Personal Info
- Country of residence: Jordan
Information
Born in Deir Razeh, Dura, near Hebron in 1930; educated in Al-Dura public school, Al-Rashidieh School in Hebron, and the Billy Ein Sara School (now Al-Hussein Ben Ali), graduating in April 1948; in Jan. 1951 appointed teacher in Al-Khader then moved to Dura, Sourif and Al-Thahiriyyeh; studied one year in Egypt (1954-55) then enrolled at the Faculty of Law at Damascus University, graduating in Nov. 1959; joined Al-Ba’ath Party while in Syria and leading Ba‘athist activist in the Hebron/Bethlehem areas after 1967; trained at a legal office in Jerusalem and started his career as a lawyer in the Hebron district; ran for the elections in the Jordanian House of Representatives and elected Jordanian MP in 1962 (leading to disputes with his party (Ba’ath), which had decided to boycott the elections); imprisoned by the Jordanians on 21 April 1963, along with other opposition MPs like Najib Al-Ahmad, Ishaq Al-Duzdar, and Daoud Al-Husseini and sent to Al-Jafar detention center (following the declaration of the Charter for Arab Federation between Egypt, Syria and Iraq on 17 April and the resignation of PM Samir Al-Rifa’i on 20 April 1963); released in Oct. 1963; nominated by the PLO to visit Central America and gain support for the PLO in 1964; deported by Israel on 6 Sept. 1968 to Jordan; met with Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser, together with Yasser Arafat, Kamal Nasser and Abdul Razzaq Al-Yahya to discuss the Cairo Agreement of ceasefire with the Lebanese in 1969; pro-Sa‘iqa; independent member of the PLO Exec. Committee since 7 Feb. 1969 and appointed its Secretary; responsible for the PLO’s Education Dept.; met with King Hussein of Jordan prior to the eruption of the Black September events in an attempt to cool down the situation between Palestinian guerillas and Jordanian forces; resigned from the PLO Exec. Committee in 1971 and opened a law firm in Amman; joined the PLO Exec. Committee again in Feb. 1990 (re-elected in 1991); opposed the Oslo Accords; worked for improving PLO-Arab relations and played an intermediary role between Arafat and King Hussein; member of the PLO Central Council; moved back to Palestine on 20 June 1994; was appointed PA Education Minister from 1994 until his resignation in May 1997; died in Jan. 2002.
Source
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
: From
To