Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Dr. Anis Fawzi Qasim was born in Qalqilya in 1939, where he spent his life until 1957. He then moved between Syria, Kuwait, the United States, and Jordan. Qasim married in 1975 and has three children.
Qassim studied at Al-Saadiyya School in Qalqilya and obtained his high school diploma in 1957. He studied his first university degree (Bachelor’s) at Damascus University and graduated with a law degree in 1965. He obtained a Master’s degree in Comparative Law from the University of Miami in Florida, USA, in 1968. He also obtained a second Master’s degree in International Law from George Washington University in 1970, and a doctorate degree in Law from the same university in 1973.
Qassim practiced as a lawyer and legal advisor to the Industrial Bank of Kuwait in Beit Al-Khair from 1975 to 1977, and then as a partner at Al-Saleh, Graham & James in Kuwait from 1977 to 1990. Since 1992, he has been practicing law in his own private office in Amman, Jordan.
Qassim has several books specializing in law, including: The Law of Return and the Israeli Nationality Law (1973), and the Israeli Nation-State Law (2024).
Qassim embraced Marxist thought, but he did not belong to any Palestinian faction, although he was a supporter of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He did not hold any organizational positions in any Palestinian movement or organization. However, he did provide legal advice to the Palestinian leadership at certain times, and was appointed as a legal advisor to the Palestinian delegation in the Madrid and Washington negotiations in 1992. He resigned before the Oslo Accords were announced in 1993.
Qassim has many relationships with a number of prominent Palestinian figures, such as: Yasser Arafat, Salah Khalaf, Salim Al-Za'noun, Abbas Zaki, Khaled Meshaal, Musa Abu Marzouq, Ibrahim Ghosheh, Bashir Barghouti, Nasser Al-Qudwa, Zahdi Al-Tarzi, Jamal Al-Sourani, Dr. Jamal Naji, Leila Khaled, Tayseer Al-Zabri (Abu Ali Mustafa), and Mustafa Barghouti.
Qassem does not consider the Oslo Accords a second Nakba for the Palestinian people, but he views the division not as a split between Fatah and Hamas, but rather as a split between two political lines: the Oslo line and security coordination (sacred and unsacred), and the line of resistance and opposition to the occupation. Qassem believes that resisting the occupation in all its forms is a legitimate endeavor, and he calls for national partnership between all factions, parties, and figures within the framework of the Oslo Accords, including the Palestinian Authority.
Qassim believes that the conflict will not end unless the will of one of the two parties is broken: Zionism and the resistance forces. There is no compromise with Zionism, and the liberation of all of historic Palestine is a presumptive, national necessity after a long experience of Zionist colonialism and apartheid. The question of the form of the Palestinian state is, for him, a secondary matter. Qassim advocates resolving the Palestinian refugee issue through return in accordance with UN Resolution 194. He also views the current Palestinian political regime as dictatorial.
Qasim was arrested by the Jordanian authorities in 1957, following the overthrow of Suleiman al-Nabulsi's government. He was brought to trial and imprisoned for three years in Nablus prison, then in the Jafr desert detention center in southern Jordan. The detention experience profoundly affected Qasim, shaping his life and personality.
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