Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Bassam Tawfiq Abu Sharif was born on August 9, 1946 in the city of Jerusalem, the capital of historical Palestine during the British Mandate over Palestine and before the establishment of the occupying state of “Israel.” He is one of the former advisors to the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat . He is one of the founders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the author of the Abu Sharif Document on Peace.
Origin
Bassam belongs to the Abu Sharif family of Jerusalem. He was born in Jerusalem and left with his family two days after his birth to the Emirate of Transjordan, where his father worked after graduating from the Palestinian Law Institute in 1943. He completed his studies in the Jordanian capital, Amman, until he graduated from high school, and then went to Beirut, Lebanon to study at the American University of Beirut at the age of 17, graduating in 1967. He joined the ranks of the Arab Nationalist Movement during his studies with Dr. George Habash in 1963. After the defeat of the 1967 war and the occupation of the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, he rejected offers to complete his doctorate and teach in Canada. He also rejected an offer to work as a regional manager for the Arab Bank, which had been offered to him by its founder, Abdul Hamid Shoman .
The beginning of his political career
During his studies in Beirut, he met George Habash and joined the Arab Nationalist Movement. After the defeat of the 1967 war and the occupation of the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, Bassam Abu Sharif contributed with Dr. George Habash and Dr. Wadih Haddad to the establishment of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and was elected a member of its political bureau. He worked in Al-Hadaf newspaper with Ghassan Kanafani and became his assistant. He was assassinated by Israel on 07/08/1972. He then headed the editorial board of its magazine on 07/25/1972.
Attempted assassination
The Israeli Mossad took advantage of his passion for books and on July 25, 1972, sent Bassam Abu Sharif a booby-trapped book that arrived after it was examined by the Lebanese Ministry of Communications and stamped by the Lebanese Minister of Transportation. The book exploded in Bassam Abu Sharif’s hands while he was standing in his office at Al-Hadaf magazine, which he had been editor-in-chief of after Ghassan Kanafani’s assassination. He was severely injured, losing four fingers, an eye, and a large part of his hearing, in addition to other injuries.
His political activity
After recovering from his wounds, he continued his work as editor-in-chief of Al-Hadaf magazine and media officer of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was elected as the head of foreign relations for the Union of Palestinian Writers and Journalists , and was awarded several medals for his writings on peace based on justice, including the Vietnam Medal in Hanoi, the German Golden Feather Medal, and the Lenin Medal in Moscow. He participated in all the struggles waged by the Palestinians since 1967 and was elected a member of the Palestinian National Council in 1973. During the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Bassam Abu Sharif was appointed spokesman for the Lebanese-Palestinian Joint Forces, which confronted Sharon's siege of Beirut.
He left Beirut with all the Palestinian leaders and fighters and was stationed in Damascus. Due to his political disagreement with the leadership of the Front over the future strategic vision, he submitted his resignation and headed to Algeria, where Algeria hosted him for months. Then, after general Palestinian insistence, he joined President Yasser Arafat as his special advisor. He played an important and fundamental political role from 1987 until the Oslo talks, in which he did not participate in any way, although he was one of the architects of the Madrid Conference after he issued his famous document, the Abu Sharif Document, which proposed the two-state solution for the first time and which the Palestinian National Council relied on to amend its political program and enable Yasser Arafat to launch his peace initiative before the United Nations General Assembly on December 18, 1988.
Bassam Abu Sharif continued to work as an advisor to President Yasser Arafat, despite his dissatisfaction with the Oslo negotiations and the Oslo Accords . He warned Yasser Arafat in writing of a plot to assassinate him with poison before it happened (he published a picture of the letter in his book Yasser Arafat). After Yasser Arafat's assassination, Bassam Abu Sharif was removed from his position by decision of Mahmoud Abbas, as part of a general wave to remove all those who supported the late leader Yasser Arafat, whom Israel considered a terrorist.
His writings
September Papers (Arabic-English).
Yasser Arafat (Arabic).
Benjamin Netanyahu: The Rise and Fall (Arabic).
Beirut is my city (Arabic and English).
Best Enemies (Arabic and English).
Siege of Beirut.
Arafat and the Dream of Palestine (English) (Palgrave & Macmillan, New York)
The Best of Enemies (English) (Little & Brown, New York).
Teacher Wadih Haddad (English).
Wadih Haddad (Arabic).
The talented Ghassan Kanafani (English).
The Siege of Beirut (English).
Source
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
: From
To