo, 1968-69; in 1969, AMIREH, HANNA (1948-) enrolled at the AUB and studied Architec- ture, graduating with a BA in 1976; worked Born in Ramleh on 12 June 1948; moved as a teaching assistant of Archaeology at the with his family to Jerusalem in 1949; re- AUB in 1974-75; continued her studies in the US in 1977 and received ceived his school education in the Old City an MA in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in of Jerusalem during 1954-66; was jailed in 1979; also worked as teaching assistant in the Urban Planning Dept. of Israeli prisons from Feb.-Sept. 1968; be- the University of Michigan during 1977-78; returned to the Middle East came an Associate of Arts at Birzeit Univer- and became a lecturer in Architecture at the University of Jordan (1979- sity in 1971; was jailed again by Israel, this 81), then at Birzeit University (1981-82); studied towards a PhD in Ar- time for five years from 1971-76; served as chitecture at the University of Edinburgh from 1982-88; returned to the a Board member of the Arab Journalist As- West Bank and became Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architec- sociation from 1981-90; member of the PPP ture at Birzeit University from 1985-93; co-founder of Riwaq Center for politburo since 1991; member of the Advisory Committee to the Pales- Architectural Conservation, Ramallah, in 1991 and its Co-Director until tinian delegation to the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference; PNC member 1994; served as Project Director for ‘Cultural Heritage of Jerusalem,’ at since 1996; founding member and head of the Exec. Committee of the the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, from 1992-95; member of

29 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

the Exec. Committee of the Palestinian Housing Council in 1993-94; with other opposition MPs like Najib Al-Ahmad, Ishaq Al-Duzdar, and Dir.-Gen. in the Ministry of Culture in 1994-95; Assistant Deputy Minis- Daoud Al-Husseini and sent to Al-Jafar detention center (following the ter in the Ministry of Culture, in 1995-96; resumed work as Co-Director declaration of the Charter for Arab Federation between Egypt, Syria and of Riwaq Center in 1996; has practiced her profession of architecture Iraq on 17 April and the resignation of PM Samir Al-Rifa’i on 20 April 1963); since 1975 in Amman, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Birzeit, Ramallah, Bethlehem, released in Oct. 1963; nominated by the PLO to visit Central America and Hebron, etc.; her renovation contributions include the Sarayya Women gain support for the PLO in 1964; deported by Israel on 6 Sept. 1968 to Training Center and Al-Wasiti Arts Center in Jerusalem, and the Khalil Jordan; met with Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser, together with Sakakini Cultural Center, Al-Masri Residence, Baladna Community Cen- Yasser Arafat, Kamal Nasser and Abdul Razzaq Al-Yahya to discuss ter and the Arab Orthodox Sports Club in Ramallah; has written and co- the Cairo Agreement of ceasefire with the Lebanese in 1969; pro-Sa‘iqa; authored a number of books on various aspects of Palestinian architec- independent member of the PLO Exec. Committee since 7 Feb. 1969 and ture including: has authored among her several publications: The Social appointed its Secretary; responsible for the PLO’s Education Dept.; met History of Palestinian Vernacular Architecture (Manuscript, 1995); most with King Hussein of Jordan prior to the eruption of the Black Septem- A recently she published her Ramallah diaries on life under occupation, ber events in an attempt to cool down the situation between Palestinian entitled Sharon and My Mother-in-Law (Granta Books, 2005). guerillas and Jordanian forces; resigned from the PLO Exec. Committee in 1971 and opened a law firm in Amman; joined the PLO Exec. Commit- tee again in Feb. 1990 (re-elected in 1991); opposed the Oslo Accords; AMR, NABIL MAHMOUD (1947-) worked for improving PLO-Arab relations and played an intermediary role between Arafat and King Hussein; member of the PLO Central Council; Born in Dura in 1947; holds a Law degree from moved back to Palestine on 20 June 1994; was appointed PA Education Damascus University and a Diploma in Media Minister from 1994 until his resignation in May 1997; died in Jan. 2002. and Radio Broadcasting from Cairo Univer- sity; Fateh-RC member; former PLO Ambas- sador to Moscow from 1988-93; founder and editor-in-chief of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspa- ANABTAWI, ABDUL GHANI (1924-) per from Nov. 1994; Director of the PA Radio & TV Authority; member of the Palestinian Born in Nablus in 1924; educated in the Al- Writer’s Union; media advisor to PLO Chair- Khalidiyeh and As-Salahiyeh Schools as man Yasser Arafat; was for ten years the Director of Voice of Palestine well as in An-Najah College; member in the radio; elected PLC member (Fateh) for the Hebron district in the Jan. Arab Workers’ Society in Nablus, resisting 1996 elections; from Aug. 1998, PA Minister for Parliamentary Affairs the British mandate; studied at the AUB’s until his resignation in May 2002, calling for PA reforms; signed the 2001 Pharmaceutical College in Beirut, graduat- joint Israeli-Palestinian declaration “No to Bloodshed, No to Occupation, ing in 1949; during his studies was active Yes to Negotiations, Yes to Peace;” member of the Palestinian negotia- with the ANM; returned and opened a pri- tion team; became Min. of Information in the cabinet of PM Mahmoud vate pharmacy in Nablus; co-established Abbas on 30 April 2003; Visiting Fellow at The Washington Institute for the Pharmacists’ Federation and was Near East Policy in 2004; was shot and wounded by a sniper while in his member of its consultant committee; very active in fighting illiteracy; house in Ramallah in July 2004 in what is believed to be related to inter- co-founded several cultural and sport clubs; became a member of the nal Fateh clashes; received treatment in Germany; ran unsuccessfully in Dean’s Council at An-Najah College in 1975; played a leading role in the 2006 PLC elections (Fateh, Hebron district); author of several articles the establishment of An-Najah National University in Nablus and be- and books, incl. Testimonies from the Battlefield, chronicling the war in came member of its first Board of Trustees in 1976; became assistant Beirut, 1000 Days in Moscow, chronicling the fall of the former Soviet of the head of the Board of Trustees in 1983, and its elected Chairman Union and The Days of Siege and Love. in 1995; co-founded an aluminum company in Nablus.

AMRO, YASSER (1930-2002) ANABTAWI, FA’IQ FARID (1899-1960)

Born in Deir Razeh, Dura, near Hebron in Born in Salt, Jordan, to parents from Nablus 1930; educated in Al-Dura public school, Al- in 1899; studied in Nablus then went to Beirut Rashidieh School in Hebron, and the Billy Ein to study Medicine but was forced to join the Sara School (now Al-Hussein Ben Ali), gradu- Ottoman Army as a result of WWI; became ating in April 1948; in Jan. 1951 appointed officer in charge of Aleppo train station; re- teacher in Al-Khader then moved to Dura, turned to Nablus after the war and joined his Sourif and Al-Thahiriyyeh; studied one year in father in business; member of the Arab Party Egypt (1954-55) then enrolled at the Faculty representing Nablus; was detained by the of Law at Damascus University, graduating in Nov. 1959; joined Al-Ba’ath British Authorities in 1936-37 and deported to Party while in Syria and leading Ba‘athist activist in the Hebron/Bethle- Jordan in 1939; returned to Nablus in 1940; hem areas after 1967; trained at a legal office in Jerusalem and started was together with his father one of the first two Palestinians to be elected his career as a lawyer in the Hebron district; ran for the elections in the as members of the Jordanian Parliament in 1957, but was arrested due Jordanian House of Representatives and elected Jordanian MP in 1962 to his opposition to the government’s policy; became member of Arab hu- (leading to disputes with his party (Ba’ath), which had decided to boy- man rights organizations and an expert on human rights issues at the UN; cott the elections); imprisoned by the Jordanians on 21 April 1963, along author of numerous books, studies and articles; died on 24 Nov. 1960.

30 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

ANABTAWI, MUNTHER (1929-1990) ANANI, ISSAM (1935-)

Born in Nablus in Feb. 1929; graduated Born in Lifta, Jerusalem, on 28 Nov. 1935 from the University of Alexandria in 1953 to a family originally from Halhoul; attended with a degree in Law; obtained a PhD in In- elementary school in Ramleh, then second- ternational Law in the Netherlands in 1962; ary school in Gaza; studied Law at the uni- served in the Ministry of Justice in Tripoli, versities of Cairo (BA, 1960) and Damascus Libya, from 1954-56, then as assistant to (Diploma, 1962); returned to Jerusalem and the Attorney General in Jordan (1957-58); became an intern at the office of Anwar worked as consultant at the Political Dept. Al-Khatib; practiced law from 1963; then of the FM in Kuwait in 1963-64; in 1965, be- co-founded a law firm together with Ibrahim came Dir.-Gen. of the Palestinian National Baker, Yahya Hamudeh, and Ali Safarini Fund; taught at the Arab University in Beirut from 1965-68, then at the until the War of 1967; opened his own law office in Jerusalem and A Jordanian University from 1968-75; worked for 13 years at the UN Hu- practiced as advocate and legal consultant since, representing, among man Rights Center in Geneva from 1976; died in 1990. others, the Waqf, medical companies and banks; was appointed Judge at the Ramallah High Court by the Israeli military governor in 1967 (until 1973); editor and co-owner – with Othman Hallak – of An-Nahar newspaper until its closure in May 1995. ANABTAWI, SALAH EDDIN MOHAMMED (1918-1996)

