ABU SHARIF, BASSAM (1946–)

Palestinian political leader, born in Jerusalem. In 1948, at the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Bassam Abu Sharif became a refugee in Jordan. After secondary studies in Amman, he traveled to Lebanon to study chemistry at the American University of Beirut. When the Arab-Israel War broke out in June 1967, he returned to Jordan, where he joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) of George Habash and became associated with Ghassan Kanafani, spokesperson for the PFLP. In October 1970, after the bloody confrontations between the Jordanian Army and Palestinian splinter groups, Abu Sharif returned to Lebanon where, with Kanafani, he became one of the mainstays of the weekly al-Hadaf, a PFLP organ. On 8 July 1972 Kanafani was assassinated by the Israelis in a car explosion. On 25 July Abu Sharif escaped an attempt on his life that used a booby-trapped package, but he lost an eye and several fingers. Between 1973 and 1981 he pursued his activities in the PFLP, distancing himself increasingly from the line espoused by Habash. In 1982, when the war in Lebanon intensified, Yasir Arafat asked him to be his spokesperson. In July 1987 Abu Sharif was expelled from the PFLP. A member of the General Union of Writers and Journalists, he became Arafat's media advisor and was sometimes the origin of unexpected press announcements that did not always reflect Arafat's position; for example, in June 1988 an article advocating negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians was published in the American press, provoking anger in the radical wing of al-Fatah. That November he escaped another assassination attempt. In April 1990, shortly before the Gulf War, he supported Iraq. Between 1992 and 1993 he participated indirectly in the conversations that resulted in the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Accords of 13 September 1994, but by the autumn of 1994 he no longer appeared to be among Arafat's close advisors.

SEE ALSO Arab-Israel War (1967);Arafat, Yasir;Fatah, al-;Gulf War (1991);Habash, George;Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.