Mahdi Abdul Hadi is a political scientist, historian, columnist, author, founder and member of various Palestinian, Arab and International institutions as well as the head and founder of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs.

 

Abdul Hadi was born in Nablus on 22 March 1944 but has spent most of his life in Jerusalem. He holds a Ph.D. from the School of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom. He has devoted most of his life to academic research and dialogue, as well as the publication of this research with the aim of providing a deep understanding of Palestinian issues, past and present – the land, the people, their rights and their leadership – to interested audiences in the region and beyond. In order to achieve this aim, he has founded and co-founded numerous forums and institutes. For example, he co-founded the Al-Fajr daily newspaper in 1972 as well as the Council for Higher Education in the West Bank (1977-1980). He was also the founder and elected president of the Arab Thought Forum in Jerusalem (1977-1981) and worked as special adviser to the Ministry of Occupied Land Affairs, Amman, Jordan (1985-1986).

 

Finally, he founded the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA). PASSIA is an independent, non-profit Palestinian institution and is not affiliated with any government, political party or organization. The institute undertakes research on the question of Palestine and how the issue is related to international affairs. After studying law at Damascus University and he started his career as a lawyer continuing the family tradition. However, realizing that the law was not the best way to confront the many challenges the Palestinians were facing, he soon moved into the realm of mass media and established, along with Yousef Nasri Naser and Jamil Hamad, Al-Fajr (the dawn) newspaper (1972). He worked as editor for Al-Fajr and published a large number of articles and editorials under an alias. After the kidnapping of Naser in 1972, Abdul Hadi felt the urge to start writing about the Palestinian question. Thus, soon after he published his first book, The Question of Palestine and Peaceful Solutions, which focused on debates, initiatives and ideas on a settlement of the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians in the period of 1934 to 1974 and was published in Lebanon.


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