Born in Nablus in Oct. 1918; attended An- Najah School in Nablus; studied Medicine at ANANI, JAWAD (1943-) the AUB and graduated in 1941; specialized later in Pediatrics in England, graduating in Born in Hebron in 1943; received an MA 1950; joined the ANM in 1950; co-founder from Vanderbilt University and a PhD in of the Arab Workers’ Society which chal- Economics from the University of Georgia, lenged the British Mandate; also initiated USA; founded the Anani Center for Studies, cultural and sports activities in Nablus; was Amman, in 1985, and serves as its direc- elected to the Nablus Municipality in 1951; tor since; has served Jordan as Minister was a member of the first PNC in 1964; co- of Labor, Minister of Supply, and Minister founder of the Nablus Society to Combat Illiteracy and of the first pedi- of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Minister atrics centers in Palestine in 1966; deported by Israel on 25 Oct. 1968; of Foreign Affairs, as well as President of elected head of the Jordanian Physicians’ Association from 1969-75 the Royal Scientific Society; member of and Deputy Head of the Arab Medical Union from 1975-79; returned to Jordan’s Peace Negotiation Team since 1991 and overall peace ne- Nablus on 30 June 1994; died in Amman on 25 Aug. 1996. gotiation coordinator from 1993-1995; appointed as a Senator in Jor- dan’s Upper House of Parliament in Nov. 1993; served as an advisor to HRH Prince Hassan Bin Talal; became Chief of the Royal Court under King Abdullah II; Minister of State for Prime Ministry Affairs and ANABTAWI, WASFI (1903-1984) Minister of Information of Jordan from 1993-1995; developed Jordan’s first business incubator, the Jordan Technology Group, and serves as Born in Nablus in 1903; completed his sec- its Chairman; chairman or member of numerous Board of Directors of ondary education at the St. George’s School Jordanian companies; has published columns and articles on various in Jerusalem; worked as English Language economic and political issues as well as short stories. teacher in As-Salahiyyeh School in Nablus; obtained a BA in History and Geography from the AUB in 1926 and later an MA from Cambridge University in 1934 (also with a ANANI, NABIL (1943-) focus on History and Geography); worked as lecturer at the Arab College and the Born in Latroun on 14 Jan. 1943; raised in Rashidiyya School in Jerusalem, then as inspector of the Education Halhoul, near Hebron; studied at the College Dept. in Palestine under the British Mandate until 1948; was invited by of Fine Arts in Alexandria, graduating with a the Near East Radio to record a series of geography lectures, which BA in Fine Arts/Oil Painting in 1969; began were aired as part of the radio’s educational program; became a spe- working as a painter, sculptor, and ceramist; cialized inspector at the Syrian Education Dept. until 1950; then was in also became an Art Instructor at UNRWA’s charge of UNRWA schools in Syria from 1950-52; later worked as head Teacher Training Center in Ramallah in officer and secretary of the Arab Bank in Amman; after his resignation, 1971-72; worked as art and Handicrafts became a Professor of Geography at the University of Jordan and gave Instructor at the UNRWA Women Training geography courses at a military college in Al-Zarqa’; was appointed Center from 1972-2003; had his first exhibit in 1972, and has since Minister of Finance in the Jordanian government from 19 April to 27 participated in numerous local and international exhibitions; member June 1970; was member of the Jordanian Higher Education Council of the Research and Folklore Committee of Inash Al-Usrah, Ramallah, and the Arab Language Council based in Syria; wrote and published since 1980; founding member of the League of Palestinian Artists and over 30 educational geography books; died in 1984. its elected Pres. in 1985-86 as well as since 1997; founding member

31 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

of the ‘New Vision’ art group in Ramallah in 1987; founding member of Husseini; resigned from British service in 1930 in protest over British the Wasiti Center in Jerusalem in 1992; was Director of the Committee discrimination policy against Palestinians; began his work as Middle of the Palestinian Curriculum of Art Education at the Palestinian Eastern Associate of the Charles R. Crane’s Institute of Current World Curriculum Center from 1994-95; was awarded the first Palestine Prize Affairs, New York, during which time (1930s) he accompanied Crane for Visual Arts in 1997; continued his studies and received an MA in on trips to the region and researched and began writing a book on Islamic Archeology Al-Quds University in 1998; was elected head Arab nationalism; appeared before the Peel Commission 1936-37; of the League of Palestinian Artists in 1998; served as Committee declined the offer for a visiting professorship at Columbia University Member for the Palestinian Annual Arts and Cultural Awards, 1998- for the 1936-37 academic year in order to complete his major work 1999; established and designed, together with Suleiman Mansour, the on Arab nationalism, The Arab Awakening (London: Hamish Hamilton, Museum of Palestinian Folklore at Inash Al-Usrah, Ramallah; teaches 1938); member of the Palestinian delegation to the London Conference, at the Dept. of Art at Al-Quds University since 2003; founding member St. James’s Palace, in Feb. 1939, functioning as Secretary to the of the Association of Palestinian Contemporary Art, Ramallah, in 2003; Palestinian delegation and as Sec.-Gen. to the United Arab delegation; A member of the General Assembly of the Sakakini Cultural Center in moved to Beirut in 1939, seeking wartime employment, unsuccessfully Ramallah; has co-authored a number of books, incl. Palestinian Plastic offering his services first to the British, then to the Americans; traveled Arts in the Occupied Territories(1984), Palestinian Popular Costumes to Baghdad in April 1941, offering his services as a mediator between (1984), The Guide to Palestinian Embroidery (1986). irreconcilable forces in Iraq; returned sick with an ulcer to Beirut and a short time after to Jerusalem, where he died on 21 May 1942.

ANDONI, GHASSAN (1956-) AOUN, IMAN (1963-) Born in Beit Sahour on 15 Jan. 1956 to a Christian family; received a BSc in Physics Born in Nablus in 1963; received a BA in from Baghdad University, Iraq, in 1977, and Social Work from Bethlehem University in an MSc in Physics from Reading Universi- 1987, and Diplomas in Psychodrama (1989) ty, Britain, in 1984; worked as a lecturer in and Theater Make-up (1996); began her Physics at Birzeit University from 1984; was theater career with Al-Hakawati Theater imprisoned during the first Intifada for being Company, where she worked and performed involved in Beit Sahour’s tax revolt, which from 1984 until 1991; co-founded Ashtar for called for “no taxation without representa- Theater Training and Productions together tion;” primary figure in Palestine’s nonviolent with her husband Edward Muallem in resistance movement; founder and Executive Director of the Palestin- 1991, and serves on its Board of Trustees; ian Center for Rapprochement between People in Beit Sahour since occupied different administrative positions at Ashtar, most lately as 1990; founder of the Alternative Tourism Group in Beit Sahour; found- Artistic Director of the theater; directed a number of plays with students ing member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Pales- and theater professionals; participated in over 30 plays, including, tine; General Manager of the International Middle East Media Center Martyrs are Coming Back, Women of Sand and Myrhh, and Abu (IMEMC), an English language online news source dedicated to cover Shaker’s Affairs (all produced by Ashtar Theater), in addition to The the Israel/Palestine conflict. Story of Kufur Shama and The Story of the Eye and the Tooth (produced by Al-Hakawati); won the Best Actress Award for her role in Martyrs are Coming Back from the Cairo International Experimental Theater Festival in 1996; took part in many international theater conferences ANDRAWES, SUHAILA see SAYEH, SUHAILA ANDRAWES and published a number of studies on Palestinian theater.

AL-ANSARI, THURAYYAH see SAYEH, SUHAILA ANDRAWES

AQEL, ABDUL LATIF (1943-1995)

ANTONIUS, GEORGE (1892-1942) Born in Deir Estia, near Nablus, in 1943; was imprisoned for membership in the Born in Deir Al-Qamar, Lebanon, in 1892 into Communist Party while still in school; earned a Greek-Orthodox Christian Lebanese family; a degree in Philosophy and Social Sciences writer and politician; educated in Victoria from Damascus University in 1966; worked College, Alexandria; graduated with a BA as a teacher in Nablus; started studying in Mechanical Science from King’s College, towards an MA at the Jesuit University in Cambridge University, in 1913; worked as Beirut but then moved to California and Deputy Press Censor in Alexandria during earned a PhD in Social Psychology in 1980; WWI; came to Palestine in 1921 and started returned and worked as Professor at An- a civil service career in the Education Dept. Najah and Bethlehem universities; then went again to the US, where he and the Secretariat (from 1927) of the British received his second PhD in Clinical Psychology in 1983; wrote poems Mandate Executive; served as an interpreter in negotiations to a British and plays both in Arabic and English; died in 1995. diplomatic mission in Arabia in the mid-1920s; obtained Palestinian citizenship in 1925; served as an advisor to Mufti Haj Amin Al-

32 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

AQEL, AMIN MUSA (1900-1970) AQEL, ISSA (1906-1970s)

Born in Jerusalem in 1900; studied Law in Born in Ramallah in 1906 to a Christian Jerusalem; worked with Mufti Haj Amin family; obtained his BA in Science from Al-Husseini during the time of the British the AUB in 1927, and a degree in Law Mandate; was arrested for two years by the from the Palestinian Law Institute in 1934; Mandate authorities; worked as a lawyer practiced as a lawyer; became a member of and judge in Jaffa; became Secretary of the Jordanian Parliament representing the the National Committee of Jaffa in 1948; Ramallah district from 1954-1967, during was elected a Minister in the All-Palestine which time he contributed significantly to the Government of 1948; worked at the Political socioeconomic development in the Ramallah Administration Dept. of the Arab League; area; died in the late 1970s. author of Jihad Filastin in cooperation with A Ibrahim Najem; died in London in Dec. 1970 and was buried in Cairo. AQQAD, OMAR (1927-)

Born in Gaza in 1927; leading businessman; AQEL, BASEL AMIN (1938-) founding board member of the Saudi British Bank and the Bahrain-based Investcorp Born in Jaffa in 1938; received a BA in Bank; among the directors of the Saudi Political Science from the AUC in 1959, and Bank and the Arab Investment Company of an MA in Political Science from the AUB Luxemburg and Switzerland; founded the in 1962; began working at the Ministry of Saudi-based Al-Aqqad Investment Company Foreign Affairs in Kuwait, in charge of the (AICO) in 1975 and serves as its chairman political administration section; served as since; donated a grant for the establishment a consultant to the Kuwaiti delegation to of the Engineering College at Birzeit University, which was named after the first and second Arab Summits; was him; Honorary Member of the university’s Board of Trustees; served the representative of Palestine to Egypt on the Board of Directors of the investment bank firm of Smith Barney from 1965-66; became Director of the Arab Harris Upham & Co. Inc. until 1987; in 1995 appointed by Pres. Yasser League office in London in 1968; served Arafat to be head of the group in charge of developing the telephone as representative of Palestine to the UN during 1975-76; became sector in the OPT; founded the Arab Palestinian Investment Company Director of the first Palestinian delegation to the UN Security Council in in Ramallah and was a major force behind the building of the main 1975; was appointed by King Hassan II of Morocco as Director of the commercial center – the Plaza – in Ramallah in 1993; Board of Trustees Jerusalem Fund; PNC member; member of the PLO Central Council; member of the Institute of Palestine Studies; member of the Council of Board of Trustees member of the Welfare Association, Geneva, and the Palestine National Fund (PNF). the Institute for Palestine Studies; member of the Executive Committee for the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, Washington. ARAFAT, AFAF (1925-)

