Born in 1942, His family didn't fled home during the war and they become Israeli citizen after the establishment of Israel in 1948. He give be the Israeli citizenship and went to Lebanon to live there.

He joined the PLO and become a trusted aide of Arafat, considered moderate in his political thinking, author of the text of the Declaration of Palestinian Independence (signed by the 19th PNC meeting in Algiers November 15, 1988).

Received the International Lotus Prize for Poetry and the Lenin Peace Prize. Author of hundreds of poems subjecting the Palestinian case such as The Music of Human Flesh and Selected Poems of Mahmoud Darwish and others.