Born in Jerusalem on 28 March 1936; holds a BA in Psychology and Education from the AUB (1958) and a PhD in Education from Bradford University, UK; worked as an instructor at the UNRWA Men’s Teacher Training Center from 1960-72, then as Assistant Principal (1972-75) and Principal of the UNRWA Women’s Training Center, Ramallah (1975-83); Co-founder of the Arab Thought Forum, Jerusalem, from 1976-82; Co-founder of the Arab Studies Society, Jerusalem, since 1979; Deputy-Chairperson of the National Mental Health Society from 1982; worked as a research coordinator at the Arab Thought Forum from 1983-85; since 1985, Project Director of the Early Childhood Resource Center in Jerusalem; Board of Trustees member of the Palestinian Counseling Center (1987-91) and the Tamer Institute for Community Education, Ramallah (1990s).

Born in Lydda on 26 Aug. 1925 to a Palestinian Greek Orthodox family; won a scholarship and studied Medicine at the AUB from 1944-1951; witnessed the mass expulsion from Lydda after the city’s fall on 14 July 1948; formed there the ‘Organization to Oppose Political Settlement with Israel’, and became founding member of the ANM in 1951 with Wadie Haddad, a fellow Palestinian, and Hani Al-Hindi, a Syrian; was its representative on the Exec. Committee of the National Conference; Pan-Arabist and Nasser-supporter in early years; moved to Jordan in 1956, was arrested for political activities, left for Damascus, was expelled in 1963 and relocated in Lebanon; called for fighting the national struggle for Palestine in a united Arab struggle; formed ‘Palestinian Chapters’ of the ANM in May 1964 to organize cells to carry out armed struggle against Israel; after the War of 1967, turned leftwards in his political thinking, established the PFLP in Dec. 1967, and became its Sec.-Gen.; led a ‘rejectionist’ front within the PLO after the Oct. 1973 War, when the PLO seemed to be ready for a possible accommodation with Israel; staged a reconciliation with Yasser Arafat in 1979, and joined with the PFLP the PLO Exec. Committee in 1981; left to Damascus in 1982 (where he stayed until moving to Amman due to his deteriorating health in 1992); led a National Salvation Front, in protest at the PLO’s short-lived consensus with Jordan; rejoined the PLO at the 1987 PNC conference, after the PLO-Jordan alliance had collapsed; at the PNC in Nov. 1988, gave approval to the Algiers Declaration (endorsing a two-state option and renouncing terrorism); was highly critical of the PFLP’s 2 nd generation leadership at the 5 th Congress in Feb. 1993; opposed to the Oslo Accords; resigned from post as Sec.-Gen. in April 2000 after 33 years and established a research center in Amman Jordan.

Born in Beit Dajan, near Jaffa, in 1939; became refugee in the Nakba of 1948, ending up first in Ramallah, then in Balata Refugee Camp near Nablus; joined the Ba‘athists in 1952; studied Geology and Water Resources at Cairo’s Ein Shams University from 1958; turned to Palestinian national movement in the early 1960s and joined Fateh in 1962, when he became responsible for recruitment; was appointed Fateh regional command in Lebanon in Oct. 1972; member of the Fateh Central Committee since Aug. 1989; now resides in Ramallah.

Born in Jerusalem; completed the London Matriculation at the Notre Dame de SIon School in Jerusalem in 1965; graduated from the Beirut College for Women with a BA in Social Work in 1960; completed a one-year practical training course in Medical Social Work at the American University Hospital in Beirut in 1960; was involved with the YWCA as Chairperson of the Women's Council from 1971-75, then as National Board member (1978-84) and Pres. (1989-93); served as Vice-Pres. of the Board of Directors of Terra Sancta Club in Jerusalem from 1973-80; was a member of the Parent/Teacher Association at De La Salle School, Jerusalem, from 1975-78; Manager of Ayoub Trading Agency from 1978-84; serves as Sec.-Gen. of Caritas Jerusalem and member of several working groups, commissions and committees of Caritas Internationalis since 1991; member of several councils and delegations of the Holy See; member of Pontificum Consilium - Cor Unum in 1990-94 and 1995-99, and of the Holy See Delegation to the UN Conference on Women, Beijing, China, in 1995; also member of the Working Group on Refugees, Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) since 1992, member of the Central Committee of the Dept. of Service to Palestinian Refugees (DSPR) since 1992, serving as its Chairperson from 2001-04; Council member of the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), Geneva, since 1995; was a member of the regional commission of Caritas MONA (Middle East and North Africa) from 1995-99; Board of Trustees member of Bethlehem University since 1997; served for two consecutive terms as Pres. of Caritas for the MONA region since 1999; Vice-Pres. of Caritas Internationalis for the MONA region since 1999; member of the Board of Directors, Society of Saint Yves, since 2002; was decorated Lady Commander of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great with medallion in 1997; became an Ambassador for Peace for the Inter-Religious and International Federation for World Peace in 2003; received the International Voluntary Service Award from the Catholic University of San Antonio, Murcia, Spain, in 2004.

Born in Deir Hanna, Galilee. on 8 Dec. 1941; completed his secondary education in Nazareth; holds a Diploma in Education from Haifa University and a BA in Journalism and Public Relations from the British College in Jerusalem works in the field of accounting but enjoys writing poetry; was arrested by the Israeli authorities under charges that his poem collection Return to the Future (1990) praised the revolutionary aspect of the Intifada; in 1992, he was sentenced to three years though it was soon after overturned into an eight-month “conditional sentence,” a three-year probationary period, and a fine for violating the “ Israeli 1949 Anti-terror Act”; in 1993, he was acquitted of those charges by a district court on appeal, and the High Court has refused to review the case afterwards; published 15 poetry collections between 1971 and 2005.

Born in Haifa in Aug. 1921 into a Palestinian Protestant family; studied in Haifa and Acre; worked in Haifa’s oil refinery as a construction worker, then as radio announcer in the Palestinian Broadcasting Service in Jerusalem (1941-43); joined the Palestinian Communist Party in 1940 and became one of its leaders, operating underground during the British Mandate in the 1940s; one of the founders of the National Liberation League (Usbat Al-Taharrur Al-Watani) in 1943 , along with Haidar Abdel Shafi, Mukhlis Amer, Emil Tuma and Mufid Nashashibi ; editor of Al-Mihmaz newspaper; joined the Israeli Communist Party after the 1940s and became chief editor of its paper Al-Ittihad; represented the party in the Knesset for 19 years from 1953-72 (since 1965 for Rakah which emerged from the Israeli Communist Party); edited Al-Ittihad that served as the Arabic mouthpiece for the party in the 1970s; began writing short stories in the 1960s; resigned from the Knesset in 1972 to write his novel, The Secret Life ofSaeed, the Pessoptimist (Arabic, 1974; English, 1982), depicting the life and fortunes of an Arab citizen of the state of Israel; proponent of Arab-Israeli coexistence; noted Palestinian-Israeli author, playwright, and journalist, who received several literary prizes, incl. the top PLO literary honor, Jerusalem Prize (1990), and the Israel Prize (1992); left Rakah in 1991 over a position the party adopted vis-à-vis Soviet leader Gorbachev; established the Arabesque House Publishing Company in Haifa the same year; in 1995, produced the monthly literary journal Masharif; authored several renown books, incl. Kufr Qassem - The Massacre and the Politics (Haifa, 1976), Ikhtiyyeh (1985), The Tale of Saraya, the Daughter of the Ogre (Arabic, 1991), as well as plays, such as Lakka’ ben Lakka’ (1980) and Um-Al Robabika (1992); also published a collection of his essays and articles known as Towards a World Without Cages (Arabic, 1993); died in Haifa on 2 May 1996 (his tombstone reads - as he had requested: “Emile Habibi - Remained in Haifa”).

Born in Jerusalem on 6 March 1904; got educated privately; after his father, a soldier in the Ottoman army, was killed in WWI, moved with his family to Amman in 1915; became an unofficial translator for British troops in 1918; returned to Palestine in 1919;worked for the British Palestine Authorities as a clerk in the Jerusalem district administration from 1920 and later (in 1927) with the Land Settlement Dept.; served as an inspector and land value assessor from 1938-48, contributing to the British government’s exhaustive work Village Statistics 1945: A Classification of Land and Area Ownership in Palestine which brought to the world’s attention mandate records of Palestinian land ownership; went into exile following the Nakba of 1948; worked in the Jordanian Land Authority from 1949-52; then as land specialist for the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine in New York, determining the extent of property left behind by Palestinian refugees; in 1959, helped open the Palestinian Information Office in the US; worked in the Arab League offices in New York and Dallas in the 1960s; served as Director of the IPS in Beirut from 1960 until his retirement; then moved to Toronto, Canada, in the 1970s; his book Bitter Harvest: a Modern History of Palestine (first published in 1989) is a valuable reference on the Palestinian question; he also wrote Palestine - Loss of a Heritage (1963), and Palestinian Rights and Losses in 1948 (1988); died in 2004.

