Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Hussam Mahmoud Abdul Rahman Khader was born on December 8, 1961, in the town of Kafr Rumman in the Tulkarm Governorate of the northern West Bank. His family is a Palestinian refugee originally from Jaffa, and they settled in Balata Refugee Camp. He is married and has one son and two daughters. He attended elementary school in Kafr Rumman and the UNRWA school in Balata Camp, and middle school in Balata Camp. He received his high school diploma in the humanities from Beit Furik High School in 1980 and earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Kuwait University in 1988.
Khader began his national activism at a young age, influenced by the reality of displacement and his family's national role. As a school student, he participated in demonstrations against the occupation, and during his university studies at An-Najah National University, he was active in the student youth movement. He eventually settled in Tunisia, where President Yasser Arafat tasked him with a world tour to explain the suffering of the Palestinian people. In 1988, he was elected to the Palestinian National Council, and in 1990, he became a member of the administrative body of the General Union of Palestinian Students. In 1994, he returned to Palestine under the Oslo Accords and settled in Balata refugee camp. He was chosen to head the Committee for the Defense of Palestinian Refugee Rights in 1994, and in 1996, he won a seat in the Palestinian Legislative Council on the independent "Freedom and Independence" list after being excluded from the Fatah list.
During his imprisonment, Khader wrote 125 pamphlets documenting his daily life in prison, as well as political and literary issues, but he postponed their publication until later. These include the studies "We Are the Conquerors," "The Philosophy of Organizational Decision-Making," and "Revolutionary Erosion: A Study in Security Collapse," as well as the novel "The Snake." He is a frequent guest in local, Arab, and international media outlets and has participated in numerous workshops, conferences, and seminars.
Khader believes that the Palestinians did not manage the historic moment provided by the Oslo Accords well. A democratic model led by an institution that adheres to the rule of law was not created, so corruption became widespread, the Palestinians became weak in the face of the brutal practices of the occupation, and it was no longer possible to establish a Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967. Khader believes that the Fatah and Hamas movements bear responsibility for the division; The Fatah leadership at the time could not tolerate the idea of a power-sharing arrangement in light of Hamas's victory in the legislative elections. He believes that there is a pressing need to achieve political partnership, but the Palestinian factions are not ready for the requirements of partnership, as they are essentially political tribes that fear democracy. He adds that the entry of Hamas and Islamic Jihad into the PLO in its current state is not useful and does not benefit the Palestinian cause. He believes that the future scenario for the issue is based on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip. He believes that, from a national standpoint and in commitment to the decisions of the National Councils that called for the establishment of a Palestinian state on any liberated part of the land, this scenario is realistic since the Gaza Strip is liberated land, while the West Bank will be under the self-administration of the Palestinian Authority over the population, which will later be transferred to Jordan.
Khader suffered greatly under the occupation. He was expelled from his school and arrested in 1975 for 18 days, followed by 25 arrests. He was placed under house arrest by the occupation forces between 1984 and 1986. He was wounded by the occupation forces three times, the first time in 1987 when he was shot in the right leg with live ammunition. He was arrested a few days later and deported to southern Lebanon in 1988, preventing him from completing his university studies at An-Najah National University. He then continued his education at Kuwait University. The occupation has prevented him from traveling for a long time, even by the Jordanian authorities.
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