Born in Nablus in 1925; was educated at the AQEL, IMAD (1971-1993) Al-Fatimiyah and Al-’A’ishiyah Schools; then attended the Teachers’ Institute in Jerusalem Born in the Gaza Strip in 1971; completed from 1938-43; worked as a teacher in secondary school in 1988; wanted to study Jerusalem; enrolled at the Bath Academy Pharmacology at Al-Amal Institute in Gaza in Britain and studied Painting, Photography the same year, but was arrested by Israel and Ceramics, graduating in 1957; returned and imprisoned until March 1990 on charges and worked as teacher of Fine Arts at the of affiliation with Hamas and participation in Teachers’ Institute in Ramallah from 1957- the Intifada; was admitted to Hittin College, 64; continued his studies and received an Amman, to study Islamic Shari’a, in 1991, MA from Tennessee University, US, in 1966; became inspector for Art but was prevented by Israel from traveling Education in the Jordanian Ministry of Education; was member of a to Jordan; was involved with the Izzeddin committee that prepared an art education guide for teachers from 1966- Al-Qassam Brigades from the early 1990s; 79; worked with the UNRWA as an art expert from 1979-81; prepared formed Hamas cells in the West Bank in 1992 and was placed on the art education books for Al-Yarmouk University, Jordan, in 1981; was Israel’s ‘wanted’ list; was killed in a gun battle with Israeli soldiers on Jordan’s delegate to the Amsterdam Conference for Fine Arts in 1969 24 Nov. 1993. and the UNESCO regional conference for fine art education in 1976; organized a number of exhibits in Jerusalem, Amman, and Nablus; received a medal from the Kuwaiti government and another medal from the Jordanian League of Artists; has paintings in water and oil colors as well as collage art.

33 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

ARAFAT, AMRO (1868-1952) as General Commander of the National Security Services, incl. Force 17, to replace Major-General Abdul Razzeq Al-Majaydeh; was soon Born in Nablus in 1868; educated in Nablus; after removed from the post; survived an explosion while leaving his then enrolled at Al-Azhar University, Cairo, office in Gaza in Fall 2004; was sent into retirement together with over graduating with Al-‘Alamiyyah certificate 1,000 military officials who reached the age of 60 in April 2005 as part in 1894; went to Istanbul in 1902 to study of Pres. Mahmoud Abbas’ reform efforts, but retained a job as secu- Shari’a until 1905; appointed as Judge in the rity adviser; was assassinated by militants from the Popular Resistance Nablus Court; resigned in protest over the Committees at his home in Gaza City on 7 Sept. 2005. life-sentence of a certain defendant; moved to the family business of soap industry in 1913, expanding the company (opening a new factory in the Old City of Nablus and exporting to other countries); became chairman of the ARAFAT, SABA’ A Waqf in Nablus and member in the Nablus Municipality; treasurer of the Nablus Mosque Renovation Committee, which enabled the mosque to Born in Nablus and educated in the Al- reopen in 1937; died in Nablus in 1952. ’Aishiyah and the Schmidt’s Girls School; teacher in Al-’Aishiyah school from 1941-48; enrolled at Exeter University, UK, major- ing in English Language and Literature; re- ARAFAT, FATHI (1933-2004) ceived a BA from the University of London in 1953; worked as English Language teacher Born in Jerusalem in 1933; brother of Yasser at the Teachers’ College in Ramallah from Arafat; studied Medicine at King Fuad 1954-56; then served as consultant for the University in Cairo from 1950-57; during UNESCO on teaching English as a foreign that time, helped Yasser set up the Palestine language in Libya from 1956-60; continued her studies and received Student Union; after graduation practiced an MA in Education from Harvard University, US, in 1961; assistant in as pediatrician in Cairo hospitals, then in the Education Board of UNRWA in Amman; then Director of UNRWA Kuwait (1962-66); returned to Cairo, then in Jerusalem in 1964 and head of its education section in the West started working as pediatrician in Palestinian Bank from 1974; member, Board of Trustees member of Bethlehem Uni- refugee camps in the West Bank in early 1967; following the 1967 June versity from 1975-78; Executive Committee member of the Council for War, worked in refugee camp clinics east of the Jordan; elected member Higher Education from 1976-85; Board of Trustees member of Birzeit of the PNC in 1967; President of Palestine General Union of Physicians University. and Pharmacists since 1968; founder of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society; served as its Vice-Pres. since 1968 and as Pres. since 1978 (until his resignation in 2001, after which he continued as honorary chair); became Honorary Secretary of the Executive Board of the Council of ARAFAT, YASSER (ABU AMMAR) (1929-2004) Arab Ministers of Health in 1972; elected Vice-President of the Council of Ministers of Public Health of the Non-Aligned Countries in 1982; Born in Jerusalem (or Cairo) on 4 Aug. 1929 served as Chief Delegate for Palestine to the World Health Organization as Abdul Rahman Abdul Ra’uf Arafat Al- in Geneva since 1982; appointed President of the Palestine Academy Qudwa Al-Husseini; grew up mainly in Cairo for Science and Technology (formerly Palestine Academy for Scientific and, for a brief period, in Jerusalem; fought Research) since 1992, and Pres. of the Palestine Higher Health Council; in 1948 alongside the Palestinian defense was the director of the Palestine Hospital in Cairo; returned to Palestine forces under Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini; after the creation of the PA in 1994; received an Honorary Doctorate of graduated from Cairo University, Faculty of Science, from the International University in Sri Lanka in 1998; died at Engineering, in 1956; founder and president the Palestine Hospital in Cairo, where he had been receiving treatment (1952-57) of the GUPS in Cairo/Egypt; found- for stomach cancer, on 1 Dec. 2004. er and chairman of the Union of Palestinian Graduates in 1956; volunteered in the Egyp- tian army during the 1956 Suez Canal crisis; left to Kuwait in late 1956; co-founder (with Khalil Al-Wazir) of the first Fateh cell in 1957; founder ARAFAT, MUSA (full name: MUSA ARAFAT AL-QUDWA) of the Fateh movement and its leader since 1958; member of the first (1941-2005) Palestinian delegation to China to confer with Premier Chou-En-Lai in March 1964; Fateh spokesperson since 1968; fought in the Karameh Born in Jaffa in 1941; nephew of the late battle in 1968; elected Chairman of the PLO Exec. Committee in Feb. Pres. Yasser Arafat; co-founder of Fateh; 1969 when Fateh became the dominant force in the PLO (remained in was identified with the Fateh Hawks, a mili- this position until his death); changed the directions of the PLO from be- tant offshoot of the Fateh; member of the ing pan-Arabist organization to one focusing on the Palestinian national Fateh Revolutionary Council; returned to cause; was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the all-Palestinian/Arab Palestine after the establishment of the PA guerilla forces in Sept. 1970; agreed to ‘liberate Palestine by stages’ at in 1994 and was appointed Commander of the 1974 PNC conference in Cairo; addressed the UNGA in New York the Military Intelligence in Gaza; played a for the first time on 13 Nov. 1974, delivering his famous speech saying major role in the 1996 crackdown on Hamas; he bore an olive branch (for peace) in one hand, and a gun (for war) in was appointed by Pres. Arafat in July 2004 the other; rejected Egyptian Pres. Anwar Sadat’s peace talks with Israel