Born in Nablus on 13 Dec. 1956;worked as Assistant Researcher at the Arab Studies Society in Jerusalem from 1980-82, while also studying at An-Najah University, Nablus, graduating with a BA in Accounting and Business Administration in 1982; worked at Najah National University, Teaching at the College of Economics and as Administrative Secretary from 1982-83; went to the US to continue his studies and received an MBA in Accounting from Angelo State University, Saint Angelo, Texas, in 1985, and a DBA in Accounting and Finance from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA, in 1989; worked also as Assistant to the Director of the Budget Office at the Southern Illinois University from 1986-89; became Assistant Professor in the Accounting and Finance Dept. of the College of Business and Industry, University of Massachusetts at North Dartmouth, in 1989-90; returned to Palestine and joined An-Najah University’s College of Economics and Administration as Assistant Professor and Chairman of the Accounting Dept. from 1990-93; coordinated the Multilateral Working Groups and Technical Committees from Orient House during 1992-94 and was the Technical Head of the Palestine economic negotiating team for the Paris Protocol, during 1993-94; during 1993-94, also worked as Director of the Aid Coordination and Facilitation Dept. at PECDAR; served on the Municipal Council of Nablus from 1994-99; from 1995-99, joined PADICO, first as Assistant CEO and Chief Investment Officer in Nablus (1995-97), then as Managing Director of the Palestine Industrial Estate Development & Management Co. (1997-98), and as Chief Officer for Corporate Communication and PR (1998-99); was also member of the Board of Directors of the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA) from 1996-99; then served as Deputy Governor of the PMA and deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors from 1999-2000, as Acting Governor in 2001, and as Governor and Chairman of the Board of Directors from 2002-05; founding member of the Palestine Plastic Co. in Nablus, member of the Palestine Development Fund (1998-2005), and Steering Committee member of the Hisham Adib Hijawi Scientific Award, Amman (1998-99) and the Development of Palestine IT and Hi-Tech Industry (1999-2000); was a member of the Board of Directors of the Palestine Industrial Investment Co., Nablus (1995-98), the Nablus Industrial Incubator (1996), the Palestine Poultry Co., Nablus (1998), and the Palestine Development Fund, Ramallah (2005), as well as Acting Chairman of the Board of the Nablus Development and Promotion Co. (1998-2000) and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Al-Ufoq for Training and Childhood Development, Nablus (1991-93), the Technical Development Corporation (1992-93), and the Palestine Industrial Estates and Free Zones Authority; in 2004; has conducted and/or contributed to many studies and projects related to master planning, financial management, development, and accounting in Palestine.

Born in Safad in 1927 to a Greek Orthodox family; educated in Haifa; became a refugee during the 1948 Nakba; graduated in Medicine from the AUB in 1952; established together with George Habash a clinic for poor Palestinians in Amman; worked with UNRWA in 1956; participated in the establishment of the ANM; was arrested by Jordan in 1957 and imprisoned for three years; went to Syria in 1961; took up commando action from 1963; was a founding member of the PFLP in 1967; died in East Germany of leukemia on 28 March 1978.

Born in Salama, near Jaffa, in 1943; studied Dentistry at Alexandria University, graduating in 1965; became a Fateh affiliate; worked as a dentist in Ramallah; was Head of the Palestinian Dentists’ Association in Ramallah until his deportation by Israel on 26 March 1976 prior to the municipal elections in the West Bank; PNC member since 1976; served as Board member of the Palestinian National Fund in Amman from 1977-81; also practiced dentistry in Amman and was elected Head of the Jordanian Dentists’ Association for two terms from 1980-84; member of the PLO Central Council since 1980; was elected Vice-Chairman of the Jordanian Dentists’ Union for many terms until 2003; Sec.-Gen. of the Vocational Associations Federation in Amman from 1988-91; returned to Palestine on 30 April 1993; served as Chairman of the Palestinian Health Council in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from 1993-94; was appointed PA Minister of Transportation in 1994 until his resignation in June 1996; serves since Aug. 1998 as Consultant for the PA Ministry of Health; appointed as an adviser to the PA President Mahmoud Abbas in 2005

Born in Haifa in 1891; received his early education in Palestine; worked for the Hijaz rail road; was a member of the Istiqlal Party, founded in 1932; was known for his partnership with Sheikh Izz Eddin Al-Qassam; activist in the 1936 Revolt; was among the Palestinian notables invited by Egyptian PM Mohammed Mahmoud Pasha to discuss and modify the British White Papers (following the London Conference in 1939); died in Am man in 1953 and was buried in Damascus; Prof. Walid Khalidi wrote and published the autobiography of the late Rashid Al-Haj Ibrahim in the Institute for Palestine Studies, Beirut, in 2006.

Born in Jerusalem on 12 Dec. 1936; during the 1948 Nakba, her family was displaced to Beirut, from where the family emigrated to the USA; graduated from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, with a BSc in Design (1959), from Michigan State University with an MA in Painting (1960) and from Indiana University with an MA in Fine Arts in Painting (1963); taught in American universities for 18 years, incl. Indiana University, University of Hawaii, Kansas City Art Institute, University of Michigan, Yale University School of Art, University of South Florida, and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York; has also lectured as visiting artist at many schools; her painting style is based on abstraction and its relationship to nature and reality; added electronic media to her art work in the 1980s; was visiting artist at Birzeit University in 1997; helped the PA Ministry of Culture in the area of teaching arts, incl. teaching courses and conducting workshops at the Universities of Birzeit and An-Najah, Nablus, as well as at cultural centers such as the Wasiti Center in the late 1990s; conducted a creativity project for Palestinian art students in June 2003 at the International Center in Bethlehem; has exhibited her work internationally and in numerous museums, incl. Guggenheim Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and l'Institut du Monde Arabe.

Born in Daliyat Al-Karmel in 1959; studied Law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, graduating with an LLB in 1982 and an LLM in 1987; became a member of the Israeli Bar Association in 1987; worked as a senior lawyer at the Quaker Legal Aid and Information Center in East Jerusalem (QLAC); continued his studies and earned an LLM in International Legal Studies from the Washington College of Law at the American University in Washington DC in 1991; returned to Jerusalem and worked in a private practice from Sept. 1996; handles human and civil rights related cases, incl., inter alia, restrictions on movement and travel, residency rights in East Jerusalem, land confiscation and town planning in the West Bank and Jerusalem; has been defending minors in Israeli Juvenile Courts since 1998; founding member of the Arab Cultural Association in Nazareth in 1998 and Board member until 2001; founding member of Mada Al-Carmel, Arab Center for Applied Social Research in Haifa in 2000; serves as a legal advisor for various non-profit organization; acted as legal expert for the UNDP from April-Aug. 2003; has published several studies on legal issues, among them, more recently, The Legal Status of Jerusalem and Its Arab Inhabitants (Institute for Palestine Studies, Beirut, 1997, Arabic), as well as The Jerusalem Arab Municipality, by PASSIA, in December 1993), Revoking Permanent Residency: a Legal Review of Israeli Policy (Jerusalem Quarterly File, summer 2000), and Israel’s Land Laws as a Political Tool –Confiscating and Appropriating Palestinian Arab Lands and Creating Physical and Legal Barriers in order to Prevent Future Property Restitution (Working Paper, Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights, Bethlehem, Dec. 2004).

