Husam Zomlot
Husam Zomlot in November 2023
Palestine Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Assumed office
October 2018
PresidentMahmoud Abbas
Preceded byManuel Hassassian
Personal details
Born
Husam Said Zomlot

(1973-08-31) 31 August 1973
Rafah Camp, Gaza Strip, Palestine
Political partyFatah
ResidenceLondon
Alma materBirzeit University
London School of Economics
SOAS University of London

Husam Said Zomlot (born 1973) is a Palestinian diplomat, academic and economist. He was appointed Head of the Palestinian Mission to the United Kingdom in October 2018.[1] Before his posting to the UK, he served as head of the PLO mission to the United States[2] that was closed by President Donald Trump's administration.

Zomlot is a senior member of Fatah, the main Palestinian political movement, and a strategic advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. He previously served as director of Fatah's commission for foreign relations.[2]

Before entering politics, Zomlot was a professor of Public policy at Birzeit University. He was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University in the US and an instructor at the University of London. He also worked as an economist with United Nations Special Coordinator's Office in Palestine.

Early life

Zomlot was born in Shaburah refugee camp, a United Nations Relief and Works Agency camp in Rafah in the occupied Gaza Strip in 1973.[2] His parents were originally from the village of Simsim but left in the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight.[3] "In 1948, my father lost his home and his land and as a result I was born in a Rafah refugee camp," Zomlot told a conference on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations Work and Refugee Agency, (UNRWA). "Millions [of refugees] suffer the most precarious existence of them all. Nothing is more hurtful to a human being than forced exile."[3]

Zomlot became politically active while taking his undergraduate degree at Birzeit University outside Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. There he became a representative of Fatah’s student movement at the university during the First Intifada.

In 1999, while studying in London, he was elected as president of the General Union of Palestinian Students in the UK.[2]

Academic career

Zomlot was educated at Birzeit University in Ramallah. After receiving his undergraduate degree he worked as an economist with the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, UNSCO. He was there tasked with monitoring economic developments, propose economic policy alternatives and provide briefings to the United Nations General Secretary, Kofi Annan at that time.[4]

In 2000, he completed a master's degree in development studies at the London School of Economics (LSE).[5] He received his PhD in International Political Economy from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London in 2007.[6]

Before joining Birzeit as professor of public policy in 2012 he was Scholar in Residence at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government (2008–2010).  [7]

Political career

Zomlot served as a spokesperson for the Palestinian delegation during the statehood campaign at the United Nations in New York in 2011.[8]

He was appointed ambassador-at-large for the State of Palestine that same year, and also served as director of Fatah's commission for foreign relations.[7]

He became strategic advisor to President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas in 2015 before being elected to Fatah's Revolutionary Council in 2016.[2]

In 2017, Zomlot was appointed as envoy to the United States, taking over from Maen Rashid Areikat.[2]

His tenure there was cut short after the Trump administration decided to close the PLO mission in Washington DC and subsequently recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. In December 2017, the White House announced its intention to move the US embassy to Israel to the city from Tel Aviv. The Palestinian leadership countered by boycotting ties with the US administration.[9]

In 2018, Zomlot was appointed Head of Mission to the United Kingdom.[1]

Palestinian Ambassador to the United States

Zomlot was appointed Palestinian envoy to the US in March 2017.[2] There followed a period of intense bilateral contacts, when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and US President Donald Trump met four times in the period between May and September 2017.

But efforts came to a halt when the White House in November 2017 informed Zomlot of its intention to close the PLO mission in Washington DC and in December announced its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and plans to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem.[10] The move undermines a significant Palestinian policy that the eastern part of the city, occupied by Israel in 1967, should eventually serve as the capital of Palestine.

The announcement sparked protests in the occupied Palestinian areas. A spokesperson for Fatah said it would move for the US to be disqualified as co-sponsor of any peace process or political process.[11]

Said Zomlot at the time: "You didn’t take Jerusalem off the table. You took the table altogether. No one, no Palestinian, would ever be able to sit on that table. Good luck!"[9]

In September 2018, the PLO's representative mission in Washington, D.C., was closed but by then Zomlot had already been recalled to Ramallah.[12] As a result, what would eventually become the Trump Peace to Prosperity plan for peace between Israelis and Palestinians was developed only with input from Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli government.

