Born in Rama, Upper Galilee in 1965 to a Christian family; began studying Greek in Jerusalem after high school; then went to Greece to study theology a t the recommendation of the previous Patriarch, Diodoros I; earned an MA in Theology from Thessalonica University in 1991; returned to Jerusalem in the summer of 1991; received the title of Archimandrite (the rank of Bishop in Western churches); in 1993, became spokesman and Director of the Patriarchate’s Arab Dept.; also worked as a teacher in local schools and lecturer in Christianity at the Haifa Arab Teachers’ College; renown for his media appearances in which he focuses on Palestinian identity, which has gained him popularity among Arabs and angry reactions by the Israeli authorities; was arrested from his home in the Old City of Jerusalem and interrogated at the Russian Compound detention center (Al-Moscobiya) under allegations of “incitement” and visiting Syria and Lebanon; had his Israeli passport confiscated and was pressured to refrain from political activities; was on Dec. 2004 awarded the Jerusalem Prize by the PA Ministry of Culture (together with Sheikh Mohammed Hussein) as part of the Palestine Cultural Prizes of 2000; in July 2002, was fired from his post as spokesman by Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem Irineos I who accused him of “supporting the Palestinian terrorism,” noting his rejection to sign a document condemning the Palestinian operations; was again briefly arrested and interrogated in 2002 and 2003; was a member of the Constitutional Consultative Committee that worked on the third draft of the Palestinian constitution (published in March 2003); was active, successfully, in the de-thronement of Greek Orthodox Patriarch Irineos from his post following charges of land sale belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church to Zionist settlers in 2005.

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Added: June 2006