Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Khaled Fahd Daoud Al-Qawasmi was born on June 25, 1964, in Hebron. He is married and has six children. He completed his primary education in Cairo, Hebron, and Ramallah, and graduated from Al-Hussein Bin Ali High School in Hebron. He earned a postgraduate diploma in engineering from the Odessa College of Civil Engineering in Ukraine in 1987, and a doctorate from the same university in 1997. He worked at the Research Center of the Association of University Graduates for six years, and as an engineer for the Hebron Reconstruction Committee, later serving as its director from 1996 to 2009. He also lectured part-time at Al-Quds University/Abu Dis from 2002 to 2005. He was appointed Minister of Local Government in the ninth (2005-2006), thirteenth (2009-2012), and fourteenth (2012-2013) Palestinian governments. In 2013, he opened his own engineering office.
From childhood, Qawasmi was influenced by his family's atmosphere and his father's political activism. He joined Fatah in 1981 and was active in student union activities during his university studies, serving on the Fatah regional committee in Ukraine. He was also active in social and institutional work in Hebron, and was one of the founders of the Fatah Engineers' Bureau. He was elected head of the Engineers Syndicate in the West Bank from 2003 to 2005. He coordinated the national campaign to support the residents of Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, founded and chaired the administrative board of the Hebron Association for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, and served on the board of trustees of the Arab American University in Jenin and on the Yasser Arafat Achievement Award committee. Fatah expelled him in 2016 after he ran on independent lists in the local elections.
Al-Qawasmi participated in several academic conferences that dealt with the reconstruction of the Old City of Hebron, and presented a number of research papers.
Al-Qawasmi asserts that the Palestinian cause is currently at a dangerous crossroads, and that internal disputes could jeopardize the Palestinians' fundamental rights. Therefore, a clear vision and compass are needed to establish a secular, pluralistic state free from external interference. He believes that the Oslo Accords, at the moment of their signing, presented an opportunity for the Palestinian people to end the occupation. Had the Israelis possessed genuine intentions, it could have been a step towards realizing the Palestinian dream of liberation. However, it became clear that this agreement became a tool for prolonging the occupation and imposing policies on the ground that have made a two-state solution difficult and virtually impossible today, given the settlement activity, land confiscation, and the growing extremism within Israeli society. Al-Qawasmi believes that the division is not easily resolved due to underlying ideological dimensions. The geographical separation between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip has contributed to reinforcing and amplifying its impact. As long as the division persists, the occupation absolves itself of responsibility for the Palestinian cause, a point reiterated by Netanyahu in all his speeches at the United Nations, claiming that the Palestinians are not united.
He believes that international law guarantees the Palestinians' right to resist the occupation by all means, and despite some countries associating armed struggle with terrorism, it remains a right enshrined in international law. He sees a need for frameworks that unite all Palestinians; the PLO, when it was founded, included the factions that existed at the time, and with the developments that have occurred, new factions have emerged that should be included. Furthermore, national action must be based on agreement and partnership among all.
Source
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
: From
To