Born in Gaza in 1953 to a refugee family, which was forced out of Zarnuqa, a village near Al-Ramleh, in 1948; received a BA in Political Science from the AUB in 1975 and an MA in 1976 from the same University; worked in marketing in Kuwait from 1976-80; moved to Columbia, New York in 1980; earned a PhD in Political Science from Columbia University in 1985; taught as Associate Professor of Political Science at several universities, incl. Columbia University (1985-86), An-Najah National University (1987-97), the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (1989-90), and the University of South Florida, Tampa (1991-92); served as Director of the Center for Palestine Research and Studies (CPRS) in Nablus from 1993-95; Editor, Al-Siyasa Al-Filastiniyya (Quarterly Journal of Palestine Policy, CPRS), 1993-99; Director of Projects, CPRS, Nablus, 1995-99; Dean of Scientific Research, An-Najah National University, Nablus, 1996-97; founder and Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in Ramallah since 2000; spent summer 2002 as a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington DC; has conducted over 100 polls among Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since 1993; has published numerous articles and papers and (co-)authored and edited several books, incl. The Gaza Strip and the West Bank: Future Political and Administrative Links (Arabic, Jerusalem: PASSIA, 1994), Elections and the Palestinian Political System (Arabic, Nablus: CPRS, 1995), The Palestinian Refugee Problem and the Right of Return (with Joseph Alpher; Cambridge: Harvard University, 1998), Strengthening Palestinian Public Institutions (with Yezid Sayigh as principal authors, New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1999), and Palestinian Public Opinion and the Peace Process: Long Term Trends and Policy Implications (Washington DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2005).



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