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during 1977-78 (Camp David), after it became clear that its version of ARAFEH, ADNAN (1940-) Palestinian autonomy fell far short of statehood, and gave no role to the PLO; signed a joint Jordanian-Palestinian agreement on a peace Born in the village of Qaqoua near Tulkarem framework with King Hussein of Jordan, in 1985, encompassing plans in 1940; forced to leave with his family during for a Palestinian-Jordanian confedera-tion (which was abrogated in the War of 1948; studied Law for one year, 1986); in March 1986, offered to accept UN Res. 242 and 338, and thus then switched to General Medicine, graduat- Israel, in exchange for a guarantee by the permanent UNSC members ing with an MD and PhD from the University that Palestinians will be able to exercise their right to self-determination; of Istanbul, Turkey, in 1968; worked as as- delivered a speech at the 19th PNC in Algiers on 15 Nov. 1988, rec- sistant surgeon and Director in the Austrian ognizing Israel, renouncing terrorism and proclaiming the independent Hospice Hospital in the Old City of Jerusalem Palestinian State; was elected by the PLO Central Council as the first from 1965-1985; became a member in the President of the State of Palestine on 2 April 1989; offered his ‘good Medical Association, Jerusalem, in 1973, and later its Sec.-Gen. from A offices’ to negotiate an Arab solution to the 1990-91 Gulf Crisis, after 1978-1982; Dir.-Gen. of the Arab Health Center, Jerusalem, since 1986. Saddam Hussein’s ‘call to arms’ on behalf of Palestine; announced his marriage to Suha Tawil in Feb. 1992; survived an air crash over the Libyan Sahara in April 1992; supervised secret negotiations with Israel AL-A’RAJ, ALA EDDIN (1964-) from 1992 which led to the signing of the DoP between PLO and Israel on 13 Sept. 1993; since then negotiating with Israel on Palestinian self- Born in Gaza in 1964; graduated with a BSc rule; returned to Palestine on 1 July 1994; set up the PA and appointed in Civil Engineering from An-Najah Univer- himself as President, Minister of Interior and Minister of Religious Af- sity in Nablus in 1987; served as head of the fairs; was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace together with Israeli PM Board of Directors of Groups of Firms in the Yitzhak Rabin and FM Shimon Peres in 1994; was elected President Field of Trade and Contracts, as head of the of the PA in the Jan. 1996 elections (with 87.3% of the vote); appointed Palestinian Contractors’ Union in Gaza, and a committee to draw up a Palestinian constitution; met Pres. Clinton as Secretary of the Engineers’ Syndicate in during his first official visit to the US in May 1996; announced a new 25- Gaza; member of the Palestinian Business- member cabinet on 9 May 1996; faced with resignations from the PLC men Association and former member of its Board of Directors, member and his cabinet in 1997-98 (e.g., Hanan Ashrawi and Haidar Abdul of the Coordinating Council of the Palestinian Private Sector Institutions; Shafi) over his failure to implement reforms and combat corruption; re- was appointed PA Minister of Economy in March 2006; ceived the “Golden Pegasus” prize in Florence in June 1998; signed the Wye River Plantation Agreement with Israel in October 1998, calling for further Israeli withdrawals and a Palestinian crackdown on militants; in 1999, threatened to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state in the WBGS AL-A’RAJ, LYDIA (1930-) with East Jerusalem as its capital, at the end of the interim period laid Born in Latin America in 1930 to a family down in the Oslo Accords, following Israel’s failure to meet its commit- originally from Beit Jala; was educated at the ments, but was persuaded against this; signed the Sharm Esh-Sheikh Schmidt’s Girls College in Jerusalem; earned Agreement in Sept. 1999, which called for a further land transfer of a diploma in Education; worked as a teacher ‘Area C’ to ‘Area B’; headed the negotiations in Camp David with Pres. in the Chili Girls School in Beit Jala; member Clinton and PM Barak in July 2000, taking a firm stand on the questions of the Women & Child Care Society in Beit of Jerusalem and the refugees, and was held responsible by Israel and Jala since 1954 and its Chairperson since the US when no agreement was reached; increasingly marginalized by 1960; worked together with Zelikha Shihabi in founding the Union of the Israeli govt. following the election of right-wing PM Ariel Sharon in Charitable Societies in Jerusalem; elected PNC member since 1965; Feb. 2001, who refused to meet or deal with him; banned from traveling served as first treasurer of the GUPW since 1965; inaugurated the first and confined to his compound (the Muqata’a) in Ramallah by the Israeli branch of the Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association in army for much of the Al-Aqsa Intifada; accepted under international the Bethlehem district; founder and Chairperson of the Women’s Initiative pressure to appoint a PM in Feb. 2003, and swore in Mahmoud Abbas Committee for Development since 1993 aiming to train young women in as first ever PM in April 2003; after Abbas’ resignation, announced an income generating projects (i.e., through manufacturing shoes, etc). PA Emergency Govt. in early Oct. 2003; swore in the subsequent govt. of the new PM Ahmed Qrei’a govt. on 12 Nov. 2003; turned seriously ill in Oct. 2004 and was flown from Ramallah to Paris via Amman to receive further medical treatment on the suspicion of suffering from a AL-AREF, AREF (1892-1973) potentially fatal blood disorder, marking the first time he went abroad since 2001; underwent medical checks and treatment at the Percy Mili- Born in Jerusalem in 1892; early education tary Teaching Hospital in Clamart, outside Paris, from 29 Oct. 2004 in Jerusalem and Turkey (Lyceé of Constan- but failed to recover and was pronounced dead on 11 Nov. 2004, end- tinople); studied Political Economy at Istan- ing days of rumors over his condition; received an honorary farewell bul University; wrote in the paper Filastin in France, a state funeral ceremony in Cairo and was the buried in the of Jaffa, condemning land sale to Jews in Muqata’a in Ramallah on 12 Nov. 2004. Will be dearly remembered by Palestine; served in the Ministry of Foreign his people for forcing their plight into the world spotlight, devoting his life Affairs in Istanbul in 1914 as translator; con- to the quest for Palestinian statehood, and unified them in their struggle scripted into the Turkish army in WWI (1915) for national freedom and independence. and served as lieutenant until 1918; captured and spent two years in a camp in Siberia (1916-18), from where he escaped after the

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Russian Revolution and went back to Palestine; editor of the first Arab of the Palestinian people in 1974; was exiled by Israel to Southern nationalist newspaper Suriyya Al-Janubbiyya, published in Jerusalem Lebanon on 4 Nov. 1974 as a result of his political activism; spent a in 1919; advocated a policy of militant but non-violent opposition to Zi- year in Beirut and 18 years in Damascus, continuing his struggle in the onism; arrested during riots in 1920, escaped with fellow-accused Haj Communist Party and later in the PLO; in 1983, was elected a member Amin Al-Husseini to Syria; sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia of the Central Committee of the Palestinian Communist Party as well on charges of fomenting the riots; fled after three days to Karak, then as PNC member; was allowed to return to Palestine in May 1993; to Damascus; became deputy to the General Syrian Congress in Da- lives in Jericho where he is involved with several organizations and mascus, led by King Faisal, where he addressed a protest against the institutions. appointment of Sir Herbert Samuel as High Commissioner of Palestine in June 1920; fled to Transjordan upon the French invasion of Syria; received amnesty by the British High Commissioner and returned to Jerusalem, but was obliged to abstain from political work; was offered AREIKAT, MAEN RASHID (1960-) A the post of District Officer of the British administration by Chief Political Officer for Palestine, Col. Wyndham Deeds, in 1921, and served in Jen- Born in Jericho on 12 Oct. 1960; involved in in, Nablus, Beisan, Jaffa, Beersheba, Gaza and Ramallah until 1948; politics at a young age and was jailed twice from 1926-28, was also seconded to the Transjordanian government as a teenager by the Israeli army; left Jeri- as Chief Secretary; then ministerial officer in Jordan; transferred back cho to England and the US in 1978; studied to Palestine in 1929; amnestied by Sir Herbert Samuel and became Finance at Arizona State University, gradu- civil servant under the British Mandate from 1933-48; elected mayor of ating with a BS in 1983; received an MBA in Jerusalem from 1950-55; head of the first Jordanian municipal council Management from the Western International elected in 1951; appointed Minister of Public Affairs in Jordan in 1955; University, Phoenix, Arizona, in 1987; was spoke several languages (Arabic, English, German, French, Turkish, elected Pres. of the GUPS while in Arizona Hebrew and little Russian); appointed Director of Rockefeller Museum (from 1981-93); became a member of the in Jerusalem in 1963; member of the first PNC in 1964; author of Ju- Phoenix-Arizona Chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination risdiction among the Bedouins (Arabic, 1933), Bedouin Love, Law and Committee in Jan. 1982 and served as its Sec. from Jan. 1991-April Legend, History of Beersheba and Its Tribes, History of Gaza (Arabic, 1992; returned to Palestine in 1992 and began working with Hanan 1943), The Disaster, the Calamity of the Holy Land and the Lost Para- Ashrawi on the file of peace talks with Israel; later worked as Senior dise (1947-55), History of Jerusalem (Arabic, 1961), and The Tragedy Assistant to Faisal Husseini, who was head of the Orient House in of Palestine (In Pictures) (Sidon, Lebanon, 1962); wrote an essay under Jerusalem and the PLO Exec. Committee member in charge of Jeru- the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem entitled The Clos- salem; held the position of desk officer in charge of the US, Canada, ing Phase of Ottoman Rule in Palestine (1970); died on 30 July 1973 Australia and South Africa at the International Relations Dept. of the in Ramallah. Orient House and also served as its spokesperson from 1993-1998; participated in Palestinian-Israeli negotiations in Beit Hanoun/Erez in Gaza, Taba, Egypt, and Jerusalem during the period 1993-98; was an official member of the Palestinian delegation at the Wye River Planta- AREIKAT, DAOUD (1934-) tion, US, in 1998; became Dir.-Gen. of the PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Dept. (NAD) in Ramallah in 1998 (then headed by Mahmoud Abbas), Born in Abu Dis in 1934; took refuge with his among other things supervising the Negotiations Support Unit; served family in the Italian Hospital in Jerusalem as assistant to chief negotiator Saeb Erekat; became head of NAD fol- during the 1936 Revolt; was subsequently lowing the appointment of Mahmoud Abbas as PM in May 2003. raised in Jerusalem; became a member of the National Liberation League in 1949, which advocated communist ideas; finished his secondary education in Cairo in 1951; AREIKAT, RASHID KHALIL (1927-1994) member of the Jordanian Communist Party and active in demonstrations against the Born in Jerusalem in 1927; attended Al- Baghdad Pact (a mutual security alliance Rashidiyeh School in Jerusalem and com- between Britain, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan aiming to prevent pleted the 9th grade before dropping out in the expansion of the Soviet Union into the Middle East and strongly order to work in Jerusalem to support his opposed by Egypt); went to Cairo and studied Oud at the Institute of mother and family who lived in Abu Dis (his Music from 1953-54; was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in Al-Jafer father had died when Rashid was 6 years and Amman central prisons for his activism on behalf of the Communist old); joined the British Mandate Police at the Party and another one year for participating in demonstrations; spent age of 19 and was stationed in Jaffa; served the years 1957-1965 in jail, then was released following the declaration in the Jordanian army from 1946-50; joined of a general amnesty for political prisoners; set up a dairy project in the UNRWA in 1950, eventually becoming Area Officer for Jerusalem, Jericho in 1965; was repeatedly arrested by Israeli authorities during Ramallah and Jericho (retired in 1988); was a supporter of the ANM 1968-74, and subjected to torture leading to infections in his eyes during the 1950s and 1960s; later supported the Palestinian Commu- (described by Israeli lawyer Felicitas Langer in her book In My Own Eyes nist Party (until it split in the early 1970s due to differences regarding published in 1975); one of the founders of the clandestine Palestinian the Party’s stand vis-à-vis armed struggle); rejected an offer of becom- National Front (formed in 1973 as a framework coordinating activities ing Mayor of Jericho after 1967; was banned by Israel from traveling of nationalist resistance forces in the OPT); signatory to the document during the period 1967-73 and was numerously arrested for his political which supported the PLO as the sole and legitimate representative activism; was involved in the activities of the National Guidance Com-

