Personal Info
- Country of residence: Portugal
Information
Omar Shaaban Ismail, known as “Omar Shaaban”, was born in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on July 31, 1962, to a Palestinian refugee family whose origins trace back to the depopulated village of Al-Sawafir in the occupied Gaza district. He is married and has two children. He studied the primary stage at the Deir al-Balah Refugee Camp School and the Deir al-Balah Preparatory School for Boys, and the secondary stage at Al-Manfalouti Secondary School for Boys, where he obtained his high school diploma in 1979. He obtained a Bachelor's degree in Commerce from Zagazig University in Egypt in 1984, and a Master's degree in Development Studies from the University of Stirling in Scotland in 1995. He completed an intensive course in conflict resolution in cooperation with the University of Zurich in Switzerland in 2018. He worked as the Director of Development and Training Programs at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) between (1992-1999), then he was appointed as a consultant to the United Nations at the General Union of Palestinian Industries between (2000-2001), then as the Director of Catholic Relief Services in the Gaza Strip between (2001-2009), and as an economic advisor to the Dutch government in the Gaza Strip.
He founded and managed the Pal-Think for Strategic Studies Foundation in 1995. It is a non-governmental organization concerned with national issues and has publications in the economic and political fields. It is the political partner of the Swiss government in the Palestinian reconciliation paper. Omar Shaban is a member of a number of local institutions such as: the Accountants Association, the Aisha Association for the Protection of Women and Children, and the Palestinian Association of Businesswomen - Asala. He is the founder of Amnesty International in Palestine, and he is also the founder of the Palestinian groups of Amnesty International in Palestine.
Omar Shaaban participated in the activities of the First Intifada, and ran for the legislative elections in 1996.
He publishes diverse articles in Western, Arab, and Palestinian magazines and newspapers. He leans towards social democratic thought and social justice, and believes in democracy, the civil state, and public freedoms. He believes that Palestinians have the capacity to build an independent state that is part of the civilized world, and that they were able to build state institutions in a short time despite the shortcomings of the Oslo Accords. He believes that the results of the Oslo Accords could have been better, and that the Palestinian leadership did not utilize them as it should have. As for the division, it is the second Nakba that struck the Palestinian political project and dealt a fatal blow to the development process. The Palestinian leadership should have avoided it because a people under occupation cannot be divided. Omar Shaban supports peaceful resistance and negotiations, while stressing the need to strengthen the internal front by addressing the division and creating a Palestinian political system that emanates from the people and expresses their interests. He believes that the PLO and the Palestinian Authority should include all Palestinians, across all spectrums and ages, and that their representation should be genuine, including emerging forces in Palestinian society, including political Islam.
He believes the Palestinian people will not be broken, especially since they have proven their strength, resilience, and steadfastness. The Palestinian Authority may be defeated, but the people will not. Regarding the Arab world, he sees it as largely verbally supportive, with some Arab regimes and populations offering genuine solidarity. He believes the best and most viable solution to the Palestinian issue lies in achieving a one-state solution, with the return of refugees to their homes from which they were displaced.
Source
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
: From
To