Born in Jerusalem in 1964; received a BA Advanced in Math and Photography from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1989; works as freelance photojournalist for the Snenska Dagbladet, Sweden and the US-based Middle East Report since 1990; shot portraits of political leaders for John Walach’s book The New Palestinians in 1992; worked for Sygma Agency from 1993-94, then for Reuters from 1995-99; from 1998-2000, Director and teacher of photography workshops at Al-Ma'mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, East Jerusalem; continued her studies and earned an MA in Photographic Studies from the University of Westminster, London, UK in 2001; founder of the Photography Dept. at Birzeit University in 2001, where she also teaches since; received many awards, incl. from KODAK, Canada (1988), from International Mother Jones, San Francisco, the award of the Palestinian Journalist Union (1993), and of the PA Ministry of Culture & Arts (1996); her exhibitions include Negative Incursion (Art Car Museum, USA, 2003) and Jerusalem: The Warm Light Still There (The Museum of the city of Rome, 2002); has exhibited her works internationally, most recently at the Art Car Museum, Texas, USA (2003), the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah (2004), the Noorderlicht Photo Festival, Leeuwarden, Holland (2004), the Fotografie Forum International, Frankfurt, Germany (2004), and the 7 th Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, UAE (2005).

Born in Qalqilya in 1932; PhD in Political Science from the University of Florida (1966); taught at the Florida’s Jacksonville University until 1970, then at the University of Jordan, Amman, from 1970-75; returned to Palestine and became a Professor at Birzeit University from 1975-81, also serving as Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and later as Vice-Pres. of the university; left to the US for a sabbatical at Harvard University in 1981; was denied a work permit in the West Bank by Israeli authorities and settled in the US; published the magazine Palestine Perspectives from 1983-91; Director of the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine, Washington, DC; was appointed to the PNC in 1991; served as head of the Palestinian delegation to the Multilateral Talks on Refugees following the 1991 Madrid Conference; Board member of PICCR; critical of the Oslo Accords and the PLO leadership; has written numerous articles on Palestine and (co-)authored a number of books, incl. Palestine: The Suppression of an Idea (1983), Palestine Is but Not in Jordan (1983), and A Profile of the Palestinian People (1990)

Born in Salame, Jaffa, in 1938; was also known as Sheikh Al-Fannanin (‘The Master of Artists’); after the 1948 Nakba, ended up with his family in Damascus; completed his higher studies in 1964; studied Sculpture at the College of Fine Arts in Cairo; attended the Luxor Atelier for Postgraduate Studies; his art included paintings, graphics, murals, illustrations, cover designs and etchings; specialized in graphic art and sculpture and was called by some critics “icon of contemporary Arab graphic arts;” lived in Beirut and Damascus; contributed to define fan al-muqawama (the art of resistance); lost 25,000 of his prints in the Israeli attacks on Beirut in 1982 but managed to save the wood and masonry cuts he used to make them; was a founding member of the trade union committee of the General Union of Palestinian Writers and Journalists, and a member of the Managing Committee of the General Union of Palestinian Abstract Artists in Syria; laid the foundation for an art gallery, which opened in the memory of Naji Ali in 1987 in Damascus; his famous Self-Portrait as God, the Devil, and Man was inspired by ancient Canaanite legends, folk tales, and Palestinian cultural icons, and is a sequence of pictorial narratives which had reached 114 meters at the time of his death, summarizing the history of the Palestinian people from 11 th Century BC to the present; won several local and international awards and prizes; died in Dec. 2002 in Damascus, while trying to rescue his works from a fire that destroyed his studio; was buried in Al-Yarmouk Refugee Camp, Damascus.

Born in Jerusalem on 5 May 1935; attended St. George’s School in Jerusalem from 1941-52; then went to the US in 1953 to study Chemical Engineering at Ohio State University, graduating with a BSc in 1958; worked as a Process Engineer with the Hercules Powder Co., Radford, Virginia from 1958-63 and the worked with Ralph M. Parson Co. of Pasadena, California, in 1963; did his Graduate Studies in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, from 1963-64; worked as Technical Advisor for the Jordan Development Board from 1963-67, specializing in fertilizers, phosphates and potash; returned to Palestine in 1967 and invested in various entrepreneurial projects in the West Bank and Jerusalem; started the first pharmaceutical company in Palestine in 1970; also established a feed mill in the West Bank, a stone factory in the 1960s, a salt project, and a refinery; co-founder of the AIC Star Detergent Factory in Ramallah in 1973-74; established a daily newspaper “An-Nahar” on 1986-1995 (May); devotes his time to his various investment and entrepreneurial projects in the West Bank.

Born in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, in 1944; received a BA in Electrical Engineering from Alexandria University, Egypt, in 1967, and an MSc. and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Wisconsin University in 1972 and 1975, respectively; worked as engineer and reconstruction specialist in Tripoli, Libya , from 1968-71; then Assistant Professor in Control and System Engineering at the Technology University in Baghdad from 1976-80, and Dean Assistant for Academic Affairs in Control and System from 1979-80; joined the Electrical Engineering Dept. at Birzeit University as Assistant Professor in 1980 (until 1984) and head of Dept. from 1982-84 and again from 1989-91; then Dean of the Engineering Faculty at Birzeit from 1991-94; was a Palestinian delegate to the negotiations in Washington in the early 1990s; worked with PECDAR as Dir.-Gen. for Projects during 1994-96; served as Vice-Chairman of the Palestinian Housing Council and as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Arab Corporation for Technical Development; Chair of the Palestinian Energy Authority from Feb. 1995; was elected to the PLC (Fateh) for the Jabalia district in the Jan. 1996 elections; was appointed Minister of Housing in 1996-2002; appointed PA Minister of Natural Resources and Energy on 9 June 2002 (until April 2003); Chairman of the Board of Directors in the Gaza Electricity Distribution Corporation; Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Al-Azhar University, Gaza; member (without portfolio) in the PA’s Oct. 2003 Emergency Govt.; was appointed Minister of Housing & Public Works in the cabinet of PM Ahmed Qrei’a of Nov. 2003 (until cabinet reshuffle in Feb. 2005).

Born in Rafat in 1938; moved with his family to Bethlehem after the War of 1948; studied Law and Journalism at Damascus University from 1959-62; worked as freelance journalist; Co-founder with Yousef Nasser, and editor of Al-Fajr daily newspaper from 1972-1974; from 1984, was West Bank Correspondent for the Time Magazine from 1984; received the Overseas Press Club Award in 1985 in honor of the coverage of the assassination of Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin; was joint winner of the Henry R. Luce Award for reporting on the battle of Jenin in April 2002.

Born in Ma’an, Jordan, in 1952; family moved to Jerusalem in 1953; graduated from Al-Aqsa Secondary Religious School in Jerusalem in 1973; worked as Imam at the Birzeit mosque; studied Shari’a and Law at Al-Azhar School, Egypt, graduating in 1977; was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood; joined Ein Shams University to study towards his MA in 1982 but had to return to Palestine without having completed his studies; worked as a teacher in Al-Aqsa Secondary Religious School, Jerusalem from 1979-81; co-founder and Direc tor of Dar Al-Hadith in Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1979; founded the Society of Islamic Sciences and Cultural Committee in 1984 and serves as its Secretary since; Director of the Waqf in Bethlehem from 1985-87, then worked as assistant to the Dean of Islamic Research at the Waqf from 1987-97; was arrested by Israel three times, first in 1988 (imprisoned for 20 months), then in 1990 on his way back from the US (detained for 20 months), and in Feb. 1995 (detained for six months); went to Cairo and Sudan in 1995 to participate in meetings between the PA and Islamic activests; participated and signed the Copenhagen document for Two-Sate solution in 2000; became researcher at the Center for Islamic Research at Al-Quds University from 1997-2003, where he also worked as a lecturer and pursued his MA in Islamic Studies, graduating 2003; coordinator of the Religious Studies Unit at PASSIA since 1998; currently works as lecturer of Islamic Culture at Al-Quds University and volunteers as Executive Director of Al-Iman Secondary Schools in Jerusalem .

Born in Jaffa in 1941; was forced to flee with his family to Amman during the 1948 Nakba; received a BA in English Literature from Damascus University in 1964; worked as a journalist and teacher; became a member of the Ba’ath Party and editor-in-chief of its newspaper Ittihad Al-Ummal (Labor Union); joined Fateh in 1967 and worked for some time with Al-’Asifa; was elected Fateh delegate to the PNC in Feb. 1969; after the 1970 Black September events, moved to Lebanon, where he continued his political work; was elected Fateh delegate to the Arab League office in 1972; was appointed as the PLO’s first delegate to the UK (officially as head of the Arab League’s Palestinian Information Office) from 1972; published articles in the Times in late 1973, calling for mutual Israeli-Palestinian recognition; met MK Uri Avineri in 1974, marking the first ever meeting between an Israeli MK and a PLO leader; supported the notion of a Palestinian state in the 1967 territories through negotiations (two-state solution); was assassinated on 4 Jan. 1978 in London; buried in Amman.

