Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Abdul Jawad Saleh Atta al-Hamayel (born December 3, 1931 in al-Bireh ) is a Palestinian politician and a former member of the Palestinian Central Council and the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization between 1974 and 1982. He is also the first Minister of Agriculture in the governments of the Palestinian National Authority , and an elected member of the first Palestinian Legislative Council in 1996 with 29,445 votes. He was the mayor of al- Bireh for more than 20 years.
His life
He was born in the city of Al-Bireh in 1931. After completing his secondary education, he joined the American University in Cairo and obtained a BA in Political Economy in 1955. He was active in the Baath Party at the time he was studying.
Upon his return to Palestine, he joined organized political work and then popular political work. Saleh was elected mayor of Al-Bireh in 1972 at the head of a national list , and with other representatives of popular institutions and parties active in the occupied territories, he formed the National Guidance Committee, which led the Palestinian struggle against settlements and occupation practices, which fell under the Palestinian National Front , and did not present itself as an alternative to the Palestine Liberation Organization , which was headed by Yasser Arafat , and its institutions and offices abroad.
Founded and headed the Jerusalem Center for Development Studies in Amman after his deportation in 1973; returned to the occupied Palestinian territories in April 1993. Elected as a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council in the Ramallah district in the 1996 legislative elections; appointed Minister of Agriculture in the Palestinian National Authority for two years but resigned from his position in 1998; was one of the signatories of the “Document of Twenty”, the first public statement criticizing corruption in the Palestinian Authority, entitled “A Cry from the Homeland” in late November 1999.
Saleh, who was seen as a principled figure, took independent positions and opposed the policies of the late President Yasser Arafat, who failed to subjugate him. He strongly opposed the concessions made during the Oslo Accords and remained committed to his principles. His son Maher Abdel Jawad was martyred during military training he was conducting in Lebanon in 1974.
His resignation from the PLO Central Council caused confusion in Palestinian political life, as he accused the PLO leadership, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, of undermining the Palestinian cause.
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