Hani al-Hassan

Palestinian politician (1938–2012)

Hani al Hassan (Arabic: هاني الحسن; 1938 – 6 July 2012), also known as Abu Tariq and Abu l Hasan, was a leader of the Fatah organization in Germany and member of the Palestinian Authority Cabinet and the Palestinian National Council.

Al Hassan was born in a village, Ijzim, near Haifa Palestine, in 1938.

Al Hassan returned to Gaza in 1995 and began to act as the head of Foreign Relations in Fatah and a political adviser to Arafat. Beginning in 1974, he acted as a political aide to Yasser Arafat, an ambassador to Tehran, and became an ambassador to Amman in 1982. He retains good ties to the Gulf States. He became a member of Fatah Central Committee in May 1980. He was critical of the leadership's stance towards Iraq after August 1991, and at Oslo, but returned to Gaza Strip in November 1995, and became the chief political adviser to Arafat as well as PLO CC member & head of the Palestinian National Council foreign relations committee. He was appointed Interior Minister on 29 October 2002. Mahmoud Abbas attempted to drop him from the PA cabinet, and despite Arafat's resistance, he was replaced in April 2003. He is slated to act as Arafat's national security adviser. Al Hassan was head of Fatah's Bureau of Mobilisation and Organisation and (maktab at ta`bia wat tandhim) until April 2007, when he was replaced in that role by Ahmed Qurei. Al Hassan went on to become a National Security Adviser but was dropped by Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007, following his comments made on Al Jazeera.

Hassan died at a hospital in Amman on 6 July 2012 after a long illness. He was buried in Ramallah on 9 July.