Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Ali Ibrahim Ghazal Al-Qawasmi was born in Hebron in 1940. He is married and has two sons. He studied in Hebron schools and completed his secondary education in 1958. He obtained a bachelor's degree in chemistry and pharmacy from the Faculty of Pharmacy at Alexandria University in 1964. After graduating from university, he worked in a private pharmacy in Hebron and continues to work there to this day.
At the beginning of his life, he joined the Baath Party and participated in its activities until 1961, when he left the party after Syria’s separation from Egypt. He supported the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) under the influence of his father-in-law, Dr. Abdul Khaliq Yaghmour, who was a member of the first PLO Executive Committee. He also took the initiative with others to establish a National Guidance Committee in Hebron Governorate in 1968, and was appointed its secretary. In the same year, he joined the Fatah movement.
The occupation expelled him in 1969, so the late President Yasser Arafat assigned him to manage the Palestinian Red Crescent. He then returned to Palestine in 1972, and the occupation pressured him to appoint him as mayor of Hebron, but he refused. The occupation arrested him in 1975, and then arrested him several times after that, and prevented him from traveling for a period of time.
He won a seat in the Legislative Council elections in 1996, and was appointed Minister of Transport and Communications between 1996 and 2002, then Minister of Youth and Sports for several months in 2002. He was also appointed Chairman of the Hebron Reconstruction Committee in 1996, and remained in this position until mid-2016.
Al-Qawasmi believes that the Palestinians are the owners of the land and the owners of a just cause, and the future belongs to them. They have become a majority within Palestine and are holding on to their land and their cause despite everything the occupation is doing to them. They need nothing but unity and patience until victory is achieved.
Al-Qawasmi believes that the Palestinian leadership thought the Oslo Accords were a transitional phase for the situation in Palestine, but the Israeli occupation reneged on the agreement and its provisions. He considers the internal Palestinian division a destructive obstacle to resolving the Palestinian issue and a weakness in the Palestinian people's defense. This dark period in the history of the Palestinian cause must end, and our goal and focus must be ending the occupation. He believes that the Palestinian people have the right to resist the occupation by all means, while acknowledging that each stage of the struggle against the occupier has its own methods and means. He believes that the only option for the Palestinian people at present is the international political arena and peaceful resistance. Al-Qawasmi also believes it is essential to include all political orientations within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its institutions, as this organization is the sole legitimate representative of all Palestinians.
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