Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Omar Mahmoud Matar Abdel-Razzaq was born on July 3, 1958 in the city of Salfit in the Salfit Governorate in the central West Bank. He is married and has two sons and two daughters. He completed his primary, preparatory, and secondary education in Salfit's public schools, graduating from Salfit Secondary School in the science track with distinction in 1977. He earned a bachelor's degree in three majors—mathematics, economics, and computer science—from Coe College in Iowa , USA, in 1982, graduating with honors. He received his doctorate in mathematical economics (major) and international economics (minor) from Iowa State University in 1986. During his undergraduate studies, from 1980 to 1982, Abdul-Razzaq worked as a research and teaching assistant, and then as a lecturer in the economics department at Iowa State University from 1982 to 1986. He returned to Palestine in 1986 and joined the economics department at An-Najah National University, serving as its head from 1991 to 1993. He was promoted to associate professor in 1993 and remained a lecturer at An-Najah until 2006, returning to the university in 2018. He also worked as a part-time lecturer. At Birzeit University, and as a researcher and director of research at the Palestinian Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) between 1996 and 2018.
Abdul-Razzaq was influenced by Islamic thought at an early stage of his life, and participated in demonstrations against the occupation since 1976, especially those known as the marches of the martyr “Lina Al-Nabulsi”, and joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987, and was active during his university studies in student union work, where he was elected as a member of the student parliament in the college for two consecutive academic years (1979/1980) and (1988/1980), and during the same period he was elected as president of the foreign students club, and was active in institutional, voluntary and union work, so he took over the treasurer of the Zakat Committee of the city of Salfit in the period between 1988-2005, and was elected as a member for several terms in the workers’ union at An-Najah National University, representing the Islamic trend. He was appointed Minister of Finance in the tenth Palestinian government, during the period between 2006-2007. His assumption of the ministry coincided with an economic blockade imposed by the occupation and the Quartet on the government, in addition to his arrest by the occupation months after assuming his position.
The occupation arrested Abdul-Razzaq in 1997 for four months under administrative detention. He was interrogated at the Al-Maskubiya interrogation center in Jerusalem for ninety days in 2005, during preparations for the legislative elections, in which he won a seat representing the Salfit Governorate as part of the Change and Reform bloc. As a result of his victory, he became a member of the Palestinian National Council. He was arrested again in 2006 and sentenced to 26 months in prison. He was then arrested a third time for five months and released in 2009. The occupation placed him under administrative detention again in 2010 for 22 months, for six months in 2014, and for four months in 2017. He has been banned from traveling by Jordan since 1997 and by the occupation since 2006.
Abdul-Razzaq was selected as a member of the joint committee tasked with resolving the issue of political arrests, which was formed following the Egyptian proposal presented in 2009 to end the Palestinian division. He published over 45 peer-reviewed research papers and studies, primarily on the Palestinian economy, and received several awards and honorary degrees, including the Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Young Arab Scientists in the Social Sciences in 1991.
Abdel-Razzaq believes that the Palestinian issue can only be resolved by restoring all Palestinian rights through resistance in all its forms. He believes that achieving this requires thorough preparation and patience in the face of the occupation's practices and repressive policies. He considers the Oslo Accords a disaster for the Palestinian cause due to their concessions on fundamental Palestinian principles. He holds Fatah responsible for the division and believes that it can only be overcome by achieving national partnership through reforming the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and enabling Hamas and Islamic Jihad to join it, so that the PLO becomes a true representative of all Palestinians. He believes that resistance is a legitimate right guaranteed by divine laws and international laws and conventions, but it must be preceded by preparation, rationalization, and wisdom .
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