Birth: NULL/NULL/1947 Death:NULL/NULL/NULL
Born in Jerusalem on 30 Dec. 1947; was forced with his family from West Jerusalem to the city’s east side during the 1948 Nakba; received his early education from the Evangelical Lutheran High School in Beit Jala and Birzeit College, graduating in 1967; then enrolled at the AUB, where he graduated with a BA in Political Studies in 1969, and an MA in International Relations (focusing on Communist China’s Nuclear Strategy) in 1971; worked as a graduate assistant at the AUB’s Political Studies Public Administration Dept. in 1970; participated in the Pagwash summer school groups on Arms Control and Disarmament in 1971 and 1972; was a research assistant at the IPS, Beirut, Lebanon (1971-72); continued his higher education and studied Chinese Studies at Bonn University, Germany, from where he also earned a PhD in Political Science in 1975; became the first Palestinian to specialize in the Chinese language and Chinese affairs; worked as an associate assistant at the IPS in 1976, then as a IPS researcher from 1979-1985; served as Dir.-Gen. of the Informationstelle Palästina (which later became the PLO Representative Office in Germany) 1973-76; was Acting Director of the PLO’s diplomatic mission in Beijing, China, from 1977-79; served as Director in the Office of the PLO Chairman in Beirut and Tunis from 1979-85 and as the office’s Director in Tunis from 1985-93; member of the Fateh Revolutionary Council since 1989; returned to the OPT in the wake of the Oslo Accords and became Dir.-Gen. of the PA President’s Office in Jericho, serving from 1995-2003; since 1996, elected Chairman of the Committee for the Promotion of Tourism in Jericho and Al-Aghwar (the Jordan River Rift Valley), which, among others, established the Jericho Equestrian Club; served as Deputy Minister at the PA Presidency from 2003-Feb. 2005; was appointed Governor of Jericho and Aghwar on 19 Feb. 2005; member of the PNC since 1991; member of the General Union of Palestinian Writers and Journalists; also works as freelance political analyst and literary critic; has written numerous articles and essays as well as published and translated several publications in the field of International relations, culture and politics, incl. United Nations Resolutions on Palestine, 1947-1972 (Beirut: IPS, 1973), China and the Palestinian Cause 1976-1981 (Beirut: IPS, 1982), The Palestine Liberation Organization: Its Function and Structure (Brattleboro, VT: Amana Books, 1988), The Struggle for Jerusalem. A Programme of Action for Peace. (Jerusalem: PASSIA, 1996), Text and Reality: Readings in Palestinian Cultural Scene (Amman: Dar Al-Carmel, 2004).