Born in Kufr Malik in 1950; attended Military College in Baghdad; Fateh member and activist, for which he was imprisoned for 17 years in Israeli jails; released in a prisoner exchange in 1985 but re-imprisoned in 1990 and deported to Jordan in 1992; has published Lullabies Behind Bars, a collection of Arabic poetry written while in prison; was allowed to return to Palestine in 1994; served as Fateh Sec.-Gen. in the Ramallah district; was elected PLC member (Fateh) for the Ramallah constituency in the Jan. 1996 elections; member of the PLC Interior and the Budget and Financial Affairs Committees; became a Minister of State without portfolio in the cabinet of PM Mahmoud Abbas on 30 April 2003 (until Oct. 2003).

Born in Al-Bireh on 3 Dec. 1931; studied Economics at the AUC, graduating with a BA in 1955; while studying, was active in the Ba'ath Party until resignation in 1957 following the refusal of the party to evaluate its failure in the Jordanian elections of 1956; taught in Jerusalem in 1956 and in Libya from 1958-62; worked in business upon his return to Palestine to ensure his independence; was elected mayor of Al-Bireh in 1967 prior to the June War; deported by Israel to Jordan for his strong role in creating and leading the PNF on 10 Dec. 1973; independent member of the PLO Central Council and the PNC from 1974; served on the PLO-Exec. Committee and became head of the Office for Home Affairs in Beirut; moved to Amman in 1981; headed the Jerusalem Center for Development Studies in Amman; returned to the OPT in April 1993 and decided to become a farmer; was elected to the PLC as an independent in the Ramallah district in the Jan. 1996 elections; was appointed PA Minister of Agriculture for two years, but resigned over criticism of Yasser Arafat’s practices in Aug. 1998; among the 20 signatories of a public statement titled “A Cry from the Homeland”, criticizing the “tyranny, corruption, humiliation and abuse of the Palestinian people” by the PA in late Nov. 1999; among his publications: Israeli Policy of De-Institutionalization: A Case Study of Palestinian Local Government (Amman, 1987), The Collective Destruction of Palestinian Villages and Zionist Colonization (1882-1982) (with Walid Mustafa, London/Amman, 1987), and Israel’s Deportation Policy: The Human, Legal and Political Ramifications (Amman, 1993).

Born in Al-Bireh in 1952; son of Abdul Jawad Saleh Hamayel; joined the Palestinian national movement in 1968; was imprisoned three times by Israeli authorities without trial; active in the PLO but has be en critical of some of Chairman Yasser Arafat’s stances since 1971; studied at Cairo University and was active in both the GUPS and the Egyptian student movement, for which he was repeatedly imprisoned in 1972-73; graduated with a BA in Political Science in 1974; shifted his political positions in the mid-1970s from believing in armed struggle to believing in institutionalization and non-violent resistance; continued his studies and received an MA (1979) and PhD (1986) in Political Science from Paris X-Nanterre University; works as Professor of History and Political Science at Birzeit University since 1981; served as Director of Birzeit’s Research Center from 1994-97; was a researcher and Visiting Professor at various international academic institutions, incl. the French National Center for Social Research (1989), the Free University, Brussels (1990), the Orient Institute, Hamburg (1990), the Vilanova University, Pennsylvania (Fulbright Fellow, 1998), the Pantheon, Paris (2003), the French M aison des Sciences de L’Homme (2003), and Harvard University (2004); emphasizes the term “Sociocide” in understanding the Israeli policies in the OPT, referring to the pressures of destruction, Judaization and expulsion imposed on the Palestinian people; spoke out against the militarization of the second Palestinian Intifada in 2000; specialized in the Palestinian Question, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the documentation of Palestinian collective memory; among his books are: The Israeli Assassination Policy in the Aqsa Intifada (JMCC, Dec. 2001) and Palestinians and the Historiography of the 1948 War (Muwatin, 2005).

Born in Anabta, Tulkarem, on 10 Aug. 1958; received a BA in English Language from the University of Jordan, Amman, where he studied from 1976-1980, and an MA in Linguistics from the University of Manchester, UK, in 1982; worked as a lecturer at the English Dept. of An-Najah National University, Nablus, from 1982-85; continued his studies and earned a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Lancaster, UK, in 1988; returned and became Chair of the English Dept. at An-Najah National University (1988-92), then Dean of the Faculty of Arts (1992-95), and Academic Vice-Pres. for Humanities (1995-98); since 1998, Pres. of An-Najah National University; member in important committees such as the Palestinian Constitution Committee and the Steering Committee of the Union of Islamic Universities; Vice-Pres. of the Mediterranean Universities Group in Spain; member of the Palestinian-European-American Universities Program of Academic Cooperation (PEACE), as whose Pres. he served from 2003-2005; member of the Council of the Palestinian Universities; Steering Committee member of the Council of Arab Universities for Scientific Research; Vice-Pres. of the Palestinian Scientific Academy; Chairman of the Palestinian Stock Exchange Board; member of the Central Commission of the 1996 elections and Sec.-Gen. of the 2005 Central Elections Committee.

Born in 1940 to a family from Bashit village, near Ramleh; became with his family refugee during the 1948 Nakba, ending up in Khan Younis; founding member of Hamas; was repeatedly placed in administrative detention by Israel, incl. for one year in 1990; was slated for expulsion by Israel in Jan. 1992 following the killing of a Jewish settler but the deportation was cancelled after an intervention of PM Rabin in Aug. that year; was among those deported to Marj Az-Zuhour, South Lebanon, in Dec. 1992; strongly opposed Oslo; was arrested by the PA in 1999 and detained for two months; lost a son, Hussam, during the second Intifada on 7 Aug. 2002; Imam of Ar-Rahma Mosque in Khan Younis.

Born in East Albatani, Al-Majdal (Ashqelon) in 1965 to a refugee family that had fled in 1948 and settled in Al-Burj RC, Gaza; completed his high school in Kuwait in 1982; enrolled at Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan, graduating with a BA in Chemistry in 1986; was an activist within the Islamic student movement at the university from 1982-86; went back to Kuwait after graduating and worked in the industrial sector until the Iraqi invasion to Kuwait in 1990; worked at the Hamas office in Tehran as assistant to then Hamas representative Imad Alami from 1992-93; became Hamas’ official representative in Tehran in 1994, serving in that post until 1998, when he was appointed as Hamas representative to Lebanon, a post he still holds; participated in the Cairo dialogue between Palestinian factions in 2004 and served as Hamas’ spokesperson at the talks; participated in most of the recent dialogue meetings between Hamas and European officials; is a member of the Arab National Congress and of the Arab Islamic Conference. of the Board of Trustees of the Jerusalem Institute in Lebanon; member of the Hamas politburo; was one of six senior Hamas leaders named by US Pres. Bush in Aug. 2003 as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, freezing any assets in the US and prohibiting transactions with US nationals.

Born in Durat Al-Qar’ near Ramallah on 25 Dec. 1954; Fateh activist; first arrested by Israeli authorities when she was 12 years old, followed by other imprisonment sentences and house arrests; spent a total of some seven years in prison; held various Fateh positions while inside the prison; received a BA in Sociology/Social Work from Bethlehem University (graduating after 25 years following imprisonment and house arrests); member of the Palestinian university student leadership and of different Fateh committees; Chairperson of the Union of Women Committees for Social Work; Board member of the Women’s Affairs Technical Committees and the GUPW; member of the founding commission of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club; member of the PLO, the PNC, and the Fateh Revolutionary Council; participates in different Women’s activities both locally and internationally; Dir.-Gen. in the PA Ministry of Youth.

Born in Nablus in 1860; among the founders of Al-Jam’iyyah (the Society) bloc led by Sheikh Abbas Al-Khammash, which worked for social equality; also worked as a calligrapher; served as mayor of Nablus from 1902-08; was elected representative of Nablus in the Commissioner Ottoman Parliament (Commissioner Council); Chairman of the MCA in Nablus; elected member to the Palestinian delegation to London in 1921; attended the Palestinian-Syrian Conference in Geneva in 1921; attended the Islamic conference in Jerusalem in 1931; was the founder of the Arab Hospital in Nablus; died in 1934.

