Shafiq al-Hout | |
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Personal details | |
Born | Jaffa, Mandatory Palestine | 13 January 1932
Died | 2 August 2009 Beirut, Lebanon | (aged 77)
Nationality | Palestinian |
Occupation | Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Front (1961-68) Member of Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee (1966-68; 1991-93) PLO Representative to UNGA (1974-91) |
Shafiq al-Hout also spelled Shafik al-Hut (Arabic: شفيق الحوت; 13 January 1932 – 2 August 2009) was a Palestinian politician and writer. Born in Jaffa, he and his family fled to Beirut at the onset of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. There, al-Hout became a journalist at Al Hawadeth magazine. Using it as a platform, he founded the Palestine Liberation Front in 1961 and later became a founder of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964. He remained a senior member of the organization, representing it in Lebanon and the United Nations General Assembly. Initially a close aid to Yasser Arafat, al-Hout resigned from his position on the PLO Executive Committee, in protest of Arafat's signing of the Oslo Accords.