Qahwaji worked as a teacher of Arabic language at the Orthodox Secondary School in Haifa.[2] He also taught at the Terra Sancta College in Nazareth.[6] He was a member of the Arab Popular Front.[7] Following the dissolution of the Front he founded a pan-Arab movement, Al Ard, in Israel in 1959 together with Mansur Qardawsh.[7] The founding meeting of the movement was held in Nazareth in April 1959.[8] The other leading figures of Al Ard included Sabri Jiryis, Salih Baransi, and Muhammad Miari.[9] The movement was a supporter of Nasserism.[9] The group launched a newspaper, Al Ard, in late 1959 under the ownership of Qahwaji.[8][10]
Qahwaji was arrested and imprisoned in Haifa in 1961.[2] Following his release from prison he was removed from the teaching post and opened a coffee shop in Wadi Nisnas neighborhood of Haifa.[2] He joined the PLO in 1964 when it was established.[2]
Al Ard was preparing to run for the Knesset elections in 1965 under an independent list called Socialist list.[10] However, Qahwaji and other members of Al Ard were either arrested or forced to leave the cities where they were living.[10] Qahwaji settled in Tiberias leaving Haifa.[10] Later he and his wife were arrested and detained more than one year without trial.[6] Then, they were expelled from Israel due to Habib's PLO membership.[8] The Israelis also accused him of being a foreign agent.[11]
Qahwaji family settled in Damascus, Syria, in 1968 after the Six-Day War.[12] He established the Al Ard Institution for Palestinian Studies based in Damascus and translated studies and books on Zionism and Israeli politics from Hebrew into Arabic.[2][13] He published articles and books.[2] He also wrote poems.[11][14]
Qahwaji continued to publish Al Ard as a biweekly magazine in Damascus.[15] He was a member of the PLO Research Center in Damascus and a contributor of its journal Shu'un Filastiniyya.[16][17]
Qahwaji was not a member of the groups within the PLO and served as a member of the PLO executive committee between 1977 and 1980.[2]