Birth: NULL/NULL/1941 Death:NULL/NULL/NULL
Born in Qaryout, near Nablus, on 19 Jan. 1941; worked in the News Dept. of Kuwait Radio from 1960-63; studied Political Sciences, History and International Law in Germany from 1963-72 (holds an MA in Economy and Political Science from Heidelberg University); since 1963 leading member of the GUPS; in mid-1960s leading member of the Socialist Student Union in Germany; co-founder of the German Communist League; joined the ranks of the DFLP in 1969 and was elected as a member of its Central Committee and political bureau in 1971; wrote for the DFLP mouthpiece Al-Hurriya (Freedom) under the name ‘Sami Shaheen’ during the 1970s; PNC member since 1972; was in charge of the DFLP in Lebanon from 1972-1982; moved to Amman, Jordan, in 1982 and headed the international relations office for the DFLP as well as helped the movement’s organization in the OPT (until 1991); was elected member to the PLO Exec. Committee at the 20th PNC session (Sept. 1991) and put in charge of the PLO National Office to Defend the Land and Resist the Settlements suspended his membership in the Exec. Committee in Sept. 1993 in protest against the secretly negotiated Oslo Declaration of Principles; among the Palestinian figures from various political backgrounds who met in Amman in Dec. 1994 to establish the Palestinian Democratic Party; one of nine PLO Exec. Committee members who signed a statement rejecting the Oslo II Agreement on 4 Oct. 1995; was arrested by Israeli forces in Feb. 2003 during a raid on his office, in which two bystanders were killed, and imprisoned for several months at Ofer Detention Camp near Ramallah; freed in June 2003 during a prisoner release (supposedly a confidence-building measure on the eve of the Aqaba summit among Pres. Bush, and PMs Sharon and Abbas) in Dec. 2003, escaped an attack on his life in Nablus, apparently motivated by an internal (DFLP) dispute over money; ran for the position of PA Pres. in the Jan. 2005 presidential elections, gaining 3.35% of the votes; head of the Nablus branch of the DFLP.
