Personal Info
- Country of residence: Portugal
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Osama Juma Mahmoud Al-Ashqar was born in the Al-Raml Al-Janoubi Palestinian refugee camp in Latakia, Syria, on December 31, 1970, to a Palestinian refugee family originally from the depopulated village of Zarnouqa in the occupied Ramla district. He is married and has four sons and one daughter. He completed his primary education in UNRWA schools in the Al-Raml camp and his secondary education in schools in Medina. He earned a bachelor's degree in Arabic Language from the Faculty of Arabic Language at the Islamic University of Medina, a master's degree from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Khartoum in 1994, a doctorate in Arabic Language from the University of Khartoum, and a doctorate in Media from Omdurman Islamic University.
He worked as a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Khartoum between (1997-2005), and worked in the same university's publications department. He was the editor-in-chief of the Palestinian Information Center website between (1999-2005), and founded the Al-Rased Center for Studies in Sudan in 2000, and was its political advisor. He was the founder and general manager of the Palestine Foundation for Culture between (2006-2015), and chairman of the board of directors of the Palestinian Manuscripts and Documents Center between (2009-2011). He was the head of the executive office of the popular campaign for the celebration of Jerusalem as the capital of Arab culture in 2009, and the media advisor to the Turkish Businessmen Association in Sudan “MUSIAD”, and a professor of the literature of return at the Academy of Refugee Studies - Kingdom of Bahrain, and a media advisor at the Media Activists Center for Development, and director of PATH WAY Public Relations and Investor Services Company, and founder of the Africa Information Center in 2020.
Al-Ashqar was a member of several unions, including: the Arab Writers Union (Damascus), the General Union of Palestinian Writers and Journalists, the Sudanese Writers and Authors Union, the Sudanese Journalists Union, the Syrian Publishers Union, the Arab Publishers Union, the Global Network of Organizations Working for Jerusalem, the Board of Trustees of the Jerusalem International Foundation (Beirut), and the International Federation of Journalists. He was the Secretary of the National Intellectuals Forum in 2007 and the Secretary of the Arab Bureau for Resisting Cultural Normalization, affiliated with the Arab Writers Union.
Al-Ashqar writes analytical newspaper articles on topics of literature, language, politics, history and Islamic thought. He wrote regularly in the Sudanese newspaper Al-Wifaq between (1999-2002), and in the Jordanian newspaper Al-Sabeel between (2009-2011). He also wrote in other newspapers and magazines, presented working papers at dozens of Arab and international conferences, and has published research in specialized journals. He is known for his interest in the security of the seas, the Nile waters, the Horn of Africa and the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. His visits to these regions helped him to provide a vision of the challenges and conditions they live in, and he wrote studies and analyses on this subject. He is also the producer of a number of documentary programs, including the documentary “Land of the Black People,” and a presenter of radio programs on Al-Furqan Channel.
He has published several books, including: The Arabic Language Curriculum for the Faculties of the Medical Complex at the University of Khartoum (2003), Jewish Communities in Northwest Arabia (2004), Sudan on the Israeli Agenda (2004), The Conquest of Palestine: Historical Investigations Revealing the Details of the Conquest of Palestinian Regions in the Era of the Prophet and His Two Successors (2006), Israel: Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Speakers of the Knesset from its Establishment until 2006 (2007), A Guide to Resisting Cultural Normalization (2010), Encyclopedia of the Companions on the Land of Palestine (2010), The Stations of Those Who Walk to Support Al-Aqsa and Palestine (2010), The City of Jerusalem in the First Islamic Century (2011), The Stations of Blessing (2014), The Geography of Sacred Love (2017), Jerusalem in the Early Abbasid Era (2019), The Prophetic Management of Media Campaigns (2020), and The Battle of Khaybar (Vision, Project, and Issues) (2021). He has also written several novels, including: The Graves of Death (2010), Searching for the Ark (2016), and a number of poetry collections, including: The Collection of the Aunts of the Messenger of God (2007), and The Collection of Al-Furqan (2009).
Al-Ashqar’s interest in the Palestinian cause and his interaction with the frameworks working for it began during his university studies, where he participated in the Union of Palestinian Students (a union separate from the General Union of Palestinian Students affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization), and was a member of its administrative office in Sudan, and responsible for the cultural committee. He gave introductory lectures on the Palestinian cause to African students in Sudanese universities, in addition to his media activity in official and civil Sudanese media institutions, and his tour of a number of countries to introduce the Palestinian cause, including Kuwait, Qatar, Yemen, Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon and Malaysia.
Al-Ashqar considers the Oslo Accords a harmful deviation from the path of liberating Palestine and mobilizing the nation around it, and that they were imposed on the Palestinian leadership at its weakest moment. He believes that the Palestinian division is an inevitable reality in light of the conceptual, referential, and programmatic divergence of the Palestinian factions. He believes that it has diverted effort from resistance action and exhausted it greatly in the context of seeking reconciliations that were clearly unattainable with a Palestinian leadership that adheres to the authority of the occupation and the American administration. He calls for concessions for the sake of unity not to come at the expense of vision and principles, and for cooperation and coordination in the field of popular resistance to be the minimum common ground for all. He believes that what is required in Palestinian action is not necessarily a unified merger between the factions of national action, nor a unity of ideas and visions, but rather an understanding of the basic values that should guide everyone towards common goals. He believes that any partnership based on forced agreements and coercion will fragment Palestinian action and distract it from its goals and its real enemy.
Al-Ashqar believes that mature armed resistance is the shortest way to achieve goals and objectives, and that it is not isolated from peaceful popular resistance and escalating protest, and that the act of resistance is a positive act that should not be abandoned, and that its chances of success exist, especially if its policies and controls are reviewed according to changing circumstances. He believes that re-revolutionizing national action in all its sectors, programs and concepts, focusing on liberation priorities, and searching for renewed allies and friends is the most effective and fastest way to approach effective solutions to dismantle the occupation system. He believes that fragmented ideas such as the two-state solution or a state on the 1967 borders have proven ineffective and incapable of achieving any national liberation stage, and that they have only complicated the Palestinian reality. He argues that simplifying the issue to return to the idea of comprehensive confrontation is safer and less costly than the fragmented ideas that have burdened Palestinian political action.
He calls for combining compensation and the return to the lands from which the fathers were displaced, considering them a duality that should not be separated. He sees no benefit in building a political system under the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority because of the Authority's functions that serve the occupation project by managing the affairs of the Palestinian population under occupation. He believes that work should be done to build a national resistance system with experience in resistance societies' projects. He believes that the intellectual confrontation is one of the missing fronts in resistance action, and that this is due to the weak interest of the Palestinian leadership in the culture of resistance and its effectiveness. He believes that if this interest were restored, it would make a big difference, especially in Western countries from which the occupation derives its influence and power. He believes that cultural, historical, and archaeological action will dispel the founding myths of this entity and strip it of its religious and historical legitimacy.
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