Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Youssef Mahmoud Saleh, known as (Ahmed Youssef), was born in the Rafah (Shaboura) refugee camp for Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip on December 27, 1950, to a Palestinian refugee family whose origins trace back to the depopulated village of Huleiqat in the occupied Gaza district. He is married and has eight children. He completed his primary education at schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and his secondary education at Beersheba Secondary School for Boys, graduating in 1969. He then attended Al-Aqsa Islamic School in Jerusalem. In 1970, he traveled to Turkey for further studies. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Al-Azhar University in Egypt in 1979, a Master of Science degree in Industrial Technology from Colorado State University in the United States in 1984, a second Master of Science degree in International Media from the University of Missouri-Columbia (UM) in 1987, and a PhD in Political Science from Colorado State University in 1994. He worked for the Social Reform and Guidance Association in the UAE from 1979 to 1982, served as Director of the United Foundation for Research and Studies in the United States from 1991 to 2004, and was a political advisor to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh from 2006 to 2008. He also served as Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Palestinian National Unity Government. (2007-2011), and Director of the House of Wisdom Institute for Research and Conflict Resolution (based in Gaza City) since 2009, and Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Islamic University since 2015.
He joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1968, was active in Islamic work in the United States, was one of the leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Union in North America, joined Hamas immediately after its establishment, was one of its cadres in the United States, was a member of its political and media committee during the First Intifada, was one of the workers in its political office while he was abroad in the early nineties of the twentieth century, was a member of its general Shura Council, and participated in its meetings with European delegations from several countries such as Norway and the Netherlands.
He was active at the institutional level, becoming a member of a number of committees, unions, associations and bodies such as: the Follow-up Committee to Support Palestinian Unity, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, the Palestinian Engineers Syndicate, the Palestinian Writers and Authors Association, and the Palestinian National Accord Authority, which he heads.
He headed the editorial department of a number of magazines, such as: Al-Amal magazine, which was the voice of the Muslim Arab Youth Association in the United States, and Middle East International magazine, which was published in Arabic and English. He participated in a number of conferences and meetings of an academic and cultural nature, such as the Islam and West Conference: Cooperation, Not Confrontation (1993), and the Islam, America and Third Global Conference in cooperation with Georgetown University.
He is hosted on local, Arab and international media to comment on developments in the Palestinian cause and the conflict with the occupation. He writes analytical political articles in local, Arab and international magazines in both Arabic and English, such as the magazine Palestine al-Muslima, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Quds, Al-Ayyam Al-Filistiniya, The New York Times and The Washington Post. He has published a number of books, studies and research papers in both Arabic and English, in which he addressed issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the affairs of the Islamic movement in Palestine and the world, in addition to the problems of the relationship between Islam and the West, and Zionist campaigns of distortion and incitement against the Palestinians and Islamic movements. His books include: Transformations of Contemporary Islamic Thought (1983), The Political: Concepts and Positions (1990), The Islamic Movement and the Gulf War (1992), The Man: A Position Series (several parts, published successively since 2012), and The Encyclopedia of Men We Knew (two parts, joint).
Youssef believes that the Oslo Accords were a security agreement that did not do justice to the Palestinians, but rather employed them as security agents for the occupation. Its aim was to protect the occupation, and all its clauses were devoid of substance. Ultimately, it was a disaster for the Palestinian people and their cause. He believes that national relations between the factions are largely harmonious, as the equation changed, especially after the events of 2007. Everyone realized the necessity of including all parties in the national project and not depriving them of their convictions and visions for liberation and return. A kind of recognition of the other emerged within a political partnership and common ground. He affirms that all available forms of resistance should be employed according to the requirements of the stage and the developments of any political efforts that might be undertaken regarding the Palestinian cause. Resistance is a tactical act, whether military or peaceful, and he calls for a focus on nonviolent resistance to gain the sympathy of peoples who recognize the right to self-determination and to ensure a Palestinian presence in international forums, not just among Arab and Islamic nations. He believes that Hamas has declared its readiness to join the PLO, and that the PLO should be the national umbrella for all Palestinians, through free and fair elections in which they participate. Everyone, and there is no excuse for any Palestinian faction to monopolize power in the organization or the government, but the authority is the one that runs the organization and marginalized it, yet the organization can be revived to become the legitimate and sole representative of the Palestinian people.
It is believed that Arab regimes attempted to provide support to the Palestinians in the past, but Israel, through the United States, was able to influence official Arab positions through normalization with the enemy. Meanwhile, the Arab peoples remain alive and reject the occupation and the Zionist movement, and hope rests on them despite their current weakness and fragmentation. It is believed that a solution to the Palestinian question in the current context could be a single, binational state, given the Palestinians' capabilities and the fragmentation and weakness of the Arab world. This solution would preserve the Palestinians' rights, including their right of return, and protect the holy sites. It could also convince the international community that the conflict with the occupation is a struggle for rights, thus ending the claim that we want to get rid of the Jews. The problem lies with the Zionist movement and its ideology of replacing the Palestinian people with Jewish groups. Therefore, a federation of the Holy Land could be established, leading to settlements for the problems that arose from the Nakba and the Western bias that attempted to solve the Jewish problem at the expense of the Palestinian people.
Youssef emphasizes that the return of refugees to their homes from which they were displaced is their full right according to UN Resolution 194, and they must also be compensated. As for the Palestinians who have settled themselves in other places, their right as Palestinians must be recognized through a Palestinian passport, and they must be compensated for their unwillingness to return, and they must not be prevented at all from returning whenever they wish.
Youssef believes that the Palestinian political system is an autocratic system subject to the rule of one person, despite some practices that show democracy, but it is under a totalitarian dictatorial system. This system needs to be rebuilt and restructured so that every person has a voice and an opinion in choosing their political leaders, and so that there is an elected authority and a consensual democratic government is formed in which all national and struggle forces participate.
Youssef believes that the Palestinian cause, in its current state and in light of this Israeli aggression, Western bias, and the weakness of the Arab nation, needs a calming of tensions in which the Palestinians can find supporters and backers to confront international bias, repair the situation, including the Palestinian division, restructure the resistance to represent the entire national body, and emphasize that it is a right to defend the Palestinian people for self-determination, so that the Palestinians appear as a people with a known political front that can address the world, and make an attempt to change the balance of power and strengthen the Arab and Islamic depth and the people of conscience throughout the world.
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