36 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

mittee in the 1970s; one of the signatories of the letter signed in 1974 by ARURI, NASEER (1934-) Palestinian national figures, supporting the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people; masterminded the National Born in Jerusalem in 1934; originally from Bloc for the Jericho elections in 1976 and was targeted by the Israeli Arura; fled with his family during the Nakba authorities following its victory; founding member of the Jericho Soci- of 1948; received a PhD in Political Science ety for Marketing Agricultural Produce in 1975; founding member of the from the University of Massachusetts, Am- Arab Thought Forum in Jerusalem in 1977; became head of the Council herst, in 1967; served on the Faculty of the for Culture and Arts in Jericho in 1992; served as Honorary President University of Massachusetts Dartmouth from of many societies and institutions in Jericho; died in 1994 (in 2004 his 1965-1998 (and remains Chancellor Profes- children Khalil, Maen and Shireen established a Student Aid Founda- sor (Emeritus) of Political Science); founding tion under his name to assist students in/from Jericho). member of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, Cairo and Geneva, 1982; served on the Boards of Amnesty In- ternational from 1984-1990 and of Human Rights Watch/Middle East A from 1990-92; founding Board member of PICCR since 1994; President AREIKAT, WASEF A. (BRIG) (1946-) of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates; named to the PNC in 1991; was critical of the DoP and of the PLO negotiation strate- Born in Abu Dis in 1946; completed his sec- gy; Chair of the Board of Directors of the Trans-Arab Research Institute ondary education from Ibrahimiyeh School in Boston; member of The Palestine Center Committee in Washington, in Jerusalem in 1964; joined the Jordanian DC, member of the Board of Directors of the International Institute of Air Force in 1965 as a pilot then the Army Criminal Investigations in The Hague; member of the editorial board of College, graduating as an officer in the Artil- the Third World Quarterly, London; has published numerous articles in lery Corps; served with the Jordanian army newspapers, journals and magazines, and authored many publications, in Jenin in the War of 1967 and in the Al- incl. The Palestinian Resistance to Israeli Occupation (1970), Occupa- Karameh battle (between Jordanian and Is- tion: Israel Over Palestine (1983), The Obstruction of Peace: The US, raeli armies) in 1968; joined Fateh and the Israel and the Palestinians (1995), Palestinian Refugees: The Right of PLO after the Black September in Jordan in 1970; received advanced Return (editor) (Pluto, 2001), and Dishonest Broker: The US Role in military training courses in the 1970s; enrolled at the Arab Beirut Uni- Israel and Palestine (Cambridge, MA, 2003) versity, Lebanon, graduating with a degree in Geography in 1976; received an MA in Military Science from Pakistan in 1978; assumed important positions within the PLO in Syria and Lebanon, most notably as Commander of the Artillery and Rockets Division of the Palestinian- ARURI, TAYSIR (around 1944-) Lebanese Joint Forces in South Lebanon during 1976-82 and during the Israeli siege of Beirut in summer 1982; was wounded many times in Born around 1944 in Burham near Ramallah; the course of action in Lebanon; promoted to a Major after the mountain lecturer in Physics at Birzeit University; mem- battles that took place during the civil war in Lebanon; computerized the ber of the Palestine People’s Party (PPP); de- PLO’s artillery and rocket systems and was given the rank of Lieutenant tained by the Israeli authorities without formal Colonel for his efforts; in 1995, he became a Brigadier; returned to Pal- charges or trial from 1974-78; appeals from estine after 28 years in exile in 1995 and was appointed as a Dir.-Gen. members of the international physics commu- in the PA Ministry of Interior; established the Jerusalem Directorate of nity played a role in his release in Jan. 1978; the Ministry of Interior in Abu Dis and Ar-Ram in 1996 and serves as was an activist in the Popular Committees of its Dir.-Gen. the first Intifada; was again arrested in Aug. 1988, shortly after signing a statement in Je- rusalem with other Israeli and Palestinian academics that called for mutual recognition and peace; was a member of the PLO Steering Committee, ARRAF, SHUKRI (1931-) which directed negotiations in Washington in 1992/93; member of the PLO Central Council; coordinator of the Palestinian Democratic Coalition. Born in Mi’ilya in the Upper Galilee in 1931; received a PhD in Middle Eastern History in 1985; worked in the field of education; participated in different ethnographic/museum AL-AS’AD, AS’AD ABDUL MUNEIM (1948-) committees; wrote over 20 monographs on Arab cultural roots in Palestine, incl. The Born in Beit Mahser, near Jerusalem, in Land: Humanity and Effort and the Palestin- 1948; was forced to flee with his family dur- ian Arab Village, in addition to conducting a ing the 1948 Nakba and ended up in Aqabat survey of major Palestinian Maqams. Jabr RC near Jericho, then in the Qalandia RC; left for Lebanon to study and graduated with a BA in Topography from Beirut College in 1967; worked as a teacher in Ramallah; in 1973, became editor of the literature page of a local newspaper for three years, then joined Al-Bayader magazine; continued his studies and received a BA in Arabic Literature from Aleppo University in 1979; returned and founded

37 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

Al-Kateb, a progressive cultural magazine, in 1979; Board member of Al- ASHOUR, HAMDAN (1940-) Hakawati Theater in Jerusalem in the early 1980s; was elected as Sec.- Gen. of the Palestinian Writers’ Union in the early 1990s; became Pres. Born in 1940 in Gaza City; Fateh member of the Palestinian Center for the Promotion of Culture and Arts from 1992; since its creation 1959; from 1960 to 1967, Board member of the Palestinian Council on Culture and Media since Fateh activist in exile in charge of organiz- 1992; publisher of the Ramallah-based Al-Bilad from 1995 until its clo- ing Fateh in Europe; after 1967, organized sure in Aug. 1988 due to financial problems; novelist and writer; has pub- Fateh members in Lebanon; member of the lished several poetry collections, a novel and other writings; was Director Fateh Revolutionary Council since 1968; of Foreign Relations and Projects at the PA Ministry of Culture until his member of the PLO Central Council; head appointment as Palestinian representative to Uzbekistan in Oct. 2005. of Preventative Security in the West Bank; was appointed Minister of Housing and Public Affairs in the cabinet of PM Mahmoud Abbas on 30 April 2003; A ASAL, MUNIR SHAFIQ see SHAFIQ, MUNIR Sec.-Gen. of the Fateh Revolutionary Council.

ASFOUR, HASSAN MOHAMMED (1950-) AL-ASHQAR, ABDUL HALIM (1958-) Born in Khan Younis in 1950; studied in Mos- cow and Baghdad and holds a BA in Agricul- Born in Sayda, Tulkarem, in 1958; received tural Engineering; activist in the first Intifada; a BA from Birzeit University in 1982; while at was involved in the secret Oslo talks and the Birzeit, became was one of the leaders of the subsequent negotiation process, assisting Islamic bloc; went to Greece and obtained an chief negotiator Ahmed Qrei’a; produced a MA in Business Management in 1989; then draft joint Declaration of Principles; served moved to the US where he gained a PhD in as head of the PLO Negotiation Affairs Dept. Business Administration from Mississippi during the talks for the Gaza-Jericho-First University; taught at Washington University accord (1994); was elected PLC member (Independent) in the Khan then worked as Professor at Howard Univer- Younis constituency in the Jan. 1996 elections; PA minister without sity, Washington, US; was detained by US portfolio (from 1998) and later Min. of NGO affairs (from 1999-2002); authorities for six months in 1998 under allegations of fundraising for PPP member; head of the PA Commission on NGO’s Affairs (later of Hamas; arrested in Alexandria, Virginia in Aug. 2004 and put under Human Rights & NGO’s Affairs) from 2002; member of the Palestinian house arrest since then; following the passing away of Yasser Arafat, Constitutional Consultative Committee. nominated himself as an independent Islamic candidate running candidate in the 2004 PA elections, where he got 2.68% of the vote.

AL-ASHHAB, NA’IM (ABU BASHAR) (1929-) ASHRAWI, HANAN (full name: HANAN MIKHAIL DAOUD KHALIL Born in Hebron in 1929; moved with his family ASHRAWI) (1946-) to the German Colony of Jerusalem in 1934; after high school, worked as junior official in the Born in Ramallah on 8 Oct. 1946 to an Angli- British Mandate from 1945; became a refugee can Christian family; member of the GUPS in to Hebron in 1948, where he joined National Beirut from 1967-70; member of the GUPW Liberation League; joined the Jordanian Com- from 1967-72; worked at the Palestinian Infor- munist Party (JCP) in 1948; was several times mation Office in Beirut from 1968-70; studied arrested by Jordan in the 1950s and 1960s; English Literature at the AUB, graduating with went underground in Oct. 1954 for almost two a BA and an MA (1970); returned Palestine in years until Suleiman An-Nabulsi became PM; went back underground after 1973 and established the Dept. of English at King Hussein removed the An-Nabulsi government in April 1957, until his Birzeit University, as whose Chair she served arrest on 30 Aug. 1966 by Jordanian security forces; spent ten months in from 1973-1978, and again from 1981-1984; solitary confinement at Zarka Prison; returned to Jerusalem and ran West was a founding member and Director of the Legal Aid Committee/Hu- Bank affairs for the JCP after 1967; advocated non-violent protest; from man Rights Action Project at Birzeit University in 1974; continued her 1968 was repeatedly arrested by Israel for his activism, incl. distributing studies and received a PhD in Medieval and Comparative Literature leaflets; learnt Hebrew in prison but also became ill and almost blind; was from the University of Virginia, USA, in 1981; served as Dean of Arts at released in Aug. 1971 after an international campaign but immediately de- Birzeit University from 1986-90, specializing in Medieval English Litera- ported; went to Moscow for medical treatment; then lived in Prague where ture (remained a faculty member at Birzeit University until 1995); joined he represented the JCP; elected to the PNC and the PLO Central Council the Political Committees during the fist Intifada; member of the Union of in 1987 in his capacity as member of the Central Committee and the po- Palestinian Writers; from 1991-93, member of the Palestinian Steering litburo of both the Jordanian and Palestinian communist parties; retired Committee in the peace process, Palestinian delegation spokesperson from PLO and official positions in 1991 but still represents PPP in certain for the negotiations at the Madrid and Washington talks, and member of occasions; returned to the West Bank in May 1993; works as columnist for the Leadership/Guidance Committee and Executive Committee of the Al-Ayyam newspaper; promotes human rights and democracy; member of delegation; resigned from her post as spokeswoman and headed the the Ramallah-based Council of Justice and Peace since 1997. Preparatory Committee of PICCR in 1993, then serving as its first Com-

