Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Saleh Muhammad Alian Abu Laban was born on March 24, 1953, in the Dheisheh refugee camp to a family displaced from the village of Zakariya, west of Bethlehem. He is married and has four children. He received his primary education in UNRWA schools and obtained his high school diploma while imprisoned by the Israeli occupation in 1973. He earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Bethlehem University in 1991 and a master's degree in political science from Al-Quds University/Abu Dis in 2010. He worked in the Preventive Security Service between 1993 and 2008, retiring with the rank of major general. Since 2008, he has worked as a lecturer and teacher of Hebrew at the Palestinian Academy for Security Sciences in Jericho.
Abu Laban became involved in the resistance against the occupation following the 1967 defeat. He joined the Popular Liberation Forces, affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Army, in 1970, and worked with others to form a military cell that carried out acts of resistance against the occupation, such as shooting and throwing explosive devices at military patrols. He was arrested by the occupation forces and imprisoned for 15 years, and his house in the camp was demolished. He joined the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) in 1983 and became its top leader in Bethlehem during the First Intifada. He was arrested several times between 1985 and 1988 and banned from traveling between 1985 and 1991. He became a member of the DFLP's Central Committee in 1991 and was a member of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference in Spain in 1991. Abu Laban and others broke away from the DFLP in 1995 and founded the Palestinian Democratic Union (FIDA), where he served on the Central Committee and later became a member of the Political Bureau in the late 1990s. Abu Laban also served on the Factional Coordination Committee in Bethlehem.
Abu Laban embraces leftist ideology and engages in local social and cultural activities. He also authored the book “Forty Days on the Sidewalk,” which chronicles the experience of the residents of the Dheisheh camp who staged a sit-in for forty days in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners’ strike, and he authored the novel “The Third House.”
Abu Laban believes that the Palestinian cause has Arab and regional dimensions, and there are clear regional conflicts and alignments. Some parties are trying to drag the Palestinians into one of these axes. He believes that the interests of the Palestinian people are preserved by distancing themselves from regional conflicts, as the Palestinian cause is no longer among the Arab priorities. Abu Laban views the Oslo Accords from two angles: the first is the trap into which the occupation ensnared the Palestinians, through which it achieved its goals and interests; the second is the Palestinian side's view of the agreement, which was meant to be a link between the inside and the outside. However, Yasser Arafat was let down by several parties, which led to the current situation. He believes that the Second Intifada came to impose a new understanding of the Oslo Accords in the Israeli way, which is summarized in dominating everything Palestinian. As for the division, it has greatly harmed the Palestinian cause and people, creating a situation of non-representation of the people before the world and the region. It has also harmed the Palestinians' position against the occupation, damaged the Palestinian economy, and created a societal rift between two different social components, one in the West Bank and the other in Gaza. Abu Laban believes that the right to resist is guaranteed by international laws, and that whoever wishes to use this right should use it if it serves the interests of the Palestinian people. He appeals to the Palestinian Islamic factions to take a national approach to participating in decision-making, by integrating them into the PLO and the PA, as the multitude of factions reinforces division. He calls on the Islamic factions not to raise the banner of Islam, and that national movements are not against Islam.
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