Majed Faraj, a Palestinian politician, leader in the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), born in 1963, was arrested when he was a high school student. He served a year and a half in prison because of his activity in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He contributed to the founding of the Fatah Youth, and he was also one of the prominent figures in the first Palestinian Intifada.
In January 2023, the head of the Authority in Ramallah, Mahmoud Abbas, issued a decision to amend the Intelligence Law to enable Faraj to continue in his position for an indefinite period. According to this amendment, the appointment of the head of this agency and the termination of his services became in the hands of the head of the Authority, and he also enjoyed the rank of minister.
Birth and upbringing
Majed Ali Muhammad Khalil Faraj, whose nickname is Abu Bashar, was born on February 28, 1963 in the Dheisheh Palestinian refugee camp in the city of Bethlehem in the West Bank. His family was displaced from the village of Ras Abu Ammar in the Jerusalem District.
His mother died when he was 13 years old after suffering from a terminal illness. He was the second brother among 6 siblings, and after his father’s second marriage, he had 6 other brothers.
The conditions of poverty inside the camp forced him to leave his studies and work to contribute to supporting the family, so he moved between a number of workshops and professions. He worked in the shell industry in a carpentry in the camp, and in building the central market for Bethlehem, then in the wood workshop for making children’s toys at the Early Childhood Resource Center of the Beit Foundation. Al-Sharq, which was headed by the late Faisal Al-Husseini.
Faraj was arrested for the first time when he was a high school student for a year and a half, after which he was arrested more than 15 times. He spent a total of 6 years moving between Israeli prisons and detention centers in Al-Far’a, Al-Dhahiriyah, Al-Maskobiyya, Hebron, Nablus, Atlit, and the Negev.
Faraj was 22 years old when he married the Palestinian Amal, where the struggle within the bodies of the Fatah movement brought them together, as he was then an official in the Fatah Youth and she was in charge of the young women, before marriage brought them together in 1985, and the wife assumed the position of Vice President of the Office of Financial and Administrative Control.
His father was martyred during the Israeli forces’ invasion of Bethlehem in 2002 as part of a military operation called “Defensive Shield,” during which the Church of the Nativity was besieged for 40 days. The occupation soldiers fired about 10 bullets at him when he went out to buy bread and milk during the curfew period.
Most of his brothers entered Israeli prisons, and his brother Amjad was a cadre of the Popular Front in Bethlehem. He spent 6 years in prison and died in his third decade after suffering from an incurable disease. The national forces called him one of the martyrs of the Palestinian national movement.
In 2018, he underwent a successful heart surgery in a hospital in the United States, where two stents were installed in the coronary arteries of his heart. Six months earlier, he underwent a heart catheterization in an Israeli hospital.
Study and training
Faraj received his basic and secondary education at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) schools in Dheisheh, and obtained a high school diploma while in prison.
He stopped studying for a long time before deciding to resume it, and obtained a bachelor’s degree in management from Al-Quds Open University in 1995.
The struggle path
At an early age, Faraj belonged to the Popular Front and was arrested for his activity in it for a year and a half, when he was 16 years old, after which he decided to join the Fatah movement.
He participated in establishing the Fatah Youth, the youth and student arm of the Fatah Organization, in 1982, with the aim of organizing Palestinian youth and educating them to resist the occupation, but Israel banned it in 1987. He was also one of the leaders of the first Palestinian popular uprising.
Political experience
With the establishment of the Palestinian Authority following the Oslo Accords in 1993, Faraj joined the Preventive Security Service in Bethlehem, then was appointed Director of the Service in Dura Governorate. In 2000, he took over Preventive Security in Hebron Governorate, and in 2003 he worked as an advisor to the Minister of Interior, Hakam Balawi, until he was appointed Director of the Military Intelligence Service. Palestinian in 2006.
Abbas appointed him to head the Palestinian General Intelligence on September 15, 2009, succeeding Major General Muhammad Mansour. He is the fourth head of the agency after Amin al-Hindi, Tawfiq al-Tirawi, and Mansour.
