Personal Info
- Country of residence: Syria
Information
Ahmed Abdel-Wahhab Muhammad Khalifa, born on May 27, 1937 in Haifa, died on April 29, 2021 in Amman) is a Palestinian politician, researcher and translator, active in the Arab Nationalist Movement, and was a member of the first leadership circle of its Palestinian branch, which turned into the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine , and the leader of its first armed organization in the occupied territories after the 1967 war. Beginning in 1970, he supervised the Israeli Affairs Department at the Palestinian Research Center and then at the Institute for Palestine Studies, and was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Palestinian Studies.
He was born in Haifa in 1937 and took refuge with his family in Damascus after the Palestinian Nakba in 1948. He obtained his secondary certificate in 1958 and received a scholarship for outstanding students from the Indian Embassy to study English literature at Bombay University, but he returned to Syria a few weeks later to study English literature at Damascus University. He later moved with his family to Amman. He went to Munich to study political science at its university, and his involvement in party work there prompted him to abandon his studies in 1964 and return to Beirut.
He began his political activity in the Arab Nationalist Movement while studying at the University of Damascus, and participated in the political movement that Damascus witnessed against the Baghdad Pact and for unity with Egypt. After his return from Munich to Beirut, he joined Mohsen Ibrahim, Muhammad Kashli, Ghassan Kanafani, and Bilal Al-Hassan on the editorial board of “Freedom” magazine in Beirut, which at that time was the mouthpiece of the Arab Nationalist Movement.
In August 1970, Khalifa moved again to Beirut, to establish the Hebrew Department at the Palestinian Research Center, which was affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization and was at that time headed by Anis Al-Sayegh. Khalifa was given wide and complete powers that authorized him to follow up on the publishing movement in Israel and obtain all the necessary books and periodicals in order to carry out research to get to know Israel in its various political, economic and social aspects, in addition to appointing a dedicated research and translation staff to work at the center. There he contributed to the publication of the magazine "Palestine Affairs", and took over the preparation of the section on Israeli affairs in it. In 1973 he moved to the Institute for Palestine Studies, in which he worked in its Hebrew department, which was founded by Sabri Jeries, until he left Lebanon after the Israeli invasion in 1982.
He moved to France in 1984 and worked on the editorial board of the weekly “The Seventh Day” magazine, headed by Bilal Al-Hassan, where he was responsible for the writings of the Israeli Affairs Department. In 1987, he joined the Institute for Palestinian Studies and participated in the publication of the quarterly “Journal of Palestinian Studies”, which it issued, and after a ten-year stay in Oxford, during which he frequented Beirut to work on the publication of the magazine, and later returned to settle in Beirut, where he worked in the Department of Israeli Affairs In the magazine, he also assumed the position of managing editor, and has many studies, translations and books dealing with Israeli affairs, including the translation of the book “Ethnic Cleansing in Palestine” by Ilan Pappe and the official Israeli novel about “The Great Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936-1939” and “The Palestine War” , 1947-1948", "Anger and Hope: The Palestinian People's March under Occupation: Memoirs of Attorney Felicia Langer", and Moshe Sharett's Diaries.
He passed away in Amman on April 29, 2021
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