Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Born in Gaza in 1925; grew up in his family hometown Birzeit; graduated from Birzeit College in 1941; studied Political Science at the AUB, graduating in 1945 after a six-month period of suspension from the university due to his political activism; worked as a teacher whilst studying Law in Jerusalem; took a teaching post at the Ahliyeh School in Ramallah after 1948; then began a journalistic career by publishing Al-Jil Al-Jadid periodical (The New Generation); resumed his political activism, incl. campaigning for his uncle Musa Nasser in the parliamentary elections; was imprisoned on several occasions for publishing revolutionary articles and poems (the periodical was closed down on those grounds as well); joined the Ba’ath Arab Socialist Party in 1952 and became chief editor of its newspaper Al-Ba‘ath (which was also eventually closed); was elected member of the Jordanian parliament for the Ramallah District in 1956; became a fugitive in Arab countries in the aftermath of an insurgence in Jordan only to return home when general amnesty was declared in 1966; was exiled in Dec. 1967 by the Israeli occupation forces; joined soon after the PLO in 1968 and was elected member of its Exec. Committee in Feb. 1969; met Egyptian Pres. Gamal Abdul Nasser, together with Yasser Arafat, Kamal Nasser and Abdul Razeq Al-Yahya; headed the PLO Dept. of Media and National Guidance; served as its spokesman and as editor of its journal Filastin Ath-Thawra (The Palestine Revolution); due to his integrity earned him the nickname “The Conscience”; published prose articles and poems, incl. Singing Wounds (Arabic, 1960); was killed - along with Kamal Adwan, Mohammed Yousef An-Najjar and the latter’s wife - in an Israeli retaliatory commando raid on Beirut on 10 April 1973, led by Ehud Barak.
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Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
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