Born in Daharan, Saudi Arabia, in 1960; received a BA in Political Science from the University of Cincinnati in June 1983 and an MA in Cultural Anthropology from Temple University, Philadelphia, in Aug. 1984; worked as Research Supervisor and was Steering Committee member of the Women’s Affairs Research and Training Center in Nablus from 1990-91; joined FAFO in 1991 as Academic Consultant/Researcher (until 1993) and Director of Field Research in Gaza from 1991-92; was co-founder and Research Coordinator of the Gaza chapter of the Women’s Affairs Research and Training Center from 1991-92 and its Executive Director from 1993-94; was Steering Committee member of the Bisan Center for Research and Development from 1991-93 and of the Women’s Affairs Technical Committees from 1992-94; served on the Advisory Board on Palestinian Women NGOs of the World University Service, UK, from 1992-95; studied at the same time towards her PhD in Cultural Anthropology, which she received from Temple University in Aug. 1994; worked as Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Birzeit University from 1994-96, then became Research Coordinator of the MA Program in Gender, Law and Development of Birzeit’s Institute of Women’s Studies as well as Program Chairperson from 1996-2004; serves on the Editorial Board of the Middle East Report since 1996 and of the Jerusalem Quarterly File since 1998; is a participant in the Palestinian-Israeli Academic Discussion Group (PALISAD) since 1997; was Visiting Scholar at the Women’s Studies Institute at New York University in 1998; participated in the Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (PFIPP) from 2001-04; member of the Institute for Jerusalem Studies since 1995, the Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Counseling since 1998, Muwatin since 2001, Greenpeace Mediterranean since 2001, and Miftah since 2003; was Chair of the Birzeit University Right to Education Committee from 2002-2004; co-chaired (with Dafna Golan from the Hebrew University) the Israeli-Palestinian-South African Conference The South African Transition: Lessons for the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict at the Human Sciences Research Council, Cape Town, in April 2003; holder of the Prince Klaus Chair in Development and Equity at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, in 2005; has published numerous papers and articles in the field of gender, anthropology, civil society and politics, as well as co-edited Annotated Bibliography on Palestinian Women (with Pari Baumnann; Jerusalem: Arab Thought Forum, 1991) and The Socio-Economic Bases of Palestinian Opinion Formation (with Nader Izzat; Nablus, CPRS, 1997).

Born in Umm Khaled (re-named by Jewish Agency as Netania) in 1938; received his secondary education in Tulkarem, then moved to Kuwait and Algeria where he worked as a school teacher; joined Fateh; became a PLO leader; moved to France in the 1960s, serving as Fateh representative; was bombed in his house in Paris on 8 Dec. 1972 by the Israeli Mossad (the operation was supervised by ex-Israeli Minister of Information Aharon Yariv); died of his injuries a month later on 9 Jan. 1973.

Born in Lifta in 1908; attended Ar-Rashidiyyeh School in Jerusalem; studied at the Law Institute in Jerusalem, then at the AUB, graduating with a Law degree; worked as a lawyer in Jerusalem and was active in the 1936 and 1939 Revolts; was imprisoned several times by the British authorities for his political activities; fled to Ramallah following the 1948 War; was a member and representative of the Communist Party; served as head of the Palestinian Refugee Congress in the early 1950s; could not return to Palestine after the 1967 War and lived in Amman; became Chairman of the PLO in 24 Dec. 1967, when Ahmed Shuqeiri resigned from the post; his mandate was extended by the 4 th PNC in Cairo in July 1968; attempted unsuccessfully to unite the PLO and the guerrilla groups; held the post of PLO Chairman until Feb. 1969; was elected at the 5 th PNC in Cairo in Feb. 1969 as Chairman of the PNC and as its Speaker at the 6 th PNC in Cairo in Sept. 1969; was opposed to the PLO departure from Amman/Jordan following the 1970 Black September events; continued working as lawyer and became Chairman of the Jordanian Bar Association; died in Amman on 16 June 2006.

Born in Ramallah on 3 Aug. 1945 to a Christian family; attended Al-Ahliyeh School, Ramallah, and the Coptic School in Jerusalem; head of the School Student Union from 1961-63; moved to the Studiumkolleg in Frankfurt, Germany, to study German language from 1964-65, then enrolled at the University of Frankfurt, studying Medicine from 1966-71; Board member and Secretary of the GUPS; established with other professionals the Palestinian Doctors’ Union and the Palestinian Red Crescent in Cairo in 1969; established and headed the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Germany (until 1972); returned to Palestine and opened a private clinic in Ramallah in 1972; established with other professionals the Patient’s Friends Society and became its Secretary in 1977; serves as Chairman of the Board of the Patient’s Friends Society since 1982; established and still heading the first traumatic rehabilitation center for Intifada Injuries (Abu Rayya Rehabilitation Center) in Ramallah in 1990; Board Member of the Arab Care Medical Services since 1990; member of the Palestinian Health Council and the Union of Ramallah People since 1992; Chairman of the Board of the Union of Ramallah People since 1994; member of the PLO Central Council; elected member of the PLC (Fateh) for the Ramallah district (Christian quota) in the Jan. 1996 elections; second deputy speaker of the PLC since 1998; head of the Board of Trustees of the Ramallah Regional Emergency and Trauma Center since 2001.

Born in Ramallah in 1953; received a BA in English Literature from the University of Cairo; worked as a journalist; worked for the Jordanian Ash-Sha‘ab newspaper in Jerusalem from 1976-79, then was its editor until 1981; organizer for PLO activities in the West Bank during the 1970s/early 1980s, for which he was placed under house arrest by the Israeli authorities from Aug. 1980 to mid-1981; worked in the Public Relations Dept. at Birzeit University from 1981-84; served as Chairman of the Arab Journalists’ Union in the OPT from 1983-85; on 3 Nov. 1986, was deported by Israel to Algeria via Geneva for “activities on behalf of Fateh”; linked up with the PLO in Tunis and became an aid to Khalil Al-Wazir; worked as PLO press representative in Tunis; was considered a link between the ‘outside’ leadership in Tunis and the inside’ leadership in the OPT; liaised between PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and the media during the 1991 Madrid peace talks; returned to Palestine in 1994; established Al-Ayyam newspaper in Ramallah in Dec. 1995 and serves as its editor since; became a political advisor to Arafat as well as a member of final status talks team; participated in the July 2000 Camp David talks and wrote a book about his experience, entitled The Camp David Papers (Ramallah, 2000); Board of Trustees member of An-Najah University; writes political essays and short stories; among his publications are Rites for Another Day (Arabic, 1986).

Born in the Shati RC, Gaza, in 1962 to refugee parents from Al-Jora (near Asqalan); studied at UNRWA schools and the Azhar Institute in Gaza; enrolled at the Arab Language Dept. of the Islamic University in Gaza in 1981 and graduated with a BA in Education in 1986; worked in the university’s Islamic Bloc from 1981; was a member of the university’s Student Council in 1983-84 and its elected head in 1985-86; was a close associate of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin; joined Hamas, for which he was arrested and imprisoned by Israel for 18 days in 1987 and for six months in 1988; was arrested again after his release and sentenced to three years in prison in May 1989 (together with Sheikh Ahmad Yassin); served as member and Sec. of the Board of Trustees of the Islamic University, and as its Director of Administrative Affairs and of Academic Affairs; was Chairman of the Islamic Society Club in Gaza from 1990-2000; was among the deportees to Marj Az-Zuhur, South Lebanon, in Dec. 1992; following the release of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 1997, served as his top aide and bureau chief (until Yassin’s assassination in March 2004); Hamas politburo member; is considered Hamas’ main administrator in Gaza and as more pragmatic than other Hamas leaders; has acted as Hamas’ go-between with the PA; was involved in the summer 2003 hudna talks with other Palestinian factions and the PA; survived an assassination attempt by Israel while accompanying Sheikh Ahmad Yassin on 6 Sept. 2003.

Born in Rama, Upper Galilee in 1965 to a Christian family; began studying Greek in Jerusalem after high school; then went to Greece to study theology a t the recommendation of the previous Patriarch, Diodoros I; earned an MA in Theology from Thessalonica University in 1991; returned to Jerusalem in the summer of 1991; received the title of Archimandrite (the rank of Bishop in Western churches); in 1993, became spokesman and Director of the Patriarchate’s Arab Dept.; also worked as a teacher in local schools and lecturer in Christianity at the Haifa Arab Teachers’ College; renown for his media appearances in which he focuses on Palestinian identity, which has gained him popularity among Arabs and angry reactions by the Israeli authorities; was arrested from his home in the Old City of Jerusalem and interrogated at the Russian Compound detention center (Al-Moscobiya) under allegations of “incitement” and visiting Syria and Lebanon; had his Israeli passport confiscated and was pressured to refrain from political activities; was on Dec. 2004 awarded the Jerusalem Prize by the PA Ministry of Culture (together with Sheikh Mohammed Hussein) as part of the Palestine Cultural Prizes of 2000; in July 2002, was fired from his post as spokesman by Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem Irineos I who accused him of “supporting the Palestinian terrorism,” noting his rejection to sign a document condemning the Palestinian operations; was again briefly arrested and interrogated in 2002 and 2003; was a member of the Constitutional Consultative Committee that worked on the third draft of the Palestinian constitution (published in March 2003); was active, successfully, in the de-thronement of Greek Orthodox Patriarch Irineos from his post following charges of land sale belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church to Zionist settlers in 2005.

