Birth: 1/1/1954 Death:NULL/NULL/NULL
Born in 1954 in Nablus; studied Economics and Business Administration at Birzeit University, graduating with a BA in 1982; continued his studies at Manchester University, graduating with an MA in Development Studies in 1986; was detained by Israel from 1974 to 1977 for political activism; leading member of the PPP; founded the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center (JMCC) in 1987, and served as its Director until becoming a minister in 2002; was a former lecturer in Cultural Studies at Birzeit University from 1988; Board member of several Palestinian institutions; served as member of the Editorial Board of the Israel-Palestine Journal and as Pres. of the Board of Directors of the Arab Development Center since 1988; was member of the Palestinian delegation to the 1991 Madrid talks and subsequent Washington negotiations (1991-93); co-founder and Director of BitterLemons.org (web-based Israeli-Palestinian political magazine); is pursuing his PhD in Middle East Politics at Durham University, UK; accepted the post of PA Minister of Labor in June 2002; was reappointed to the post in the cabinet of PM Mahmoud Abbas on 30 April 2003 and in the cabinet of PM Ahmed Qrei’a on 12 Nov. 2003; Minister of Planning in the Qrei’a cabinet from Feb. 2005 until the 2006 PLC elections.
