Birth: 1/1/1938 Death:NULL/NULL/NULL
Born in Jaffa in 1938; was displaced with his family during the 1948 Nakba and grew up as a refugee in Lebanon and Syria; brother of Ghassan Kanafani; played professional soccer as goalkeeper for the Ahli Club in Cairo, as well as later for the national teams of Egypt, Syria and Palestine, until the mid-1960s; studied Law at Cairo University, Egypt, graduating in 1965; worked as Information Officer for the Arab League; became an advisor to Chairman Yasser Arafat in 1986; moved to New York in 1974, working as information officer and later Director of the Arab Information Center offices in New York and Washington; while in New York, also served as Secretary of the Arab Group Council and as editor of the monthly magazine Arab Perspectives for over ten years; was Arafat’s political and media advisor during the negotiations that led to the signing of the DoP in 1993; participated in the subsequent negotiations with Israel; returned to Palestine in 1994 following the establishment of the PA; served as chief spokesman of the PA and as an advisor to Pres. Yasser Arafat; was elected PLC member (Fateh) for the Gaza City constituency in the Jan. 1996 elections; led the Palestinian team on the trilateral Anti-Incitement Committee, which was established by the Wye River Memorandum in Oct. 1998; has hosted a weekly political TV program, This Week, aired from Gaza on Palestinian Satellite; served as Chairman of the PLC’s Political (External Affairs) Committee; is the Director of the Kanafani Aid Program, which assists needy people; resigned from the PLC on 10 July 2005 in protest against growing insecurity and political malaise; has written numerous articles and essays published in local and international newspapers.