38 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

missioner General until 1995; was elected PLC member for the Jerusa- AL-ASSALI, NAHLA (1938-) lem constituency in 1996; appointed PA Minister for Higher Education in 1996 (until 1998, when she resigned in protest against political corruption Born in Jerusalem in 1938; following the and Pres. Yasser Arafat’s handling of the peace talks); was put in charge Deir Yassin massacre in April 1948, was of the Bethlehem 2000 project; founder (in Dec. 1998) of the Palestinian sent by her father with her family to Da- Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) mascus; received a BA in English Literature and its Sec.-Gen. since; was appointed Arab League spokesperson in from the AUB and an MA from Indiana State July 2001; resigned from the post in 2002 over difficulties she encoun- University; worked for 25 years as a lecturer tered in trying to persuade the different member states to speak with a in the Dept. of English Language and Litera- uniform voice; among the signatories of a statement published in Al-Quds ture at Birzeit University until her retirement; on 20 June 2002, appealing for an end to suicide bombings as they de- co-founder and chair of the Project Lov- stroy the possibilities of peaceful co-existence; was awarded the Sydney ing Care Society (for women and children) A Peace Prize in 2003; member of the Independent International Commis- since 1968; co-founder and chair of the Saraya Center for Community sion on Kosovo and of numerous international advisory boards, incl. the Services in the Old City of Jerusalem since 1991. Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC, the World Bank Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA), and the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD); Board of Trustees member of the Carter Center in Atlanta, US; has written numerous anthologies of ASSALI, NAILA ABED poetry, fiction, and literary criticism; received – together with MK Zahava Born in Nablus to a Christian family; had her Gal-On – the UNESCO’s Mahatma Gandhi Medal in Sept. 2005 for ef- secondary schooling at Ramallah’s Friends forts to find a negotiated, non-violent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Girls’ School; received a BA (1963) and conflict; established – together with Salam Fayyad - the Third Way fac- an MA (1965) in Chemistry from the AUB; tion in late 2005; was re-elected as PLC member (Third Way List) in worked at AUB as a research assistant; was the Jan. 2006 elections; her publications include The Modern Palestinian unable to return to Palestine due to the 1967 Short Story: An Introduction to Practical Criticism; Contemporary Pales- War and went to Saudi Arabia with her hus- tinian Literature under Occupation, From Intifada to Independence and band Ziad Assali, and a year later to the her autobiography, This Side of Peace: A Personal Account (1995). US; earned an MSc in Mathematical Sys- tems from the Sangamon State University, Illinois; also took courses in Accounting and became a Certified Public Accountant; worked as real estate agent in the state of Illinois; has AL-ASSALI, KAMEL JAMIL (1925-1995) been active in many Arab-American organizations and served on the Born in Jerusalem on 29 Nov. 1925; complet- Board of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) for ed schooling at various Palestinian schools; 10 years, five of which as Chairperson and two as Treasurer; Board graduated from Rashidiyya School in 1943; member and co-founder of the American Task Force on Palestine; a then joined the Arab College in Jerusalem, treasurer and a Board Member of the Hala Maksoud Foundation. graduating in 1945; took a correspondence course at the University of London and received his BA in 1950; joined the Palestinian School of Law in Jerusalem in 1951, but did AL-ASSALI, WALID (1937-) not complete his studies; first worked as a Born in Jaffa in 1937; studied Law at Alex- teacher at Ar-Rashidiyya School, then moved andria University, Egypt, receiving an LLB to the Khadouri Agricultural School in Tulkarem, then taught at UNWRA in 1962; Board of Directors member of the schools in Jerusalem; also worked for the Jordanian Broadcasting Ser- Maqassed Islamic Society in Jerusalem vice in Ramallah; sought political asylum in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and from 1970-77; Board of Trustees member of finally in Egypt during the Suez crisis in 1956-57; worked for the radio Hebron University from 1979-1988; editor of station Sawt Al-Arab (Voice of the Arabs) in Cairo; went to Humboldt Uni- Ash-Shira’ magazine from 1980-83; Board versity, Berlin (East Germany) in 1959; attained a PhD in Philosophy from of Directors member of Patients’ Friends Berlin University in 1967; worked for the German Broadcasting Service Society, Jerusalem, since 1980; Board of until his return to Amman in 1968; from 1968 to 1983, served as Director Trustees member of the Abu Dis College of of the Library at the University of Jordan; also translated and published Science and Technology since 1981; representative of the Islamic Bank many scholarly works, among them: Islamic Institutions of Learning in for the Development of the West Bank and Gaza, Jeddah, Saudi Ara- Jerusalem (Arabic, 1981); Islamic Mausolea and Cemeteries in Jerusa- bia; Director of the Lawyers’ Center for Research from 1986-90; Board lem (Arabic, 1981); The Merits of Jerusalem (Arabic, 1982); Some Islamic of Directors member of the Arab Journalists’ Association from 1987- Monuments in Jerusalem (Arabic, 1982); Jerusalem Historical Docu- 1989; served as chairman of the Palestinian Lawyers’ Association from ments, Volumes I-III (Arabic, 1983-89); Jerusalem in History (English, 1987-90; Director of the Az-Zahra Research Center in Ramallah from 1989); Jerusalem in Travel Books (Arabic, 1992), The Nebi Musa Feast 1988-92; practices law in Jerusalem. in Palestine (Arabic, 1990) and An Introduction to the History of Medicine in Jerusalem (Arabic, 1994); died on 27 Oct. 1995.

39 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

ASSALI, ZIAD J. (1941-) ATALLAH, HALA (1943-1995)

Born in Jerusalem in 1941; received his el- Born in Jerusalem on 6 April 1943; educat- ementary and secondary education in Jeru- ed at the English Mission College in Cairo salem; received a BSc from the AUB in 1963 from 1948-51, then attended the Friends’ and an MD from its Medical School in 1967; Girls School in Ramallah; received a BA completed his residency in Internal Medicine from the AUB in 1964; returned to Palestine and Endocrinology at the Latter Day Saints and worked as teacher-training instructor of Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah; practiced Professional Studies in UNRWA’s Ramal- medicine in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem until lah Women’s Training Center from 1964; 1973; returned to the US and became Medi- vocational counselor until 1976; continued cal Director, Laboratory Director, and Chair- her studies and received a B.Phil.Ed. from A man of the Board at the Christian County the University of Exeter, UK, in 1977; estab- Medical Clinic and St. Vincent Memorial Hospital in Taylorville, Illinois, lished the Student Counseling Services at Birzeit University; worked as until his retirement in 2000; also had his own practice in Springfield, instructor of Education and Psychology until 1980; was an active Board Illinois; earned certifications from the Educational Council for Foreign of Trustees member of the Friends’ School in the 1980s; received a Medical Graduates, the American Board of Internal Medicine and the PhD in Human Development from Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, American College of Physicians and is member of several medical soci- in 1985, focusing on Educational Psychology, Clinical Evaluation, Life eties such as the American Medical Association, the American Society Span Development and Psychological Disorders of Children; served of Internal Medicine, the American Academy of Medical Directors; be- in a number of local and international organizations related to women, sides his medical work, has been a long-time activist on Arab-American society, education and psychology; was the student counselor at Birzeit issues; became a member of the Chairman’s Council of the American- University until 1995, when she left to the US for medical treatment for Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in 1982; served as Pres. of cancer; passed away while in the US on 16 April 1995; following her the Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG) in Belmont, Massa- death, a scholarship fund under her name was administrated by the chusetts, 1993-1995; founding member and Chairman of the American Women’s Studies Program at Birzeit University. Committee on Jerusalem (ACJ) from 1995-2003, was a member of the Board of Directors of the Council for the National Interest; served as the Pres. of the ADC from 2001-03; has testified before the US Sen- ate on the issue of Palestinian education and before the US House ATALLAH, MOHAMMED ATALLAH (ABU ZAIM) (1936-) Committee on the Middle East Peace Process; Pres. and founder of the Washington-based American Task Force on Palestine; served as a Born in Beit Surik, near Jerusalem, in June member of the US official delegation to the funeral of Chairman Yasser 1936; also known as Atallah Atallah; attend- Arafat and as a member of the US official delegation to observe the ed Al-Rashidiyeh School in Jerusalem, then Palestinian elections; serves on the Boards of ‘OneVoice’, ‘A Different the Jordanian Military College; graduated as Future’ and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies; has written Lieutenant General and earned a certificate numerous articles and papers as well as authored several books, incl. in war in 1963; worked in the Jordanian army Coronary Artery Spasm Causing Myocardial Infarction (1983), Expedi- and became a Major; after 1967, Chief of tion to Jerusalem (1990), Zionist Studies of the Crusades (1992), and Staff of the King Talal Brigades in Irbid; joined From Crusades to Zionism (1993). Fateh; went to Baghdad, where he trained the fedayeen; then moved to Jordan; was given command of the Fateh forces in South Lebanon from spring 1971; was asked by Yasser Arafat to turn the guerrilla forces into a conventional AL-ASWAD, MOHAMMED MAHMOUD (known as Guevara of Gaza) army in July 1971 and was head of central operations in Lebanon; in (1943-1973) charge of planning and implementation of the “Himmeh” battles (located between Syria and Jordan) against the Israeli army; was head of the Born in Haifa in 1943; displaced to Gaza Strip Palestinian delegation to the negotiations with representatives of the during the 1948 Nakba; member in the ANM Lebanese Army at the Milkart Hotel in Beirut in 1973; appointed by Ara- and in charge of its operations in Gaza; mem- fat as head of Fateh military intelligence in Lebanon in 1974; member ber in the PFLP politburo in Gaza; known as of the Palestinian Revolutionary Council, the PNC, the Higher Palestin- the Guevara of Gaza; was jailed for two years ian Military Council, and the Fateh Higher Committee; headed a Fateh for his resistance activist against Israel; af- inquiry committee into its conduct during the Lebanon war; was critical ter his release in 1970, went to China and of Arafat’s policies and his handling of the conflict in Southern Lebanon; received military training and returned work- came under wide-ranging criticism during the Fateh rebellion in 1983 ing in underground cells; was responsible for his role in the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon and was dismissed for many attacks on Israeli targets and thus from his post by the Fateh Central Committee; formed a rival faction of wanted by Israel; killed in a battle with Israeli Fateh in Jordan together with other Fateh dissidents on 24 April 1986; soldiers in Gaza on 8 March 1973. promoted a peaceful solution and an independent Palestinian state with confederal relations with Jordan; was dismissed as Asst. Chief-of-Staff and PNC member by a PLO Supreme Military Council meeting in Bagh- dad in April 1986; survived an assassination attempt in early 1987 in Jordan; retired from politics in the late 1980s and settled in Syria.

