Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Hatem Muhammad Abdul Qader Eid was born on May 20, 1953, in Jerusalem to a Palestinian family from the village of Salama in the Jaffa district. He is married and has three children. He attended UNRWA elementary schools in the Old City of Jerusalem, UNRWA preparatory schools in Shuafat refugee camp, and the Jordanian School in Ramallah, from which he obtained his high school diploma in the literary stream in 1972. He earned a bachelor's degree in media from the Faculty of Media at Al-Azhar University in Cairo in 1980. He worked in the media and public relations department of the Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem and contributed to the publication of the first Islamic magazine, "Huda al-Islam." He also worked as an editor for the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds between 1980 and 1982, and then moved to Al-Fajr newspaper, where he served as managing editor. He co-founded “Abeer” magazine, which specializes in women’s and beauty issues, in 1985. He also worked as the media officer at Orient House in Jerusalem, and was appointed Director General of Publications and Publishing at the Ministry of Information in 1994, where he participated in drafting the Palestinian Publications and Publishing Law, and supervised the licensing of many publications.
Abdul Qader joined the ranks of the Fatah movement during his university studies and was active in carrying out its activities. After the outbreak of the First Intifada in 1987, he joined the Unified National Leadership as a representative of the Fatah movement, and secretly met with the late President Yasser Arafat in Tunisia in 1989. He participated in the Madrid Conference and in the negotiations in Washington as part of the Palestinian delegation. He also founded, with others, in the 1990s, the Permanent Qatari Committee for the Support of Jerusalem, a committee that includes several Jerusalemite figures that meets annually in Doha and approves a development support program for Jerusalem with full Qatari funding.
Abdel Qader won a seat in the Palestinian Legislative Council representing Fatah in Jerusalem in the 1996 elections. During his term, he served on several committees, including the Jerusalem Committee, the Refugees Committee, and the Oversight and Human Rights Committee. He was known for standing with citizens against abuses of power by the executive branch. He ran again in the 2006 legislative elections but was unsuccessful. He was appointed as the official in charge of the Jerusalem file in the Fatah movement between 2006-2007, then he worked as an advisor on Jerusalem affairs in the government of Salam Fayyad between 2007-2008, then he took over the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs, from which he resigned in protest against the scarcity of financial resources allocated to it, so he took over again the Jerusalem affairs file in the Fatah movement, and was elected as a member of the Revolutionary Council of the Fatah movement twice in 2009, as well as in the elections in 2016. He also gained membership in many Jerusalem institutions such as the Board of Trustees of Al-Quds Open University, the Supreme Islamic Authority, and the Board of Trustees of the Old Houses Restoration Society, in addition to many sports, cultural and social clubs and bodies, and he is also the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Al-Razi Society in the city.
Abdul Qader wrote many articles and editorials for Palestinian newspapers, especially during his time as a journalist. He also presented many working papers at conferences and workshops specializing in Jerusalem affairs, and was hosted by radio and television media to comment on events in Jerusalem in particular and the Palestinian cause in general.
Abdel Qader believes the Palestinian cause is going through its most difficult phase, especially given the absence of an official vision and alternatives to confront the occupation. He describes the division as a catastrophe that has befallen the Palestinian people, holding both Hamas and Fatah responsible. Abdel Qader sees Oslo as a trap for the Palestinians, as the occupation treated it solely as a security and economic project. He calls for Palestinians to cling to resistance in all its forms, especially since international law grants Palestinians the right to resist the occupation. He urges the preservation of the resistance's weapons and their non-relinquishment under any circumstances. Abdel Qader advocates for political partnership among all components of the Palestinian people, asserting that partners in the struggle are partners in decision-making.
Abdul Qader suffered under the occupation; he was administratively detained for six months by the occupation in 1989, and his administrative detention was repeated three other times, each time he spent six months. He was subjected to continuous harassment by the occupation forces, and some of his ribs were broken during the protests against the closure of Orient House in 2002, and he was taken to the hospital. He was banned from Al-Aqsa Mosque twice for six months, and he was also banned to the city of Jericho for six days in 2017.
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