Born in Jaffa in 1913 to a family from Tulkarem; nephew of Yousef Heikal; was raised in Jaffa and Tulkarem; graduated from the AUB with a BA in Commerce in 1934; worked in Jaffa in the citrus marketing business; was a member of the Jaffa Chamber of Commerce; co-founded Ash-Sha‘ab newspaper in Jaffa in 1947 and served as its editor-in-chief; was unable to return to Jaffa after the 1948 Nakba and lived in Tulkarem; was member of the Palestinian National Party until 1956; served on the Tulkarem City Council in 1961; became member of the first PNC in 1964; was elected mayor of Tulkarem on 27 Oct. 1963 and re-elected on 23 April 1972; served as Board Director of Al-Fajr newspaper in Jerusalem; was co-founder of the Red Crescent Hospital and Az-Zakat Committee in Tulkarem; was Board member of the Palestinian Housing Council; was the first person to publicly announce that the PLO is the sole and official representative of the Palestinian people in the early 1970s; was a founding member of the National Guidance Committee in November 1978; became Honorary Chairman of a cultural sports club in Tulkarem; was placed under house arrest by the Israeli authorities from 1980-82; opposed the Oslo Accords from the beginning; resigned from his mayoral position in 1998; died on 29 July 2001.

Born in Tulkarem in 1924; completed her secondary education in Tulkarem; founded together with other women the Women’s Coalition Club in Tulkarem in 1948; among the founders of Al-Jihad Hospital (which later became known as Al-Jihad Public Hospital) in 1948 and volunteered there for seven years; contributed in transforming the Women’s Coalition Club into the Red Crescent Society after 1955 (and was elected its Pres. in 1960); contributed in the organizing of a number of centers related to women, literacy and other social services in the 1950s; founded a childbirth hospital under the auspices of the Red Crescent Society in 1964; helped organize a fund for university students after 1967; established a home for orphans and homeless children in 1981, and a kindergarten for working women; founded another childbirth hospital in 1987; died in 1998.

Born in Al-Thahiriyyah, near Hebron, in 1951; received a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Jordan, Amman, in 1974, an MA in English Literature from Roosevelt University, USA, in 1979, and a PhD in Comparative and English Literature from the University of Iowa, USA, in 1986; became an Associate Professor of English Literature at Birzeit University; later served as Dean at the university’s of the Faculty of Arts; worked also as novelist and writer and has published several books, incl. The Other Side of the Promised Land (1990), and The Remains (1997); among the signatories of a communiqué to the public titles No Retreat from our National Goals, published on 20 Dec. 2001; member of the Birzeit University Council in 2004/05.

Born in Nablus in 1889; had a leading role in the women’s movement in Nablus; founded the Arab Women’s Union in Nablus in 1922; active in collecting donations for the Palestinians revolutionaries and resistance to Zionist expansion; died in 1948.

Born in Haifa in 1944; bother of Hani Al-Hassan; joined the ANM in Damascus and soon became a leader of the local branch after the 1961 break-up of the UAR; joined the first command structure of the Palestine Action Committee, which the ANM established in Sept. 1964; also worked on the editorial board of Al-Hurriyya from 1965, calling for independent Palestinian action and attacks on Israel; became member of the politburo of the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Pal­es­tine (PDFLP – later DFLP) after split­ting from the PFLP in early 1969 and served as its first representative to the PLO Exec. Council in Sept. 1969; was member of the PLO team that negotiated with a Lebanese delegation in Egypt the ‘Cairo Agreement’ in Nov. 1969, regulating mutual relations, incl. armed fedayeen presence in Lebanon; left the PDF and PLO Exec. Committee in 1971; worked as an editor of Shu’un Filastiniyya and Al-Safir in Lebanon; created the PLO mouthpiece Al-Yom Al-Sabe’ in March 1984 in France; Founding Committee member of the Right of Return Congress of the Palestine Right to Return Coalition (Al-Awda); serves as member of the Board of Directors of the Palestine Land Society; lives in France and works as an analyst and journalist, among others for the London-based Al-Hayat.

Born in Haifa in 1937; brother of Khaled Al-Hassan; became a refugee after the Nakba of 1948, ending up in the Yarmouk camp near Damascus; joined the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1950s; studied Engineering in the 1950-60s in Darmstadt and Munich, Germany; worked there via the GUPS in Europe and became the elected President of GUPS in 1962 at a congress in Gaza; leader of many affiliated workers’ unions in the early 1960s; formed and led his own underground commando group in Germany; joined Fateh in 1963 and committed his group to it; was Fateh’s main link in Europe from 1963 until 1967; founding member of the PLO in 1964; member in the military council of Al-’Asifa forces from 1967-1970 and leader of its armed resistance from 1972-75; in early 1970, served as regional head of Fateh in Jordan; helped opening PLO channels to China in the 1970s; became deputy of Salah Khalaf; from 1974, political aide to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat; then political representative to Tehran, becoming the first Palestinian representative to Iran, in 1979; member of the Fateh Central Committee since May 1980; member of the PLO Central Council since the 1980s; PLO representative in Amman in 1982; Chairman of the Saudi-Palestinian Joint Committee; Chairman of the Palestinian side in the Palestinian-French Committee from 1985-91; played an important role in the Jordanian-Palestinian agreement signed with King Hussein in 1985; led negotiations with the Israeli government between 1986-88; was critical of the PLO’s stance in the 1990 Gulf Crisis, of the negotiation process with Israel, and of Arafat’s leadership style; among the Palestinian figures from various political backgrounds who met in Amman in Dec. 1994 to establish the Palestinian Democratic Party; returned to Gaza in mid-Nov. 1995; member of the Fateh Executive Committee; served as Arafat’s chief political adviser on day-to-day matters, his special envoy and crisis manager; acted as head of the PNC foreign relations committee from 1989-2004; appointed as PA Interior Minister on 29 Oct. 2002 until April 2003; currently head of the Fateh Mobilization and Organization bureau.

Born in Haifa in 1928; eldest brother of Hani Al-Hassan; fought in the struggle of 1947-48 and fled Haifa in its aftermath; became with his family refugee in Sidon, Lebanon; formed the short-lived commando group Tahrir Filastin in 1949; worked as a teacher in Damascus whilst attempting to organize groups; helped founding the Islamic Liberation Party in 1952; left, after being arrested in late 1952, to Kuwait; worked as a civil servant, typist, and later as Sec.-Gen. of the Municipal Council Board in Kuwait; was awarded Kuwaiti citizenship; had first contacts with Fateh in 1959, became member in 1962; was named to and became the leader of the first Fateh Central Committee; was named to the PLO Exec. Committee in 1968 (until 1973) and became later head of its Political Dept.; became head of the PNC’s Foreign Relations Committee after 1973 (first PLO ‘foreign minister’ and was as such main architect of the PLO’s foreign policy); following the Oct. 1973 War, argued that the Palestinian struggle could continue with a state in the OPT; made an “unofficial” five-point proposal in April-May 1980, advocating Israel’s withdrawal from the OPT, deployment of UN forces, and work on arrangements for the creation of a Palestinian state in the OPT; known as opponent to military means and advocator of democratic values; called in April 1991 for the election of a Palestinian provisional government capable of ending the PLO’s isolation; authored Grasping the Nettle of Peace (1992), advocating a Swiss-style confederation in which citizens from Israel, the OPT and Jordan vote according to their canton, hence no recognition of the 1948 land taken by Israel; supported the Madrid formula but opposed the handling of the Oslo process; refused to join the PA; died in Rabat on 8 Oct. 1994 from cancer.

