Birth: NULL/NULL/1955 Death:NULL/NULL/NULL
Born in Jericho on 28 April 1955; grew up in Jericho, where he finished high school in 1972; first jailed in 1968 at the age of 13 for fighting with Israeli soldiers; BA (1977) and MA (1979) in Political Science/International Relations from San Francisco State University, where he was elected Pres. of the Arab Students Association; returned to the West Bank in 1979 and became lecturer of Political Science at An-Najah College, and Director for Public and External Relations from 1982-86; won a scholarship to the doctoral program at Bradford University, UK, from where he graduated with a PhD in Peace Studies in 1983; member of the editorial board of Al-Quds from 1982-94; in 1983, opened a program bringing students from Haifa University to An-Najah in Nablus, for which he was arrested by Israel; was also arrested in 1987 for an article on resisting the occupation and placed under intermittent house arrest during the early years of the first Intifada (late 1980s); was banned by Israel from traveling abroad from 1985-90 for pro-Fateh activities; member of the Fateh Central Committee and the PLO Central Council; vice-chair of the Palestinian negotiating team to the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference and subsequently to the Washington talks (1992-93); became Sec.-Gen. of the Arab Studies Society in 1992; in Aug. 1993 he joined Haidar Abdul Shafi and Hanan Ashrawi in resigning as delegates to Washington, when the Oslo Accords were made public; reconciled with Yasser Arafat and became the only member of the ‘inside’ leadership to Arafat’s inner circle after the establishment of the PA; responsible for the creation of Jericho’s City Council under the 1994 Gaza-Jericho Agreement; PA Minister of Local Government since 1994 (until 2003); in 1994, appointed Chairman of the Palestinian Negotiation Delegation; supervised as Head of the Election Commission the preparations for the first Palestinian elections in 1996; was elected PLC member (Fateh) for the Jericho district; leading negotiator towards the Hebron Agreement (1997) and the Wye River Memorandum (1998); participated in the Camp David (2000) and in the Taba (2001) talks; member (Local Government) of the reduced PA cabinet of June 2002 and the cabinet of 29 Oct. 2002; became Min. of Negotiation Affairs in the cabinet of PM Mahmoud Abbas on 30 April 2003; became member (without portfolio) in the Oct. 2003 Emergency Govt. of the PA and Min. of Negotiations Affairs in the subsequent cabinet of PM Ahmed Qrei’a (Nov. 2003-Feb. 2005); worked as chief Palestinian negotiator until the 2006 elections; was elected as PLC member (Fateh, Jericho district) in the Jan. 2006 elections; author of several books and numerous research papers.
