Former member of the PLO’s Executive Committee and the Palestinian National Council Abdullah Al-Hourani died Monday in Jordan.
The Executive Committee announced his death in a statement reminding of his traits as a loyal leader of the Palestinian struggle and co-founder of the contemporary Palestinian revolution. “His extensive national and patriotic activities contributed to protect the Palestinian identity.”
The deceased was born in the village of Al-Masmiyya and he was displaced in 1948 along with his family. He attended school in the Gaza Strip, then he obtained a Bachelor of Arts. He worked as a teacher in Khan Younis and later became school headmaster of a Khan Younis refugee camp school which was later named after him. In 1963, Israeli authorities deported him from the Gaza Strip for his political activities.
He worked in Dubai from 1963-65 before he was deported again for his political activities. Dubai was then under British Mandate. Then he moved to Syria where he worked in media. He became director of the Palestine radio station in Damascus, then director of the Syrian Broadcasting Corporation.
Hourani opposed the Oslo Accords and as a result he resigned from the Executive Committee.