Born in Jerusalem on 28 Dec. 1953 into an Armenian family; was educated at the Frères College in the Old City of Jerusalem; received a BA in Political Science from the AUB in 1975 and an MA in International Relations from the University of Toledo, Ohio, USA, in 1976; worked at the University of Bethlehem first as a lecturer in Political Science from 1981-85; also served as Dean of Students at the University of Bethlehem from 1983-91; continued his studies and earned a PhD in Political Science from the University of Cincinnati, USA, in 1986; is a member of the Arab Association of Political Science since 1986 (executive member in 1987-88); returned to the University of Bethlehem as Assistant Professor (1986-91), then Associate Professor (1991-98) of Political Science and International Relations; was managing editor of the Bethlehem University Journal from 1986-91, then editor-in-chief in 1992-93; also served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and as Chairman of the Humanities Dept. from 1992-96; serves as Executive Vice-Pres. of Bethlehem University since 1996; was a consultant to the Palestinian final status negotiating team on Refugees from 1997-99; consultant and Steering Committee member of the Orient House in Jerusalem from 1997-2002 (serving also as head of the Jerusalem Task Force at the Orient House Negotiations Affairs Dept.); represented the PLO in many second-track diplomacy meetings between 1997-2002; served also as tourism consultant to PECDAR (1997-98) and as consultant to the MOPIC and UNESCO (1997-98) and to the PA Higher Ministerial Committee for Church Affairs (1998-2001); served as Pres. of the Rector’s Conference at the PA Ministry of Education from 1998-2003; was promoted to the rank of Full Professor at Bethlehem University in Sept. 1999; Pres. of the PEACE (Palestinian-European-American-Education) program since 2000; is member of the Editorial Board of various publications, incl. Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies, Citizenship Studies (UK), Bulletin of Search for Common Ground (US), and Palestine-Israel Journal (Jerusalem); has many times been visiting scholar, incl. at the University College of Dublin (1987), the Earlham College (1991-2000), and to the Universities of Vermont (1991-2000), of Maryland (1994), of Villanova (1996), and of Reims (1996/97); is a member of the Middle East Studies Association, the Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG), the Arab Association for Human Rights, the Copenhagen-based International Alliance for Peace (since 1997), and the International Consultative Group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC; Board member of the Center for Democracy and Workers’ Rights, Ramallah, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Panorama Center, Ramallah; received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Reims, France, in 1996, and was nominated for the Gleitsman Middle East Award in 1998/99; was appointed to become the Palestinian representative to London in Oct. 2005; has published extensively in comparative and Middle East politics; among his books are Palestine Factionalism in the National Movement During the Mandatory Period (Jerusalem: PASSIA, 1990), Political Opposition within the Palestine National Movement, 1919-1939 (Jerusalem: Al-Bayader, 1987); co-edited Citizenship and the State in the Middle East (Syracuse University Press, 2000); appointed as ambassador, Head of the Palestinian General Delegation to the United Kingdom in late 2005.

Born in Nazareth in 1908 to a Bedouin family from Al-Huwara in Galilee; attended local schools in Nazareth, then the Teachers’ College in Jerusalem; worked from 1932-42 as a school teacher; joined, at the same time, the School of Law in Jerusalem, graduating as a lawyer; was close to Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini; founded the Al-Najada movement in Haifa aiming to unite Arab youth in 1945; served as Commander of the Palestine Arab Youth Organization; tried to smuggle arms into Palestine from Egypt; wrote a book entitled Sirr An-Nakba (“The Secret Behind the Disaster”) (Nazareth, 1952); member of the “unofficial” Palestinian delegation to the Lausanne conferences of the Palestine Conciliation Commission that took place between April-Aug. 1949, where they appeared as "representatives of refugee camps"; opened a law office in Nazareth; was elected a judge.

Born in Salt, Jordan, in Nov. 1938, to a Jordanian Greek Catholic Bedouin tribe; early education from the Al-Hussein Secondary School in Amman; joined the ANM at an early age; studied at the University of Cairo Medicine, but for political reasons ceased his studies at the university for 10 years; worked as a teacher, writer and journalist in Jordan in 1955-56; resumed his studies at, graduating with a BA in Philosophy and Psychology; later also earned a PhD from Moscow; went underground in 1959 when the ANM became persecuted in Jordan; was sentenced to death in absentia by Jordanian authorities; served as head of the ANM in Iraq until 1963 and in South Yemen from 1963-67; while in Iraq, was imprisoned for 14 months for taking part in the struggle against Abdel Karim Qassem; while in Yemen fought against British occupation and for independence (about which he published a book entitled “The Crisis of the South Yemen Revolution"); returned to Jordan after 1967 and helped found the PFLP, of which he became one of the left-wing leaders; split and formed the leftist Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PDFLP; later known as DFLP) in Feb. 1969; became and remained elected DFLP Chairman as well as the DFLP’s main representative to the PNC and the PLO Exec. Committee since; presented his ‘Transitional National Program’ to the PLO in 1973, calling for a two-state solution based on UN resolutions and negotiations with the Israelis; known for early attempts to reach dialogue and contact with Israeli leftist groups; in April 1974, issued the first call by a Palestinian leader to all Israelis published in Israel’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper, and other papers, such as The Washington Post, Le Soir, Le Monde and the An-Nahar; wrote several books on the Palestinian resistance movement and other issues; exchanged a historical handshake with Israeli Pres. Ezer Weizmann during the funeral of King Hussein in Feb. 1999; was involved in the inter-Palestinian dialogue on uniting Palestinian factions in Cairo in Aug. 1999; was denied entry into the OPT in 1999; was involved in inter-Palestinian dialogue to discuss latest developments and Palestinian unity in the last few years; has extensively written on issues related to the Palestinian cause, incl. The Palestinian Resistance and the Arab Situation ( Beirut, 1964), The Crisis of the Palestinian Resistance Movement - Analysis and Forecasts ( Beirut, 1969), The Crisis of the PLO: Analysis and Criticism of the Roots and Solutions (1986), Oslo and the Other Balanced Peace (Damascus/Beirut, 1999), Beyond Oslo: Palestine, Where To? (Damascus/Beirut/Ramallah, 2000), The Intifada: The Arabic-Israeli Conflict, Where To? (2001).

Born in Bethlehem on 31 Dec. 1943 to a Palestinian Christian Catholic family; became Secretary of the Bethlehem District Workers Union from 1965; studied towards a BA in Economy at the Beirut Arab University until the War of 1967; was imprisoned by Israel 13 times since 1967 and served a total of four and a half years in Israeli jails; was active both on political and associational activities; founding member of the West Bank General Federation of Trade Unions in 1965, in charge of its International Relations from 1967-91, and its Vice-Secretary General from 1978-83; was Board Member of the Bethlehem Water Authority from 1976-83 and of the Jerusalem Electricity Company in 1977; served as deputy mayor of Bethlehem from 1983-97; was Chairman of the Center for Trade Union Rights in Jerusalem from 1988-93 and from 1994 in Bethlehem (after the Jerusalem office was closed down by the Israeli authorities); PNC member since 1990; member of the Bethlehem Peace Center since the late 1990s; serves as Palestinian representative for the London-based international Center for Trade Union Rights; was appointed as Dir.-Gen. of the PA Interior Ministry from 1997-2004; Board Member of the Bethlehem Municipal Council from 1997-2005; works as free-lance researcher and consultant; published a book on the history of Palestinian trade union movements from 1967-1990 (Jerusalem: UNDP, 1994).

Born in Jerusalem on 1 March 1958; received a Higher Diploma in Nursing from the St. John Ophthalmic College of Nursing in London; worked as ophthalmic nurse at St. John’s Hospital in Jerusalem from 1978 and served as Chairperson of the Nursing Union, Jerusalem, from 1979-84; also studied Law at Beirut University from 1982-84; gained a BA in Social and Family Development from Al-Quds Open University in Abu Dis; continued working as ophthalmic nurse until 2004; is a member of the Fateh Higher Committee; head of the Association of Women Committees for Social Work in Jerusalem; head of the Board of Trustees of the Jerusalem Center for Women; member of the Women’s Affairs Technical Committees; Steering Committee member for the Project Women Engendering Peace Process; Chairperson of the Women Dept. and the Israeli Affairs Dept. of Fateh in Jerusalem; received the 1994 Peace Award from the Israeli peace organization and the Award of Exemplary Employee from Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain 1998; became Sec.-Gen. in the PA Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Feb. 2004; received an MA in Israeli Studies from Al-Quds University in 2005.