Faraj played an important role in many of the strategic files of the Palestinian Authority, most notably reconciliation with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, and security coordination with Israel, in addition to many special files entrusted to him by Abbas, which gained him widespread influence.
His name rose to prominence politically when he participated in the Fatah movement’s delegation in the reconciliation dialogues with Hamas, which were held in Cairo between 2009 and 2011.
Faraj participated in the Palestine Liberation Organization delegation that visited the Gaza Strip in April 2014, which resulted in the conclusion of a reconciliation agreement with Hamas and the formation of a national consensus government headed by Rami Hamdallah.
In a rare press interview in 2016 with the Defense News website, Faraj defended security cooperation between the PA’s security services and Israel, and said that it would continue in order to prevent further chaos and prevent what he called extremists. He announced at the time that the Palestinian security services had thwarted 200 potential attacks against Israel. They arrested more than 100 Palestinians and confiscated weapons.
Faraj’s personality is accepted by international and regional players, especially the United States and Israel, and because of this acceptance, Abbas assigned him on December 2, 2017, to head a delegation from the Authority to visit Washington to discuss the crisis of closing the Palestinian mission office in Washington, D.C.
He was with Hamdallah on a visit to Gaza in March 2018, when the convoy was attacked by a bomb planted on the road, but they were not harmed. Abbas then held Hamas responsible for the attack, but the latter denied these accusations, and its leaders accused Faraj of orchestrating the bombing to tamper with security. The sector and fabricating an excuse to evade reconciliation.
In 2020, Palestinian and Israeli media sources said that Palestinian security forces arrested a cell of Fatah members suspected of planning an attack on Faraj’s family.
The sources reported that the detainees were planning to bomb the intelligence chief’s family’s car, but the results of the final investigations were kept secret.
In the crosshairs of accusations
In 2013, Hamas accused Faraj of inciting the Egyptian regime against it and its leaders, through false information about the movement’s role in security events in Egypt.
At that time, Hamas announced that it had obtained documents signed by the head of the Palestinian Intelligence Service, which included instructions to carry out an organized campaign – in conjunction with Fatah media – to incite Egyptian public opinion against it and the Gaza Strip, by publishing information about Hamas’ interference in the internal affairs of Egypt, which resulted in tense relations between Hamas and the Egyptian regime. .
The Arab Organization for Human Rights in Britain accused Faraj of arbitrary detention and systematic torture in June 2016.
In the complaint – which it submitted to the Office of the Attorney General of the International Criminal Court – this organization said that it was evidence indicating the involvement of the intelligence service headed by Faraj and the Preventive Security Service in a campaign of arbitrary arrests that included night raids, confiscation of personal belongings, and subjecting some detainees to enforced disappearance and torture.
The Arab Organization for Human Rights revealed – through a number of documents – the names of the detainees and the places where they were detained in violation of the law, and where they were subjected to brutal torture.
Competition to succeed Abbas
The President of the Authority issued a decree-law on January 10, 2023, according to which he allowed the head of intelligence to remain in his position for an open period that does not end except by his decision, and for the head of general intelligence to hold the rank of minister.
Faraj’s term ended in 2013 under the previous law, but he continued to hold his position with the support of the President of the Authority.
Observers have interpreted this decision as a step to strengthen Faraj’s chances in the succession battle for the position of president, and an attempt by Abbas to expand the circle of leaders competing for his position after his death or loss of the ability to manage power due to medical disability.
To succeed Abbas, Faraj enjoys American and Israeli acceptance in view of his role in security coordination between the Authority and Israel, his cooperation with the CIA in a number of files, and his support for the American Michael Wenzel’s plan, which is based on the idea of establishing a Palestinian security force that will be trained and sent to confront groups in the northern West Bank.
Faraj faces other competitors in the succession battle: Hussein Al-Sheikh, Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Fatah Movement, Mahmoud Al-Aloul, Vice President of the Organization, Jibril Rajoub, Secretary of its Central Committee, Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, and the prisoner leader of the Fatah Movement, Marwan Barghouti.
Honors
Abbas awarded him the Military Star of Jerusalem Medal in 2013, which is awarded to Palestinian, Arab and foreign military and security leaders who “provided services to Palestine.”