Birth: NULL/NULL/1937 Death:NULL/NULL/NULL
Born in Gaza in 1937; was schooled in Gaza, then headed to Cairo to study Law at Cairo University, graduating in 1963; was active in the GUPS; returned to Gaza and wrote for Akhbar Filastin paper; was appointed Deputy Attorney General in Gaza; moved to Egypt in Jan. 1965, where he served in the army and became lieutenant general in the PLA; moved to Jordan in 1968 to join the PLA in Jerash; joined the PLA in Damascus in 1970 and became head of its military section; became PLA Gaza Strip Unit Chief of Staff in Damascus; joined Fateh in 1972; headed the PLO Military Court from 1970-94; returned to Palestine in 1994; worked as a Supreme Court Judge until his resignation in 1995 to run for PLC elections; was elected PLC member (Fateh) in the Jan. 1996 elections for the Gaza City constituency; served as Deputy PLC Speaker from 1996-97; became head of the Board of Directors of the Palestinian Society for Legal Sciences in 2000 and serves as editor-in-chief of its magazine Economic Horizons; was appointed Minister of Justice in the Nov. 2003 cabinet of Ahmed Qrei’a (until the Feb. 2005 cabinet reshuffle following the Pres. elections); submitted his resignation in Aug. 2004 over the continued state of lawlessness in the Palestinian territories and the lack of independence of the Palestinian judicial apparatus; run (Fateh, Gaza City), but was not re-elected in the January 2006 PLC elections; wrote poetry and some 21 books for children, in addition to books related to politics and TV and radio programs; also translated books from English; among his poetry collections are When the Orange Blossoms (Damascus, 1978) and Songs for Palestinian Towns (1986).