Born in Jaffa in 1907; attended the Arab College in Jerusalem; studied at Montpellier University in France, graduating with a Diploma in Criminal Sciences; continued his higher education at the University of Paris and earned a PhD in Law in 1935; also received an honors degree from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences in 1937; became Director of the Waqf in Lydda in 1938; was general inspector of the Waqf and Islamic schools; became mayor of Jaffa in 1945; was excluded from the Jaffa National Committee because he was considered to be an enemy of the traditional supporters of Haj Amin Al-Husseini, and a supporter of King Abdullah ;served as Ambassador of Jordan in Washington, Paris, London and Taipei; was the Jordanian delegate at the UN; has written numerous articles and books, incl. The Palestine Question; died in 1989.

Born in Gaza in 1952; studied Arabic Literature at Ein Shams University, Cairo, graduating with a Licentiate in 1976; was early an activist in the Fateh youth Ash-Shabiba; Fateh Sec.-Gen. in Gaza (counterpart to Marwan Barghouthi on the West Bank); served as Director of the Workers’ Committee at the College of Science and Technology in Khan Younis; member of the High Council for Refugee Camps set up in Dec. 1997 by Pres. Yasser Arafat; lost a son, Mohammed (17 years) during clashes with Israeli forces in Gaza in Feb. 2004; was closely Involved in the inter-factional meetings in Gaza in 2004/05; member of the PLO Central Council, the Fateh Revolutionary Council and the Fateh Mobilization and Organization bureau.

Born in Jerusalem in 1932; received a GCE from the Friends’ Boys School on 1950; studied Medicine at Cairo University, graduating with a M.B.B.Ch. in 1959; returned and worked as senior physician in the Internal Medicine and Cardiology Dept. of Augusta Victoria Hospital, Jerusalem, from 1959-62; then as Director of Preventive Medicine from 1962-65; moved to work with UNRWA in Jerusalem, first serving as Deputy Chief of Health and Director of Medical Services (from 1965-86), then as Chief of Health Services (1986-97); continued his studies at Aberdeen University, UK, and earned a Diploma in Health Management in 1989 and one in Health Economics in 1996; since 1997, works as independent consultant for Health Care Management; serves as Board of Trustees member at the Princess Basma Center for Disabled Children, Jerusalem, as Chairman of the Arab Studies Aid International and the Arab Orphanage Committee, Jerusalem, as Chairman of the Executive Board of the Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association, Jerusalem (since 1996), and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Al-Maqassed Charitable Society and Hospital, Jerusalem, (since 1997); is a member of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the Palestinian Higher Health Committee, and the Medical Committee at ANERA, Jerusalem.

Born in Aleppo, Syria, to Palestinian parents (father from Nablus, mother from Taybeh, Galilee); studied graduated English Literature at the AUB, graduating with a BA in 1970 and an MA in 1973; worked as a journalist with several publications; became editor-in-chief of the London-based Middle East Magazine in 1981; moved to New York in 1989 to join the UNDP, where she served as a senior development officer until 1999; also served as Pres. of the Association of Arab American University Graduates in 1997; manages her own consultancy firm Development Analysis and Communication Services (DACS) since 1999; was a co-founder of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation in 2002; served as Exec. Director of the Washington-based Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development and its educational program, the Palestine Center, in 2004; became a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Palestine Studies in 2005; her publications include Womanpower: The Arab Debate on Women at Work ( Cambridge, 1988).

Born in Nablus in 1934; received a BA in English Literature and an MA in Political Science from the University of Baghdad; worked as a teacher; one of the editors of the Review of the Center for Palestinian Studies at Baghdad University from 1974-1980; later moved to Tunis, where she worked in translation, especially of Palestinian poetry into English; has edited and translated Poetry of Resistance in Occupied Palestine (Iraqi Ministry of Culture and Guidance, 1969) and David Sinclair’s Edgar Allan Poe (into Arabic); her own writings include political articles published in Arabic newspapers and a collection of her prose poems Palestinian Songs (1977).

Born in Bethlehem in 1940; received a BA in Sociology and Philosophy from the University of Hull, UK, in 1963, and an M.Lit. in Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Durham, UK, in 1969; worked from 1966-69 also as a Research Fellow in Sociology of the Middle East at the Dept. of Social Theory and Institutions; lecturer in Sociology, Dept. of Social Theory and Institutions, Durham University, from 1969-71; then lecturer at the Center of Urban Studies, University College, London, from 1971-72; became Senior Research Fellow at the Palestine Research Center in Beirut from 1972-74; was an active DFLP member from 1973-1991, incl. being appointed as head of its Information Center in 1975, as member of its Central Committee in 1978, and to the Secretariat of the Central Committee in 1980; was on the Editorial Board of the Arabic weekly Al-Huriyya (Freedom) from 1973-87; member of the Secretariat of the General Union of Palestinian Writers and Journalists since 1974; spent the academic year of 1974-75 as Sociology lecturer at the University of Dar As-Salam, Tanzania; PNC member (independent) since 1983; served as Middle East Regional Secretary for the International Journalists Organization from 1983-88); was assigned Director of the PLO Dept. of Information from 1988-93); also worked as editor-in-chief of the Arabic theoretical quarterly Democratic Thought (published in Nicosia) from 1988-91; was elected member of the FIDA (the Palestinian Democratic Union) politburo until June 1993; Senior Associate Fellow, St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, from 1993-94); member of the academic Middle East Group in the UK since 1993; settled back in Palestine in July 1995 and became Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Palestine Research and Studies (CPRS), Nablus, as well as at Muwatin (non-resident); co-founder of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) in Ramallah and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute since 1996; also worked as a Consultant to the PA Ministry of Labor, Ramallah, during 1996-97; co-editor of the Palestinian Policy Journal, published by  CPRS in Nablus, from 1996-2000; Steering Committee member of the Social and Economic Policy Research Forum at MAS from 1996-2000; member of the Technical Advisory Committee to the Palestine Human Development Report since 1997; member of the Technical Advisory Committee and the Research Committee to the Palestinian National Team to Combat Poverty in Palestine from 1997-2000; Senior Research Fellow and Consultant at the Development Studies Program, Birzeit University, and member of its Technical Consultative Committee since 1997; Senior Researcher at Birzeit University’s Center of Women Studies since 1998 and the Institute of Law since 2001; member of the editorial board of the Journal of Palestine Studies since 2001 and of the Palestinian Studies Quarterly since June 2002; among his many publications are: The Palestinian Political System after Oslo; A Critical Assessment (Muwatin, Ramallah, and IPS, Beirut, 1998); The Formation of the Palestinian Elite: From the Palestinian National Movement to the Rise of the Palestinian Authority (Muwatin, 2002), and The Palestinian Middle Class (Muwatin, Ramallah, and IPS, Beirut, 2005).

Born in Gaza in 1940; was appointed a senior security officer in Fateh from 1970s; chief of the Palestinian General Security and Intelligence Service since the establishment of the PA; holds the rank of a General; member of the Palestinian Higher Committee on Negotiations; offered to resign in July 2004, because of the state of chaos and the lack PA reforms but was retained; was replaced in April 2005 by Pres. Mahmoud Abbas with his deputy, Tareq Abu Rajab.

Born in Jenin in 5 March 1958; resident of the Jenin Refugee Camp; studied Psychology at An-Najah National University in Nablus for two years but was unable to complete his studies due to his deportation by Israel in April 1988 for involvement with Fateh; served as head of An-Najah University Student Council while at the university; head of the Union of Youth Centers in the West Bank; was elected PLC member (Fateh) in the Jenin district in the 1996 elections; served as head of the PLC’s Refugee Affairs Committee; member of the General Assembly of the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights (until 24 Sept. 2004).

Born in Gaza on 15 May 1955 to a refugee family from Haifa; studied in UNRWA schools in Gaza; joined the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza in 1972; moved to Cairo in 1973 and studied Medicine and Surgery at Cairo University, graduating in 1980; worked as a physician at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza but was removed from his post by Israel in 1982 because of his political activities; took courses in pediatrics and worked in the field of maternity and child care; in 1987, was imprisoned for one year by Israeli authorities involvement in the (first) Intifada; was imprisoned for a second time in 1989 for similar reasons (until his release in 1993); was a harsh critique of the Oslo peace process from its outset; also criticized repeatedly the performance of the PA, especially its security apparatus; was arrested six times by the PA and imprisoned in 1994; currently serves as Director of the Palestinian Center for Studies and Research in Gaza and as editor-in-chief of its magazine Filastin; was arrested by PA security forces on 1 Dec. 2001; was involved in the ceasefire talks in 2003 as w