1937 -
Palestinian economist and statesman, architect of the 1993 Oslo Accord.
Qurai (also Qurei, Quray; nom de guerre: Abu Ala) was born into a wealthy family in Abu Dis, near Jerusalem. In 1968, shortly after Israeli occupation, he left for Jordan and subsequently Saudi Arabia, gaining employment in the banking sector. He now joined the Palestine National Liberation Movement (al-Fatah) and was appointed director of Samid, the institution responsible for Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) finances in Lebanon. Relocating to Tunis after the PLO's 1982 evacuation from Beirut, he became deputy director of the PLO's Department of Economic Affairs and in 1989 was elected to the Fatah Central Committee. The architect of PLO development plans for the Palestinian territories, he was chief Palestinian delegate at the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in Oslo that produced the September 1993 Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements.
In 1994, Qurai became director of the Department of Economic Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, creating the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction as a channel for international investment. He became the first speaker when the Palestinian Legislative Council was established in 1996, took part in the unsuccessful "final status" talks of 2000/01, and, in September 2003, was appointed prime minister, raising the prospect, in spite of the weakness of his popular support, of a renewed accommodation with Israel.
Bibliography
Corbin, Jane. The Norway Channel: The Secret Talks that Led to the Middle East Peace Accord. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1994.
Smith, Charles D. Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 5th edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2004.
— MOUIN RABBANI
UPDATED BY GEORGE R. WILKES
