Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Saeed Misbah Kanaan ( Abu Misbah ; August 17, 1940 – June 9, 2023) was a Palestinian businessman and politician , who served as a member of the Palestinian National Council and political advisor to President Yasser Arafat , and a member of the Board of Trustees of An-Najah National University .
He received the Star of Jerusalem from the Order of Jerusalem in 2023 in appreciation of his honorable national career, and his family received it on his behalf.
His biography
Saeed Kanaan was born in Nablus . He studied elementary school at Al-Najah School and high school at Al-Jahiz and Al-Salehiya Schools in Nablus. In 1958, he obtained his Matriculation Certificate. He joined the American University of Beirut in 1963 and obtained a Bachelor's degree in Economics . After graduating, he worked as an employee at the Arab Bank in Nablus until 1967. In 1973, he worked for an American oil company in Saudi Arabia . He then returned to Palestine to establish a feed factory and a tahini factory and to supervise the soap factory owned by his family.
On January 26, 2022, based on a decision by President Mahmoud Abbas, he chaired the Board of Trustees of Nablus University for Vocational and Technical Education .
He died in a traffic accident in the At-Tur neighborhood of Nablus on June 9, 2023. The Fatah movement mourned him and the funeral was attended by Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, Abbas Zaki, and cadres from the movement.
His career
Kanaan joined the Arab Nationalist Movement while studying at university, and began writing about the Palestinian cause in Al-Riyadh newspaper while in Saudi Arabia, where he met Palestinian leader Khaled Al-Hassan and helped facilitate his meeting with King Faisal in 1970. After his return to Palestine, he joined the National Front and was arrested for 20 days in 1982. The occupation prevented him from traveling more than once and imposed house arrest on him . Due to his community and national activities, he was chosen in the late 1980s as Secretary of the Red Crescent Society, Nablus branch, for four years.
On the political level, he participated in delivering secret messages between the PLO and the occupation government in 1993, due to his belief in the political path to resolve the Palestinian issue. In 1995, he became a member of the National Council for six months, then was appointed advisor to President Yasser Arafat in the same year. He served as a member of the Board of Trustees of An-Najah National University for 10 years, and as head of the Friends of An-Najah National University Association for two years.
His cultural activity was translated into reality by establishing the “ Center for Palestinian Research and Studies ” in the city of Nablus in 1993 with a group of intellectuals. He managed it and was the chairman of its board of trustees. He wrote dozens of articles in Palestinian and Arab newspapers, and his articles were published in many books and studies on the Palestinian issue.
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Achievements and Awards
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