40 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

ATEEK, NAIM (REV. CANNON DR.) (1942-) ATWAN, ABDUL BARI (1950-)

Born in Beit Shin near Bisan in the Gali- Born in the Deir Al-Balah RC, Gaza Strip, on lee in 1942; following the Nakba of 1948, 17 Feb. 1950; educated at refugee schools in ended up in Nazareth, where he finished Gaza; worked as a laborer in a tomato fac- his primary and secondary education; re- tory in Jordan to support his family; second- ceived a BA from Hardin-Simmons Univer- ary education in Cairo; then studied Journal- sity, Abilene, Texas, in 1963, and an MA, ism at the AUC, graduating with a BA with a Divinity Degree, from the Church Divin- diploma in translation in 1974; worked at the ity School of the Pacific, Berkley, in 1966; Al-Balagh newspaper in Libya; then moved to ordained as a priest in the Anglican Epis- Saudi Arabia, where he wrote for Al-Madina copal Church in Nazareth, serving across newspaper; also worked as correspondent of Asharq Al-Awsat newspa- Palestine; continued his studies and gained per; moved to London in 1978 and earned his MA in Area Studies from A a PhD in Ministry from the San Francisco Theological Seminary, San the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London University, Anselmo, California, focusing on Liberation Theology and its applica- in 1983; rejoined Al-Madina and opened its office in London, working tions in the Palestinian case; became Parish Priest and Canon of the there from 1980-84; then became managing editor of the London-based Palestinian congregation at the St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem Majallah magazine; worked again as correspondent for Asharq Al-Aw- in 1985 until his early retirement in 1997 in protest over the silence of sat, resigning in 1988; rejected an offer to become editor of Al-Hayat the church vis-à-vis the daily hardships the Palestinian Christian com- newspaper and chose to be editor of Al-Quds Al-Arabi, which began munity in the Holy Land is enduring; founder and Director of the Sa- production in April 1989; soon became its Dir.-Gen. in 1993. beel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem since 1992; lecturer at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute for International Studies in Jerusalem since 1993; received a PhD in Divinity from the Church Di- vinity School of the Pacific, Berkley, California, in 1995 and a Doctor of AWAD (AL-AMIN), ‘ARABI (ABU AL-FAHD) (???) Divinity from the Episcopal Divinity School at Harvard, Massachusetts, in 2001; has published numerous essays and articles and written, ed- Born in Salfit; teacher of Arabic Literature; ited and co-authored several books, incl. Justice and Only Justice: A leading activist and Secretary of the West Palestinian Theology of Liberation (Orbis Books, 1989), Faith and the Bank branch of the Jordanian Communist Intifada: Palestinian Christian Voices (Orbis, 1992), Jerusalem: What Party (JCP); arrested and imprisoned for 11 Makes For Peace! A Palestinian Christian Contribution to Peacemaking years under Jordanian rule; participated in (Melisende, 1997), Our Story: The Palestinians (Sabeel, 1999). establishing the Palestinian National Front (PNF) in 1973; was deported by Israel for his activism in the PNF in Dec. 1973; founded the Palestine Communist Organization ATTOUN, AHMED MOHAMMED (ABU MUJAHED) (1968-) of Lebanon as a branch of the JCP in 1980 (which, however, did not last very long); then Born in 1968 in Sur Baher, Jerusalem; formed the Palestinian Revolutionary Communist Party (PRCP) in Leb- graduated from Al-Aqsa High School in anon, which advocates armed struggle and as whose Sec.-Gen. he Jerusalem in 1986; studied Shari’a Law, serves; as such member of the Damascus Ten and the National and graduating with a BA in 1992; was repeatedly Islamic Forces (NIF), a coalition of 14 Palestinian factions that emerged arrested by Israel in 1988, 1992, 1994-97 and during the second Intifada. placed in administrative detention in 1998- 99; Imam of Al-Morabitin Mosque in Sur Baher; works also as the supervisor of the Zeid Ibn Thabet Centers for teaching Qur’an AWAD, MOHAMMED HASSAN (SHEIKH) (1914-) and heads Al-Muntada Ath-Thaqafi (Cultural Forum) in Sur Baher; is a MA candidate in Born in Al-Faluja, northern Negev, in 1914; Islamic Studies at Al-Quds University; was studied Religious Studies at Al-Azhar Col- elected as PLC member (Change and Reform, Jerusalem district) in the lege in Cairo, graduating in 1932; worked as Jan. 2006 elections; was arrested (along with other PA ministers and a lawyer, then as journalist; was elected to PLC members) in an Israeli military sweep against Hamas on 29 June the Municipality of Al-Faluja in 1938; was ar- 2006; refused to resign from the PLC as demanded by Israel and had his rested by the British in 1939 and jailed for Jerusalem residency permit and Israeli ID card subsequently revoked four years; continued to be active in resis- by Interior Minister Roni Bar-On on 30 June 2006; is still detained as tance against the British until 1948; went to of July 2006. Hebron, from there back to Egypt and then to Gaza, where he was appointed a judge in the High Islamic Court; founder of the Islamic Institute of Palestine in Gaza in 1954; Chief Jus- tice of the High Islamic Court, Gaza, since 1960; member of the Islamic Research Institute in Cairo since 1966; founding Director of the Islamic University of Gaza since 1977.

41 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

AWAD, MUBARAK (1943-) AWARTANI, MARWAN (1949-)

Born in Jerusalem on 22 Aug. 1943 to a Pal- Born in Anabta on 21 April 1949; obtained a estinian Christian family; after his father was BSc in Mathematics in 1973 from the AUB killed in 1948, while he was trying to save a and a PhD in Mathematics from Lehigh Uni- wounded friend; he was raised in an orphan- versity, USA, in 1980; worked as Mathemat- age and educated by the Quakers and in the ics Professor at Birzeit University, the United St. George’s School in Jerusalem; decided to Arab Emirates University and Cornell Uni- become a priest and was awarded a scholar- versity from 1980-1993; founding Pres. of ship in 1959 to study at Cleveland University, the Palestinian Mathematical Society from Tennessee, US, but left soon after in oppo- 1993-98; Chairman of the Palestinian Math- sition over discrimination against the African-Americans; returned to ematical Olympiad from 1994-98; was Man- A Jerusalem and worked as a teacher in a Mennonite school in Beit Jala; aging Director of Al-Mustaqbal Education emigrated to the US in 1969; was admitted to Bluffton College, Ohio, Corporation from 1994-99 and Chairman of the Academic Council of in 1970, graduating with a BA in 1973; received an MA from St. Francis Al-Mustaqbal Schools from 1994-98; co-founder and Chairman of the University, Indiana, US, in 1978; joined the Quakers focusing on non- Steering Committee of the Network of Palestinian Scientists and Tech- violent resistance; earned a PhD in Psychology from Ohio University in nologists Abroad since 1996; served as Director of the National Sci- 1982 and worked on issues related to juvenile delinquency in the US; ence and Technology Policy project during 1996-97; founding member returned in 1983 and opened a healing center in Jerusalem, hoping to of the Palestine Academy for Science and Technology in 1997; Pres. of apply the ideas of Martin Luther King and Gandhi on the Palestinian Alpha International for Research, Polling and Informatics in Ramallah case; founded the Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence in since 2000; Senior Advisor of the Middle East Young Leaders Program Jerusalem in 1985; published papers and lectured on nonviolence as since 2001; Sec.-Gen. of Universal Education Foundation (a European a technique for resisting the Israeli occupation; was arrested by the Is- foundation based in Brussels with Ramallah as its secretariat) since raeli army for organizing commercial strikes in the beginning of the first Sept. 2003; Senior Advisor of the MIT Middle East Science and Tech- Intifada; his Permanent Residency status was cancelled by the Israeli nology Initiative since March 2005; member of the Arab Knowledge government and in May 1988, he was deported on the grounds that his Management Society since 2005; professional Palestinian folk dancer tourist visa had expired and due to his political activities; returned to the and Shebbabeh player. US, where he founded Nonviolence International in 1989, serving as its Director since; also works as Assistant Professor at the American University in Washington. AWEIDAH, SAMA (1959-)

Born in Jerusalem on 14 Jan. 1959; educat- AWARTANI, HISHAM (1941- ) ed at the Ramallah Girls’ Secondary School; was an active member of the Palestinian vol- Born in Anabta in 1941; enrolled at the AUB untary work committees in the mid-1970s; re- and graduated with a BA in Agriculture in ceived a BA in Business Administration from 1962 and an MA in Agricultural Economics Birzeit University in 1982; worked as an ac- in 1966; Lecturer of Economics at An-Najah countant in one of the private companies in National University from 1977-2003; contin- Jerusalem; co-founder (1978) and Sec.-Gen. ued his studies and earned a PhD in Agricul- of the Executive Office (1984-91) of the Pal- tural Development from Bradford University, estinian Federation of Women’s Action Com- UK, in 1982; founding Board Member, CPRS; mittees, Ramallah; Administrative Director head of the Economics Dept. at the Center (1993-97), Acting Director (1997-98) and Director (since 1998) of the for Palestine Research and Studies (CPRS), Women’s Studies Society in Jerusalem; has been elected since 1995 Nablus; Board of Trustees member of the International Institute for Polit- as General Coordinator of AISHA (The Arab Women’s Forum); contrib- ical and Economic Studies (IIPES) in Greece; was Steering Committee uted in founding the Arab Women’s Court in 1996; served as financial member of the Harvard University project on the Economics of Transi- advisor to the Global Fund for Women in 1998; continued her studies tion after Peace; International Advisory Panel member at the Oxford and earned an MMBA in Management from the City University in Lon- University Refugee Studies Program; founder of the Rural Research don in 2000; was a member, researcher and trainer at the Arab Institute Center at An-Najah University; served as a member of the Palestinian for Human Rights, Tunisia, in 2001; General Coordinator of the Pales- delegation for economic negotiations with Israel in 1994-95, and as tinian Women’s Research, Training and Advocacy Program since 2001; advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team; Director of the Palestinian became an Advisory Board member of the PA Ministry of Women’s Businessmen Association since 2000; Director of the Center for Private Affairs in 2004; elected a Board of Directors member of the Euro-Med Sector Development (CPSD), and member of the Palestinian Business- Non-Governmental Platform in April 2005; works as trainer, lecturer men Association (PBA); has written numerous articles and books, incl. and writer on issues related to gender; also writes books and children’s West Bank Agriculture (Nablus, 1978), A Survey of Industries in the stories, incl. Palestine Habibati (Cairo, 2001); prepared the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip (Birzeit, 1979), and The Palestinian Econo- report about the role of the PNGO network in empowering women (pub- my on the West Bank and Gaza from 1967-2001 (Nablus, 2001). lished by the Non-Governmental Network in Cairo in 2005).

