Birth: NULL/NULL/1950 Death:NULL/NULL/NULL
Born in Jerusalem on 4 May 1950 to a Roman-Catholic Christian family; attended Frères College in Jerusalem; studied Political Science and International Relations at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, graduating in 1972; since absent from Jerusalem during Israel’s occupation of the city in June 1967, lost his residency rights; served as Pres. of the Belgian GUPS from 1969-71; graduated in Political Science from the Foundation Nationale des Sciences Politiques in Paris in 1974; acted as Pres. of the French GUPS from 1974-75; served as Deputy Director of the PLO Observer Mission to the UN in Geneva from 1976-78; then headed the PLO unit on European Affairs and the UN in Beirut from 1978-81; was sent as a special envoy to the Vatican in 1980; was involved in the negotiations of the UN-brokered ceasefire in Lebanon in 1981; returned to academia as a researcher at the Center for European Studies at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium from 1981-85; was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University from 1985-87; served as PLO representative to the Netherlands from 1987-90; was involved in the Stockholm negotiations that led to the US-PLO talks in Tunis in 1988-89; took over from Faisal Aweida as head of the PLO General Delegate to the UK in Sept. 1990 (serving until 2005); was one of the catalysts of the Oslo peace process, facilitating a first meeting between Israeli university professor Yair Hirschfeld and PLO top official Ahmed Qrei’a (Abu Ala’) in London in early Dec. 1992 to discuss start of a secret channel; visited Palestine for the first time since exile (1966) in 1993; wanted to return and settle in Jerusalem, and start a new publication, similar to Time and Newsweek, but when the Israeli government refused to issue him a Jerusalem ID card (offering a West Bank ID with residence in Ramallah instead), he refused to succumb to such humiliating proposal and decided to stay in London instead; member of the International Board of Trustees of Bethlehem University since Jan. 1995; was appointed PLO General Delegate to the Holy See on 6 Nov. 1995; was appointed to become the Palestinian representative to Washington in Oct. 2005; has authored numerous essays and articles, which were published in several compilations, incl. Out of Jerusalem Self-Determination (Jerusalem: Al-Fajr, 1986), One People Too Many? (The Hague, 1987). Children of a Lesser God (UK, 1997), and The Peace Process: from Breakthrough to Breakdown? (UK, 1997).
