Haidar Abdul Shafi

Born in Gaza 1919, physician. Early education in Gaza and Jerusalem, M.D. graduate from American University in Beirut, 1943. He worked in British Government Hospital of Jaffa after graduation, later as medical officer in the Jordanian army. He returned to Gaza in 1945 and opended private practice.

He was the head of the Gaza Parliament's Legislative Council from 1962 to 1965, a member of the first all-Palestinian conference convened in Jerusalem in 1964, which established the PLO. Deported to Lebanon in 1970 for PLO activities, head of Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza since 1972, head of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Conference in 1990, and led the Palestinian negotiation team for 22 months in the Washington talks.