42 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

AWWAD, HANAN (1951-) consulted him on whether it was about time to move the Palestinian Question to armed resistance; advocated that armed resistance needs Born in Jerusalem in 1951; received a Di- to work side by side with political work; had close ties with the PLO and ploma in Education in 1970; wrote in sev- was appointed as PLO consultant for the Vatican in 1973; later went eral papers, incl. Ash-Sha’b; earned a BA to Tunisia and was appointed PLO Commissioner for Latin America in Arabic Language and Literature from Bei- and the Caribbean with his office in Santiago, Chile, where one of his rut University in 1974, a Diploma in Literary activities was establishing a committee for building a mosque for the Criticism from Al-Azhar University in Cairo Muslim community in Venezuela; received an award from the Chilean in 1976, and an MA in Arabic Literature and government; worked for the PLO in Paris (1978), Tunisia (1980), Beirut Humanities from the Institute of Asian and (1984), Amman, Damascus, and again Amman from 1984-1996; came African Studies at the Hebrew University in back together with other returnees to participate in the PNC meeting Jerusalem in 1977; studied further at Oxford in Gaza in April 1996; stayed since in the Latin Seminary in Beit Jala; A University, London, and McGill University, died on 8 Jan. 2005. Montreal, Canada, and received a second MA in 1981 and a PhD on the image of Women in the works of Ghassan Kanafani; was a teaching assistant in Islamic Studies at McGill University from 1980-82; worked as a researcher at the Dept. of Middle Eastern Studies of the AYYASH, YAHYA ABDUL LATIF (1966-1996) National Museum of Man in Canada; returned and became head of the Dept. of Cultural Studies at Abu Dis College, Jerusalem from 1982- Born in Rafat, near Nablus, in March 1966; 86, then at the Dept. of Humanities; also lectured at Birzeit University; completed his secondary school education founded the Palestinian Section of the Women’s International League in Rafat; studied Electrical Engineering at for Peace and Freedom in 1988 and served as its Middle East advisor; Birzeit University, graduating with a BA in also served as cultural advisor for PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat for 1988; became a member of Hamas in 1992, some time; was a founding member of the Union of Palestinian Writers particularly active in its military wing Izzedin and its Sec.-Gen. in 1986; founding member of the Palestinian Union Al-Qassam; following Al-Ibrahimi Mosque of Journalists; founded the PEN Center for Palestinian Writers, under Massacre in Hebron in Feb. 1994, he de- the aegis of PEN International, in Jerusalem in 1992; head of the Pal- signed and prepared bombs for a number of estinian Council for GREN (Global Ratification & Elections Network) suicide attacks inside Israel; soon became known as ‘Al-Muhandes’ since 1992; Dir.-Gen. of the Institute of Policy Studies in Jerusalem; has (The Engineer); was wanted by the Israeli government for his activism published several collections, incl. Ikhtartu Al-Khatar (I Have Chosen and was assassinated by a bomb planted inside a phone handed to Danger) (Jerusalem, 1988), and, most recently, Episodes of the Siege him in Beit Lahia, Gaza on 5 Jan. 1996; Hamas conducted a number of (Ramallah, 2004). operations in retaliation for his assassination.

AYYAD, IBRAHIM (1910-2005) AYYOUSH, THIAB (1934-)

Born in Beit Sahour on 17 Sept. 1910; joined Born in Maithaloun in 1934; educated in the Benedictine Ecclesiastical Seminary Maithaloun and in Jenin; moved to Syria to Institute in Beit Jala and Jerusalem (which study Social Sciences at Damascus Univer- later turned into the Sacre Coeur Institute in sity; worked as teacher and social worker 1933), graduating in 1937; was ordained as in Saudi Arabia from 1966-71; continued his a priest on 27 June 1937 in Jerusalem; also studies and received an MA in Sociology wrote articles opposing Zionist expansion from Alexandria University in 1974; returned and Mandate policies; became editor-in- to Palestine and worked as social worker chief of the Zion Monitor magazine; studied in Nablus and Tulkarem from 1975-76; be- Law in Jerusalem; then became pastor came a lecturer at the Sociology Dept. of for the Latin Parish in Ramallah in June 1940; founded Al-Ahliyyeh Bethlehem University from 1976-82, during Secondary College in Ramallah, focusing on Palestinian education which time he also studied Sociology at Alexandria University, receiv- (rather than the pro-British education common at the time) which ing a PhD in 1979; worked as part-time lecturer also for An-Najah Uni- caused disputes with the Director of the British Education Dept., Sir versity (1981-82); served as Dean of Arts and Director of the Dept. of Farrell; was appointed Diretor of the Roman Catholic Church Court in Sociology at Bethlehem University, then as President of Al-Quds Open Jerusalem in Dec. 1945; worked closely with Haj Amin Al-Husseini, University; Board of Trustees member of the Society of Islamic Scienc- who advised the Latin Patriarchate to buy 22,000 dunums of land in es and Cultural Committee; was appointed Deputy Minister of Social Tayasir village, near Jenin, in order to save it from Zionist expansion; Affairs in 1997; Sec.-Gen. of the National Council for Higher Education was arrested on 20 July 1951 under “allegations” of being involved of the Ministry of Higher Education in Ramallah. in the assassination of King Abdullah but proven innocent; served in Cyprus, Beirut, Jerusalem and then Karak following Mandate pressures on the Roman Catholic Church to send him away from Palestine due to his political involvement; while head of the Church Court in Beirut in 1965, was visited by Yasser Arafat and Khalil Al-Wazir who

43 PALESTINIAN PERSONALITIES A

AL-AZ’AR, MOHAMMED KHALED (1955-) fense of the Muslim Lands, the First Obligation after Faith) declaring that both the Afghan and Palestinian struggles were jihads in which Born in 1955 in Khan Younis; grew up in killing kuffar (unbelievers) was fard ayn (a personal obligation) for all Gaza; in 1971, went to Cairo where he lives Muslims; was among the first Arabs to join the Afghani mujahideen in since; studied at Cairo University, graduating their Jihad against the Soviet forces in the early 1980s; immigrated with with a BA in Economics and Political Science his family to Pakistan in order to coordinate support for the Afghani in 1977; worked as teacher in Libya from resistance, and founded the Mujahideen Services Bureau in Peshawar, 1980-83; continued his studies and received which offered assistance to the mujahideen, incl. receiving and train- an MA in Political and National Studies from ing of volunteers; also worked as a lecturer at the International Islamic the Institute of Arab Research and Studies, University in Islamabad; traveled throughout the Arab world, calling on Cairo, in 1986, and another MA in Political Muslims to rally to the defense of their religion and lands and to join the Science and International Relations from Cairo University in 1989; fighting in Afghanistan; spent time in the US in the mid-1980s, then re- A worked as researcher in the PLO Higher Council for Education, Culture turned to Afghanistan; published books and articles on Jihad and other and Arts in Cairo; writes about different political and historical topics. Islamic affairs, incl. Join the Caravan and Defense of Muslim Lands; was assassinated, along with two of his sons, by a bomb planted by unknown assailants along a route he regularly traveled on 24 Nov. 1989 in Peshawar; is remembered as the “Godfather of Jihad” for his role in AL-AZOUNI, AREF (1896-1961) the global development of militant Islam (incl. Al-Qaida), and widely Born in Jaffa in 1896; received his elemen- considered as Bin Laden’s spiritual mentor. tary education in the Frères College in Jaffa; after completing his secondary education in Ein Touma, Lebanon, worked as a school teacher; ser ved as editor of numerous Pales- AZZAM, NAFEZ (SHEIKH) (1958-) tinian newspapers, incl. Filastin, Al-Jazeera, Born in 1958; refugee from Faluja (in the and Al-Hurriya; published a number of writ- northern Negev) and lives in Rafah; educated ings in Al-Ahram newspaper and produced at Zaqaziq University in Egypt; was among Al-Fajr magazine together with Mahmoud the Palestinian students from the Gaza Strip Al-Irani in 1936; moved to Nablus in 1948 who founded Islamic Jihad in Egypt in 1970; and worked at Filastin newspaper; also imprisoned and deported from Egypt follow- worked as UNRWA teacher, as reporter for Al-Bayan newspaper (pub- ing the assassination of Egyptian Pres. An- lished in New York) and contributed regularly to the Voice of America war Sadat in 1980; one of the top leaders of and London radio; his skills as a gifted writer were reflected in his liter- the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, serving also as its ary works, one of which, Refugee, was translated into English; died in spokesman. Nablus in 1961.

AZZAM, SAMIRA (1927-1967) AZZAM, ABDULLAH (SHEIKH) (1941-1989) Born in Acre in 1927; worked as school Born in Silat Al-Hartiyeh near Jenin in 1941; teacher and inspector in Acre; also published received elementary and secondary educa- numerous short stories and articles in differ- tion in his village, then continued his educa- ent papers, incl. the Jaffa-based Filastin un- tion at the agricultural Khadori College near der the nickname ‘Fatat As-Sahel’ (daughter Tulkarem, where he obtained a Diploma; of the coast); was displaced to Lebanon dur- worked as a teacher in Jordan; then went to ing the 1948 Nakba; wrote and translated for Syria and studied Islamic Law at Damascus several newspapers and magazines in Iraq University, graduating with a BA in 1966; and Lebanon; became a radio broadcaster immigrated to Jordan after the War of 1967, and program writer for the Near East radio, where he joined the Muslim Brotherhood first in their headquarters in Cyprus (1952) training camps in 1968; enrolled at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, earn- and then in Beirut (1954-56); published her ing an MA in Islamic Law in 1969; worked as lecturer at the University first short story collection in 1954; moved to Iraq and worked with the of Jordan in Amman in 1970; was awarded a scholarship to Al-Azhar Iraqi radio and as a teacher in Al-Hilla until 1959, when she was deport- University in Cairo in 1971 and continued his studies in Islamic Law, ed to Lebanon; member of the first PNC in 1964; her publications in- receiving a PhD in Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence in 1973; moved clude: The Clock and the Human (Arabic, 1963), translations of Bernard to Amman and worked as a teacher of Shari’a in higher education in- Shaw’s Candida (in 1955) and Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence stitutions in Jordan specializing in holy war (jihad); traveled to Saudi (in 1963); died in a car accident in Jordan on 8 Aug. 1967. Arabia, where he worked as teacher at the King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah (where one of his students was Usama Bin Laden); while in Saudi Arabia, became convinced that only by means of an organized military force would the Ummah (Islamic nation) emerge victorious; in 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, issued a Fatwa (De-