Birth: NULL/NULL/1938 Death:NULL/NULL/NULL
Born in Safad, Galilee, in 1938 to a Gazan father and a Lebanese mother; grew up in Hebron and Jaffa; became with his family refugee to Egypt in the Nakba of 1948; received a BA in Business Administration from Alexandria University in 1958, an MBA in Finance and Banking from the University of Pennsylvania in 1961, and a PhDs in Economics and Administrative Science from Wharton School, Pennsylvania University, in 1965; also taught Economics and Finance at the University of Pennsylvania from 1961-65; moved to Egypt in 1965, became Egyptian citizen, and taught Economics at the Universities of Cairo and Alexandria from 1966-70; became Professor, then Dean of the School of Business Administration, at the AUB from 1969-75; sought early dialogue with Israelis on the democratic state idea he was championing in the late 1960s; is a member of the PNC and the PLO Central Council since 1969; served as Dir.-Gen. of the PLO Planning Center in Beirut and at time as its Chairman; was a political advisor to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat from 1970-77; also advisor to Fateh and head of its National Conference since 1971; established in 1971 and directed (until 1992) Dar Al-Fata Al-Arabi, the only Arab institution specialized in books for children and young readers in the Arab World; was head of the first PLO delegation to the UN in 1974; established the Engineering and Management Institute (TEAM) and the Arab Center for Administrative Development in Beirut and Cairo in 1975 (and later 14 branches throughout the Arab World), which trained thousands of Arab managers in Arab countries (ran it until 1992); worked from 1975-92 also as management consultant with Arab governments (incl. Algeria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Qatar, Morocco, UAE, Lebanon and Jordan); was appointed Chairman of the Political Committee of the PNC; was appointed to the Fateh Central Committee in March 1990; led an unofficial (‘shadow’) delegation that represented Arafat’s viewpoint during the 1991-93 Madrid and Washington peace talks; met Yossi Sarid in July 1993, marking the first meeting between a PLO leader and an authorized Israeli cabinet member, to agree the Gaza-Jericho First formula; played a leading role in the Oslo process; wrote a Palestinian draft DoP for the Oslo agreement; was the PLO chief negotiator from Oct. 1993-95; became senior advisor to Arafat; announced the appointment of 15 members of the PA on 12 May 1994; was himself appointed as PA Minister of Planning and International Cooperation (serving as such until 2003); returned to Gaza to settle in June 1994 and presided over the first council meeting of the PA; signed, with Israeli counterpart Danny Rothschild, the Early Empowerment Accord (regulating the transfer of five civilian authorities – education, health, social affairs, tourism and taxation) on 29 Aug. 1994; member of the PLO/PA Negotiations Committee since 1995; was elected PLC member (Fateh) for the Khan Younis district in the Jan. 1996 elections; earned a second PhD, this time in Law, from Wharton School, Pennsylvania University (1996); coordinates the PA negotiating team and is a member of the final status negotiating team; represented Occupied Palestine at the World Economic Forum; was appointed by Arafat in Jan. 2000 as member of a newly established ‘Palestinian Higher Development Council’ to promote investment in the PA and to control PA financial matters; participated in the Camp David (2000) and Taba (2001) talks as head of the refugees negotiation team; was appointed Minister of External Affairs in the cabinet of PM Mahmoud Abbas on 30 April 2003 as well as in the Oct. 2003 Emergency Govt. of the PA and the subsequent cabinet of PM Ahmed Qrei’a in Nov. 2003; became deputy PM and Information Minister in the Qrei’a Cabinet of 16 Feb. 2005; was re-elected as PLC member (Fateh list) in the 2006 elections.
