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ABBAS, MAHMOUD ZEIDAN (ABU MAZEN) (1935 - ) |
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in Safad in 1935; left as refugee for Syria in 1948, worked as an
elementary teacher and later gained a BA in law from Damascus University;
worked as director of personnel in Qatar's civil service and began to
manage and organize Palestinian groups; founding member of Fateh; leading
Palestinian figure devoted to the search for a peaceful solution to the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict; member of the PNC (since 1968) and the PLO
Exec. Committee; advocated negotiations with Israelis, since the early
1970; Ph.D. from the Oriental College in Moscow in History (on Zionism);
initiated dialogue with Jewish and pacifist movements in the 1970s; led
negotiations with Matiyahu Peled that resulted in the announcement of
"principles of peace" based on a two-state-solution in Jan. 1977; headed
the PLO Department for National and International Relations since 1980;
elected by the PLO Exec. Committee to replace Abu Jihad (assassinated in
April 1988) as chairman of the portfolio on the Occupied Territories in
May 1988; coordinated the negotiation process during the Madrid
conference; was the first PLO official to visit Saudi Arabia after the
Gulf War in Jan. 1993, and 'apologized' to the Gulf countries for the
PLO's stand during the crisis; headed the Palestinian negotiating team to
the secret Oslo talks and signed the DoP on 13 Sept. 1993 on behalf of
PLO; head of the PLO Negotiating Affairs Dept. since 1994; signed the
Interim Agreement in Sept. 1995 on behalf of PLO; returned to Palestine in
Sept. 1995 after 48 years in exile and took residences in Gaza and
Ramallah; authored an account on the Oslo negotiations entitled Through
Secret Channels: The Road to Oslo (1995); drafted together with his
Israeli counterpart Yossi Beilin the controversial 'Framework for the
Conclusion of a Final Status Agreement Between Israel and the PLO' (better
known as Abu-Mazen-Beilin Plan) in Oct. 1995 (although its existence was
denied for five years before being published in Sept 2000); head of the
Central Election Commission for the PLC elections in Jan.1996; was elected
himself in Qalqilya; serves as PLO head of international relations and as
Sec.-Gen. of the PLO Exec. Committee (since April 1996); headed (with Uri
Savir) the first session of the Israeli-PA final status talks in May 1996;
is considered as Arafat's deputy; nominated Prime Minister by Arafat on 10
March 2003. Also see: http://www.abumazen.com/ |
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