Personal Info
- Country of residence: Portugal
Information
Ghassan Ahmed Salem Abu Hatab was born in Khan Younis on December 3, 1969, to a Palestinian refugee family originally from the depopulated village of Qubayba in the Ramla district. He is married and has two sons and five daughters. He completed his primary education at Sheikh Jamil School and Khan Younis Preparatory School for Boys, and his secondary education at Hatem Al-Tai School for Boys, graduating in 1987. He earned a diploma in Business Administration from the College of Science and Technology in the Gaza Strip in 1993, a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the Islamic University of Gaza in 1999, a master's degree in Business Administration from An-Najah National University in Nablus in 2008, and a doctorate in Business Administration from the University of the Holy Quran and the Foundations of Science in Sudan in 2021. He also completed a training course in Lebanon on quantitative research in the Arab region and public opinion studies in 2002.
Abu Hatab belonged to the Popular Front for two decades, and participated in planning and implementing its activities, especially at the popular, student and union levels. He was one of the initiators in establishing the Secretariat of the National and Islamic Forces during the Second Intifada, and one of the founders of the Progressive Thought Forum in Khan Yunis Governorate. He is the founder of the “If We Stop Dreaming” Association in Khan Yunis, and he is also a member of the General Assembly of the Haider Abdel Shafi Community Association.
Abu Hatab participated in a number of local and Arab conferences and seminars, and prepared a group of studies and research papers, including: The Impact of Israeli Practices on the Marine Fishing Sector (2012), The Phenomenon of Tunnels in the Gaza Strip (2014), The Extent of Public Satisfaction with the Services Provided by the Palestinian Judiciary (2015), Social Security Between Philosophical Justifications and the Movements of Reality (2019), and Localizing University Education and Sustainable Work for People with Disabilities (2022).
Abu Hatab believes that the Oslo Accords were a disaster and a real division in Palestinian society, and the Palestinian people are still paying the price for its repercussions in all aspects of life. He believes that the division is the most successful mechanism used by the Zionist occupation to fragment the Palestinian cause, and both sides of the division are responsible for all the negative consequences that resulted from it. He believes that international legitimacy guarantees the right of colonized peoples to resist in all its forms, but the nature of the struggle stage determines the form of resistance. He calls for separating the Palestinian Authority from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and restoring the PLO's credibility and infusing it with new blood, whether through national partnership with all factions or by giving youth, women, and various other sectors the opportunity to participate in decision-making. He believes that national unity is the first step in the struggle to end the occupation. He believes that the occupying entity is experiencing an existential crisis because half or more of the Palestinian people are present in all of historical Palestine, and this is an obstacle to the development of the Zionist project. He calls for working to strengthen and mobilize all the forces of the Palestinian people and inject them into all aspects of life through a national strategy stemming from a clear national vision agreed upon by all Palestinians. Abu Hatab believes in a comprehensive solution of liberating all of historical Palestine, the return of refugees to their homes from which they were displaced, and compensating them materially and morally. As for the Palestinian political system, in his view it is a distorted political system closer to dictatorship.
Abu Hatab suffered from the occupation; he was delayed in completing his university education due to the occupation closing educational institutions during the First Intifada, and due to his arrest. The occupation arrested him for the first time in January 1989 for eighteen days, then arrested him again in March of the same year for eighteen days, then arrested him a third time in July 1989 for two years in the Negev desert prison. He has been banned from traveling for a long time, and he cannot reach the West Bank or the occupied interior, and he is banned from traveling through the Rafah crossing, which eliminated the opportunity for him to participate in international conferences and seminars.
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