Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Sufyan Abu Zaida is a Palestinian politician, member of the Fatah movement and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and former Minister of Prisoners' Affairs in the Palestinian National Authority. From February 2005 until the establishment of the Hamas government, Abu Zaida served in the Palestinian National Authority government as Minister of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs and Minister of Civil Affairs. As Deputy Minister of Civil Affairs (1999-2004) his responsibilities focused on coordination with the Israeli government regarding all civil aspects of the agreements, especially the movement of Palestinians and international crossing points, and coordination between Palestinian ministries and their counterparts in Israel. Among many other activities he has been active in the Israeli-Palestinian Geneva Initiative where “moderates” on both sides say it is possible to find a just two-state solution. Abu Zaida is also an academic researcher and lecturer at several Palestinian and international universities and director of master’s programs at Al-Quds University.
Like many Palestinian political leaders, Abu Zaida was imprisoned for twelve years in Israeli prisons (1981-1993) and was known at the time as the spokesman for Palestinian prisoners. He speaks fluent Hebrew and is considered the Palestinian leader most knowledgeable about Israeli politics.
Foundation
Sufyan Abu Zaida was born in 1960 in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip. His family was exiled in 1948 from the village of Kfar Briar, where the settlement of Bror Hail is now built near the Gaza border. After graduating from high school, Abu Zaida joined the Fatah movement, formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, a Palestinian national political party, and the largest faction in the multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization. Israeli forces arrested Abu Zaida at the age of 21 and accused him of belonging to the resistance organization Fatah and recruiting him into Fatah.
Academic career
Abu Zaida earned a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences from Al-Azhar University in Egypt in 1999. He then earned a Master’s degree in Conflict Resolution from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom in 2001. Abu Zaida then earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Middle East Politics from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. In 2005.
Abu Zaida is an active researcher, author, and lecturer at several regional and international universities and research institutes. He is considered an expert regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Israeli political system. Some of the academic positions he has held include:
Director of the Master’s Program at Al-Quds University, Palestine (2006-2007).
Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Master’s Degree in “The Israeli Political System” at Birzeit University, Palestine (2009-2014).
Lecturer at Al-Quds University, Jerusalem (2009-2014) and master’s course in the following courses: “Religion and State in Israel”, “The Israeli Political System”, “The Role of the Army in Israel”, “The Education System in Israel”, and “The Israeli Wars”.
Visiting Scholar at New York University (2016) “The Peace Process between the Arabs and Israel.”
Abu Zaida also publishes newspaper articles on a weekly basis in which he comments on contemporary Palestinian, Israeli and international political events.
Political career
Since the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority in 1994, he has worked as Director-General of the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation and is responsible for Israeli affairs. During this period he was a member of the Steering Committee of the People to People Program (part of the Oslo Accords and funded by the Government of Norway) and Director of the Palestinian Committee, where his responsibilities included developing relations between the two peoples in order to support the peace process. During the same period, Abu Zaida served as a member of the Palestinian delegation responsible for negotiations related to the release of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli prisons.
In 2009, he won the elections of the Palestinian Revolutionary Council held during the sixth conference of the Fatah movement in Bethlehem and became a member of it.
Political views
Abu Zaida is a prominent leader of the Fatah movement and was a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council until May 31, 2014 when he was removed from the movement due to his public criticism of the way Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas governed.
Abu Zaida has stated on numerous occasions that there is a separation of powers and that President Abbas has taken too much power for himself. Furthermore, Abu Zaida claims that there is a lack of minimum democratic rights in Palestine because no presidential elections have been held since 2006 in the Palestinian Authority.
source
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
: From
To