Atef Adwan

Atef Ibrahim Mohammad Adwan (Arabic: عاطف ابراهيم محمد عدوان), also spelled Odwan, Udwan or Edwan (nom de Guerre Abu-Sharif), is the Minister of Refugees in the Palestinian Authority, having been named to this position following the Hamas victory in the Palestinian legislative election, 2006, when he was elected from the Northern Gaza District.

Adwan was born in 1952 in the town of Beit Hanoun, in the far north of the Gaza Strip, where he still resides, to a well educated family. He earned a higher diploma in political science in Lebanon, probably in the early 1970s, a bachelor’s degree in political science from the College of Economics and Political Sciences in Cairo in 1978, followed by a graduate diploma from the Center for Arab Research and Studies at the Arab University, and master’s and a PhD from British universities between 1983 and 1987. He became an associate professor in 1996 and a professor in political science in 2001 at the Islamic University of Gaza in Gaza City. In addition to his political posts, he is acting chairman of the Islamic Society in Beit Hanoun, preaches weekly at the Omar Bin Abed Al-Aziz mosque, and has published numerous books and research papers on political issues such as the relationships between the Jews and the Muslims in the early stages of Islam.