Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Ziyad Jamil Abd al-Fattah Hajar (March 3, 1939 – ) is a
Palestinian politician, writer, journalist, and novelist. He was born in the
Palestinian city of Tulkarm. He is one of the leaders of the Fatah movement,
and one of the most prominent figures of the contemporary Palestinian
revolution. He is the founder and president of the Palestinian News Agency
“Wafa” and a member of the Palestinian National Council in The Palestine
Liberation Organization for many sessions, and the former president of the
Union of Arab News Agencies, the Palestinian Information Service, and the
Palestinian National Library, and he is very close to President Yasser Arafat,
and he witnessed all the events and incidents with him. Ziyad Abdel Fattah is
called "the legend of the media of the Palestinian revolution."
His upbringing and life
Ziyad Jamil Abdel-Fattah Hajer was born in the city of Tulkarm
in the West Bank on March 3, 1939. He received his primary, preparatory and
secondary education in the schools of his city, Tulkarm. From schools, then he
moved to Kuwait, where he worked as a teacher for five years, and during that
period witnessed the launch of the Fatah movement, so Ziyad joined the
movement, then the Palestinian leadership asked him in 1968 to go to Egypt to
establish “Al-Asifa Radio” in Cairo.
With the beginning of work in Cairo, Ziad joined Ain Shams
University in law, where he graduated and obtained a university degree later in
1975. In 1971, he established Daraa Radio in Syria, and nine months later he
moved to Beirut, where he founded the Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) in 1972.
And he directly assumed its presidency according to a decision issued by the
Palestine Liberation Organization on June 5, 1972. He also assumed the
editor-in-chief of “Palestine Al-Thawra Magazine”, which is the central
magazine of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
In 1974 he assumed the presidency of the Palestinian media team
in New York, where he accompanied Yasser Arafat to the United Nations General
Assembly, and in 1978 he assumed the presidency of the Union of Arab News
Agencies, and in 1982 he founded the “Al-Maikah Newspaper” in Beirut under the
fire of war, and he survived death in more than from an accident.
After that, he left with President Yasser Arafat to Tunisia, and
there he continued to head the Wafa News Agency until the signing of the Oslo
Accords and his return to Palestine in 1994, then President Yasser Arafat
assigned him again to head the Wafa Agency after arriving home and establishing
the Palestinian National Authority.
On February 12, 1996, a presidential decree was issued by
President Yasser Arafat establishing the Palestinian Information Service, and
assigning Ziyad Abdel-Fattah to preside over it as its first president in
addition to his duties in Wafa. In 1997, a presidential decree was issued
establishing the Palestinian National Library, and Ziyad Abdel-Fattah was its
first president. . He also assumed the editor-in-chief of the "Roya"
magazine, which specializes in Palestinian affairs, and was issued in 2000 by
the State Information Service. On May 26, 2005, Ziyad Abdel-Fattah ended his
presidency of both the Palestinian News Agency and the Palestinian Information
Service.
Ziyad Abdel Fattah participated in a large number of
international and cultural conferences, including the Cairo International Book
Fair, and he visited most of the countries of the world during his literary and
media work. He is one of the founders of the General Union of Palestinian
Writers and Journalists, and a member of the General Secretariat of the Union
of Arab Journalists.
His writings
A Special Communication for an Ordinary Man, a collection of
short stories, published in 1976.
“Moon over Beirut,” a collection of short stories, in 1982,
published by Dar Al-Awda.
"A Black Cat on the Last Street" was released in 1984.
"White Teeth", released in 1986.
“Farewell Mary,” published on January 1, 1992, by Dar Ibn Rushd
for printing and publishing in Beirut.
“The Crossing”, a novel, published in 2002, by Dar Al-Hilal
Publishing House in Cairo.
“What We Have,” a novel, published in 2004 by Dar Al-Hilal in
Cairo.
“The House of the Army”, a novel, published in 2010, Cairo.
Silk Paper, a novel published in 2014 by Merit Publishing House
in Cairo.
“The Sea Gets Angry,” a collection of short stories, in 2014,
published by Al-Raaa'a Publishing House.
Displaced Villages, a book published in 2015.
“Al-Ratno”, a narrator, was published on December 12, 2017, by
Dar Kulshith Publishing, in the presence of the Palestinian Minister of
Culture, Ihab Bseiso, and it contains 324 pages.
“The Diamond Scrubber,” a book published in 2019, by Everything
Publishing House. The book contains 308 pages, in which Ziyad Abdel-Fattah
revealed information about his close friend, the poet Mahmoud Darwish, that was
published for the first time. It is noteworthy that Ziyad Abdel Fattah wrote,
accompanied by Mahmoud Darwish, all the letters of President Yasser Arafat.
Achievements and Awards
decorations
In 1996, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat awarded him the
Jerusalem Medal for Culture, Literature and Arts.
On February 25, 2020, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
decorated him with the Medal of Culture, Science and Arts of the level of
brilliance, which is one of the highest Palestinian decorations, in
appreciation of his national, literary and media career. This took place at the
Palestinian Presidency and in the presence of a number of members of the
Palestinian leadership.
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