Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Hussam Said Shehadeh Zomlot is a Palestinian politician , diplomat and academic, born in the Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah Governorate in 1973. He was appointed Head of the Palestinian Mission to the United Kingdom in October 2018. Prior to coming to the United Kingdom, he served as Head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in the United States of America, which was closed by the administration of US President Donald Trump .
Zomlot is also a leading member of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) and a strategic advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas . Zomlot previously served in the Fatah Commission for Foreign Affairs .
Before entering politics, Zomlot worked as a university professor of public policy at Birzeit University . He was also a researcher at Harvard University and a lecturer at the University of London. Zomlot also held an economic position in the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for Palestine.
His upbringing
Zamlot was born in the Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah , Gaza Strip , which is run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) . His parents came from the village of Simsim, which was depopulated in 1948 after the establishment of the State of Israel.
Like most Palestinians, forced exile and asylum were important factors in shaping Zomlot's political orientation in the later stages of his life.
“In 1948, my father lost his home and his land and as a result I was born in a refugee camp in Rafah,” Zomlot said in a speech at a conference to mark UNRWA’s 70th anniversary. “Millions have suffered from a life of exile. Nothing is worse for a human being than to be forced to live in exile.”
Zamlot became politically active while studying at Birzeit University in the West Bank and later became a representative of the Fatah student movement (Shabiba) during the First Intifada.
In 1999, while studying in London, he was elected President of the General Union of Palestinian Students in the United Kingdom.
Academic Experience
Zamlot studied at Birzeit University in Ramallah and after obtaining his undergraduate degree worked as an economist in the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO). During his work, he was tasked with following economic developments and alternative economic policies and provided briefings to the then UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.
In 2000, Zamlot completed an MA in Development Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He then earned a PhD in Global Political Economy from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, in 2007.
Prior to his tenure as a professor of public policy in 2012, Zomlot served as a resident scholar at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University from 2008 to 2010.
Political career
Zomlot served as the official spokesperson for the Palestinian delegation throughout the campaign to obtain full UN membership recognition for Palestine in New York in 2011.
He was appointed as a roving ambassador to the State of Palestine in the same year in which he also served as director of the Fatah Commission for Foreign Affairs.
He then served as strategic affairs advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2015 before being elected as a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council in 2016.
On December 4, 2016, Zamlot won the Palestinian Revolutionary Council elections held during the Seventh Fatah Conference and became a member of it.
In 2017, Zomlot was appointed as the US envoy, replacing Maen Rashid Erekat . Zomlot was forced to cut short his work as ambassador to the US after the Trump administration closed the PLO office in Washington, DC, and then recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In December 2017, the White House announced its intention to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and as a result, the Palestinian leadership imposed a policy of non-interaction with the US administration. In 2018, Zomlot was appointed head of the Palestinian mission to the United Kingdom.
Palestinian Ambassador to the United States of America
Zomlot was appointed as the Palestinian ambassador to the United States in March 2017, as the Trump administration was taking office. This was followed by frequent bilateral contacts, with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meeting his American counterpart four times between May and November 2017.
But these efforts were halted when the White House announced in November 2017 its intention to close the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington, DC, and then decided to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
This move undermined Palestinian efforts, which centered on establishing the capital of the State of Palestine in the eastern part of Jerusalem, which was occupied by Israel in 1967.
The announcement led to demonstrations in the occupied Palestinian territories and the Palestinian leadership's rejection of the United States' role as a mediator in the peace process.
“You didn’t take Jerusalem off the table, you took the entire table off,” Zomlot said at the time. “There will never be a Palestinian who will be able to sit at this negotiating table. Good luck.”
In September 2018, the Palestinian mission in Washington, D.C., was closed after Zomlot returned to Ramallah. As a result, what would become the Trump administration’s Peace to Prosperity plan was worked on without Palestinian input and in full agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Nevertheless, Zomlot commented that rethinking Palestinian-American relations would lead to three positive things: “It would free the Palestinians from the shackles of a failed 27-year U.S.-led peace process… It would provide an opportunity to repeal the 1987 [U.S.] law that designates the PLO as a terrorist organization… It would also help shift Palestinian attention to long-term engagement with the American people.”
Ambassador of Palestine to the United Kingdom
Zamlot was appointed as the head of the Palestinian mission to the United Kingdom in October 2018. Zamlot arrived in the United Kingdom in the midst of the Brexit process and during his first year and a half there the Conservatives in Britain led two successive governments while the leadership of the British opposition in Parliament underwent changes after the parliamentary elections in 2019.
Since his appointment, British-Palestinian relations have deepened. Despite the US administration’s move to defund the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA, British support has continued (and in the case of UNRWA has doubled ) while the British government has maintained its position in support of a two-state solution in accordance with international law.
Other works
Zomlot was one of the founders of the Palestinian Strategy Group (PSG), which was established in 2008 by 100 members from across the Palestinian political, professional and geographic spectrum.
In 2018, before taking up his post as ambassador to London, Zomlot had to defend himself against allegations that he was a Holocaust denier. These allegations were published by a British tabloid in a story about former British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn attending Zomlot’s wedding.
In an interview with an Israeli newspaper, Zamlot said: “I absolutely do not deny that the Nazi Holocaust happened and that it was a terrible crime. I know very well what happened to the Jews of Europe and I sat next to members of the families of the survivors and listened to the horrific details of what happened to their loved ones.
private life
Dr. Hussam Zomlot is married to a woman who was born in the Gaza Strip before her parents immigrated to Sweden. He has two children, Saeed and Alma.
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Achievements and Awards
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