Birth: 1/1/1953 Death:NULL/NULL/NULL
Born in Khan Younis in 1953 to a family originally from Al-Jaladya village, who had become refugees during the 1948 Nakba; grew up in Gaza; received a BA in English Literature from Ein Shams University in Cairo in 1977; worked for the Palestinian press in Beirut until 1982; was Director of the Palestinian Affairs Dept. at the PLO Palestinian Planning Center in Tunis from 1983-93; returned to Gaza in 1994 and became Director of Planning and Cultural Development in the PA Ministry of Culture; also acted as Director of Al-Ayyam newspaper in Gaza from 1995-98; moved to Ramallah and continued working for Al-Ayyam as a columnist and in charge of the book review section; works since 1999 as Managing Editor of Al-Karmel literary quarterly; received the Palestine Award for Essay Writing in 1997; authored several books and essays on Palestinian and Israeli literature, incl. Identity of the Other, Rise and Development of the Palestinian Elite, and, most recently, a memoir entitled Land of the Deer (2003); has also translated Israeli authors into Arabic, incl. works by David Grossman, Amos Oz and Israel Shahak.
