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- Country of residence: Portugal
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Hamed Mahmoud Saqr Abu Sitta ( Abu Nidal ; 1924 - 2008) was a Palestinian activist , politician , engineer, and one of the founders of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) . He became involved in armed and political action with the organization's most prominent founders and participated in coordinating its relations with the Egyptian and Jordanian regimes.
His upbringing and education
He was born in the village of Ma'in Abu Sitta, in the district of the occupied city of Beersheba, to a Bedouin family from the Tarabin tribe . He studied the primary and secondary stages in the Khan Yunis school , which qualified him to enter the Arab College in Jerusalem . After completing his studies at the college with distinction, he studied engineering at Fuad I University in Cairo and graduated with distinction. His colleague at that time was Yasser Arafat . He married the daughter of the Jordanian ambassador and had three sons: Nidal, Tariq, and Ayman.
His political activity
Abu Sitta became involved in the activities of the national movement in his early youth, participating in the defense of Palestine during the Nakba events of 1948, and in resistance operations against British forces near the Suez Canal during his university studies. He was close to the Muslim Brotherhood and provided financial assistance to Palestinian refugees and students in Saudi Arabia andHe was part of the Palestinian delegations headed by Ahmed Shuqairi that visited Palestinian communities in Arab countries to persuade them to support the idea of establishing the organization. He attended the first Palestinian National Council conference held in Jerusalem, which led to the formation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964. He became a member of the first Palestinian National Council that same year and a member of the PLO Executive Committee between 1964 and 1966. He contributed to the establishment of the organization's main institutions, donated part of their financial costs, and was re-elected to the Executive Committee between 1968 and 1984. He held several positions within the PLO, including in the Department of Occupied Territories Affairs, and oversaw the coordination of relations between the PLO and the Gulf States.The Jordanian government, especially during its periods of tension in the early seventies of the last century, and he became a member of the Central Council of the PLO in 1973, and a member of several delegations sent by the PLO to Arab countries, and he continued to represent the organization until he resigned from all its committees before the Oslo Accords in September 1993, and settled in Damascus .
Abu Sitta and Yasser Arafat
On one occasion, Abu Sitta initiated a meeting at the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo when the fighting intensified in Palestine in 1948. He told the students, among whom was Yasser Arafat, "There is no knowledge while the homeland is occupied. Burn the books," as Yasser Arafat recounted. Hamed Abu Sitta and Yasser Arafat headed towards the Palestinian border with some Egyptian forces after crossing the Suez Canal. Upon reaching the Rafah border, the three parted ways. Arafat and the Egyptian contingent headed north to join a group of Muslim Brotherhood fighters besieging Kfar Darom , while Abu Sitta went to Beersheba because he wanted to fight in a place he knew well. In his testimony at the time, he stated: "A Zionist force, supported by twenty-four tanks, armored vehicles, or locally made tanks, launched an attack on Beersheba on May 10th. After a bloody and brutal battle, the tanks broke through the Palestinian lines, and then half of the tanks headed towards Kfar Darom to break the siege."
Before leaving for Cairo on his father's orders, he decided to go to Kfar Darom. Abu Sitta says about this: “We were defeated at our position and I wanted to go to Kfar Darom on my way to Cairo to taste victory. I met Yasser Arafat, and he was pleased with the meeting because he thought I had been killed in the Battle of Beersheba! We embraced, and the brothers told me that Yasser Arafat was the one who fired the mortar that destroyed the first Jewish tank. Arafat told me that it was possible for us to win the battle against the Jews if we had sufficient weapons. The Husseinis had the same opinion as Arafat told me: that the Arabs should not intervene in the conflict so that the conflict would not become international.”
In 1968, Abu Sitta went with Yasser Arafat andSalah Khalaf andBahjat Abu Gharbieh andYahya Hammouda to meet with King Hussein and ease tensions between the Jordanian authorities and the Palestinians following the kidnapping of an officer from the Jordanian Royal Guard .
His death
He died on June 27, 2008 in the Jordanian capital, Amman, and his funeral was held there.
badges
President Mahmoud Abbas awarded the late great national figure Hamed Abu Sitta the Star of Honor medal of the highest order.
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Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
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