Abdullah Franji () also known as ''Abdullah Frangi'', (born 1943) is a

Fatah Fatah ( ; ), formally the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (), is a Palestinian nationalist and Arab socialist political party. It is the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...

member and one of its leaders in Gaza. He has held various posts in the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

(PLO) and Palestine National Authority.

Early life and education

Franji was born in

Beersheba Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most p ...

, Mandate Palestine, on 15 November 1943. His family left the city during the

Nakba The Nakba () is the ethnic cleansing; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; of Palestinian Arabs through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, property, and belongings, along with the destruction of their s ...

in 1948 and settled in Gaza. They later settled in Cairo in 1956 during the

Suez crisis The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...

. Franji obtained degrees in medicine and in politics in Germany between 1963 and 1973. He joined the Fatah during his studies in the mid-1960s. He received military training in Algeria in 1967. He was arrested in

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

after his return to the region and left Palestine for Germany when he was released from prison. He is one of the co-founders of the General Union of Palestinian Students and Workers in Europe and served as the president of the Confederation of Palestinian Students in Germany and Austria from 1968 to 1973. Following the opening of the PLO information office in Frankfurt he was involved in the publication of the ''Resistentia'' magazine which was a PLO propaganda publication. Franji was hospitalized after he and Eli Lobel, a member of the Israeli dissident group Matzpen, were attacked and injured in an event organized by the

Socialist German Student Union The Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund — the Socialist German Students' Union or Socialist German Students' League — was founded in 1946 in Hamburg, Germany, as the collegiate branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In the ...

to protest the talk of the Israeli ambassador to West Germany Asher Ben-Natan in the summer of 1969. The perpetrators of the attack were Zionists. Franji was elected as a member of the

Palestinian National Council The Palestinian National Council (PNC; ) is the legislative body - in Arabic, the ''Majlis'' - of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PNC is intended to serve as the parliament that represents all Palestinians inside and outside th ...

in 1972. After the

killing Killing, Killings, or The Killing may refer to: Types of killing *-cide, a suffix that refers to types of killing (see List of types of killing), such as: ** Homicide, one human killing another *** Murder, unlawful killing of another human without ...

of the Israeli Olympic athletes in September 1972 he and some 300 other Palestinians were expelled from Germany.

Career and activities

Following his graduation Franji served at the

Arab League The Arab League (, ' ), officially the League of Arab States (, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world. The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945, initially with seven members: Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt, Kingdom of Iraq, ...

office in Bonn, Germany, in the mid-1970s. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Palestine Information Office in Bonn which was the unofficial representative of the PLO. He became a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council in 1978 and headed the PLO delegation to Austria in 1982. He served as the permanent PLO representative to

United Nations Industrial Development Organization The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) (French: Organisation des Nations unies pour le développement industriel; French/Spanish acronym: ONUDI) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that assists countries in e ...

in Vienna between 1982 and 1985. Franji was elected to the

Central Committee of Fatah The Fatah Central Committee is the highest decision-making body of the Palestinian organization and political party, Fatah. History The first Fatah Central Committee was formed in February 1963, consisting of ten members, including Yasser Arafa ...

in August 1989 and became one of the advisers on European affairs to the PLO leader

Yasser Arafat Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, Presid ...

. Franji was made the head of the PLO delegation to Germany in 1993 which he held until 1998 and became a member of the

Palestinian Central Council The Palestinian Central Council (PCC; ), also known as the PLO Central Council, is one of the institutions of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PCC makes policy decisions when the Palestinian National Council (PNC) is not in sess ...

in 1998. Franji headed the Palestine Future Foundation in May–June 2007. He was appointed adviser on foreign affairs to

Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud Abbas (; born 15 November 1935), also known by the Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Mazen (, ), is a Palestinian politician who has been serving as the second president of Palestine and the President of the Palestinian National Authority, P ...

, president of the

Palestinian National Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a c ...

, in 2010 with the rank of minister. He was named as the governor of Gaza in 2014. He serves as the Fatah representative in Gaza.

Views

Franji stated in an interview with ''Der Spiegel'' in 2006 that the relations between Fatah and

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

would be better after the recognition of the

two-state solution The two-state solution is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, by creating two states on the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. It is often contrasted with the one-state solution, which is the esta ...

by Hamas. However, two years later he argued that Hamas was responsible for the end of ceasefire in 2007. Franji published a book entitled ''The PLO and Palestine'' in 1983.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Franji, Abdullah 20th-century Palestinian politicians 1943 births Living people Arab people in Mandatory Palestine Members of the Palestinian National Council Palestinian people imprisoned by Israel Central Committee of Fatah members Politicians from Beersheba Members of the Palestinian Central Council 20th-century Palestinian diplomats Governors of Gaza Governorate 20th-century Palestinian writers