Abdel Razak al-Yehiyeh
Palestine politician (1929–2020)
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Abdel-Razak al-Yehiyeh or Abdul-Razzaq Al-Yahya (15 March 1929 – 9 March 2020)[1] born in Tantura, near Haifa, then in the British Mandate of Palestine,[2] also known as Abu Anas, was a Palestinian politician who served as Interior Minister of the Palestinian National Authority.
Abdel-Razak al-Yehiyeh | |
|---|---|
| |
| Interior Minister of the Palestinian National Authority | |
| In office June 2007 – May 2009 | |
| President | Mahmoud Abbas |
| Prime Minister | Salam Fayyad |
| Preceded by | Hani Talab al-Qawasmi |
| Succeeded by | Said Abu Ali |
| In office 15 June 2002 – Late 2002 | |
| Preceded by | Hani al-Hassan |
| Succeeded by | Nasser Yousef |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 15 March 1929 Tantura, British Mandate of Palestine |
| Died | 9 March 2020 (aged 90) |
| Children | 4 daughters and 1 son from his first marriage; 1 daughter and 1 son from his second marriage |
| Occupation | Politician, Military strategist, Author |
Al-Yehiyeh trained as a military strategist and served as chief operations officer and then deputy chief-of-staff of the PLA brigade in Syria before 1967.[2] In August 1968, he led an attempt to make PLA Syria brigades more independent of Syrian control, and was made PLA chief-of-staff by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Executive Committee. But with Syria opposed, he resigned to become military advisor to the PLO Executive Committee from 1969[3] and chief-of-staff of the Palestinian Armed Struggle Command (PASC) in February 1969.[citation needed]
He was reappointed to the PLA as commander-in-chief by the PLO Executive Committee in June 1969.[2] Then when Yasser Arafat took on that role in September 1970, al-Yehiyeh became chief-of-staff of all Palestinian forces.[2]
Due to Syrian pressure, he was replaced in 1971, becoming director of the PLO's political department from 1971 to 1976,[2] He was a member of the PLO Executive Committee from 1984 to 1991.[1] Al-Yehiyeh headed security committees in talks with Israel from 1993 to 1995,[4] including final status talks, and also headed negotiations on Hebron security arrangements and safe passage.[2]
He was appointed as Interior Minister of the Palestinian Authority in June 2002, charged with overhauling Palestinian security forces.[1][2][4] He was a member of the three-man delegation to Washington in August 2000.[citation needed] He was involved in security talks with Israel, and headed a centralized security apparatus for the Palestinian Authority.
Al-Yehiyeh left the PA cabinet in late 2002, feeling that Arafat had prevented him from making any significant reforms. He published his book Between militarism and politics in 2006,[5] and he was working on publishing a new book about peace negotiations between the Palestinian National Authority PNA and Israel.[citation needed]
He was appointed Interior Minister on 15 June 2007.[citation needed]
Personal life
From his first marriage, he had 4 daughters: Jomana, Lina, Roula and Rejwan. After the death of his first wife, he remarried and had a daughter Rana, and a son, Anas.[6][permanent dead link][better source needed]