Zomlot nevertheless argued that a recalibration of Palestinian-US relations could have three positive outcomes: "it frees the Palestinians from the shackles of a failed 27-year-old, American-led peace process… it provides an opportunity to repeal a 1987 law designating the Palestine Liberation Organization as a terrorist organization… [it] will help redirect Palestinian attention [to] long-term engagement directly with the American people".[13]

Palestinian Ambassador to the United Kingdom

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and Husam Zomlot with Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Glasgow, Scotland on 1 November 2021
Shtayyeh and Husam Zomlot with Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on 2 November 2021

Zomlot was appointed Head of Mission to the United Kingdom in October 2018.[1] He arrived in the middle of Britain's process of leaving the EU and in his first year-and-a-half experienced two different Conservative governments and two different opposition leaders.

Since his appointment, bilateral Palestinian-British relations have deepened. In spite of US administration moves to defund both the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA, British aid to both has continued (and doubled in the case of UNRWA)[14] while the British government continues to support a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as mandated by international law.

As ambassador, he criticised the Israeli government during the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis.[15]

In 2023, Sky News issued a public apology after presenter Kay Burley had falsely quoted Zomlot as saying "Israel had it coming" multiple times in regards to the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel which gave a misleading impression that he believed they deserved it.[16] His actual quote was:

"The loss of civilian life is tragic… [on] all sides and what is happening is extremely worrying and very tragic. As we speak, the loss of [lives], you’ve counted 70 Israeli deaths, there [are] more than 200 Palestinian deaths so far, more than 1,600 entire residential compounds are being wiped out. This is a war crime committed by Israel. And what is more tragic or equally tragic is the blindness and the deafness of the world and the international community for so many years of the warnings we have been saying that this was coming. Israel knew that this was coming their way. We the national movement of Palestine, the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organisation], have found a different part 30 years ago, we have committed to what the world asks us; recognise Israel, commit to negotiations of non-violence… Israel was expected to do one thing only, roll back its occupation. It’s a consequence."[17]

In October 2023, BBC Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark was criticized when she interviewed Zomlot, a politician with no links to Hamas. Zomlot described how six of his family members had been killed by Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. Wark reacted this way: “I’m sorry for your own personal loss. I mean, can I just be clear, though, you cannot condone the killing of civilians in Israel, can you?”[18][19]

Other work

Zomlot is co-founder of the Palestinian Strategy Group, which was established in 2008. A Palestinian think-tank, the PSG comprises more than 100 members selected from a wide range of crucial Palestinians from different political, professional, and geographic backgrounds.

In 2018, just before taking up his post in London, Zomlot defended himself against accusations by tabloid newspapers that he was a Holocaust denier, based on an interview he gave to BBC Radio in August 2014.[20]

"I do not deny the Holocaust, which was a heinous crime," Zomlot told an Israeli newspaper. "I know very well what happened to European Jews. I have sat next to the family members of survivors and listened to the horrifying details of what their loved ones experienced."[20]

The General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) in the UK accused Zomlot of appointing several of his relatives to positions in the Palestinian embassy.[21]

The GUPS criticised Zomlot for calling the police to the Palestinian embassy, where they arrested a number of Palestinian students. GUPS said the embassy security staff had attacked the students prior to the arrival of the police.[22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Palestine’s new ambassador in London wants to reclaim the narrative for his people, Middle East Monitor, 10 November 2018
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Palestine’s man in Washington, Politico, 31 March 2017
  3. 1 2 UNRWA at 70: Husam Zomlot, Palestine Return Centre, 8 January 2020
  4. ↑ UNSCO at a glance, United Nation Retrieved 23 April 2020
  5. ↑ Chevening changemakers, Chevening, retrieved 23 April 2020
  6. ↑ Graduate destinations Archived 23 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine, SOAS, London, Retrieved 23 April 2020
  7. 1 2 Uniting Research and Policy, The Peearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts, Retrieved 23 April 2020
  8. ↑ Day of decision on Palestine, The National, 23 September 2011
  9. 1 2 Why the Palestinians Are Boycotting the Trump Administration, The New Yorker, 21 January 2018
  10. ↑ Oh Jerusalem: Requiem for the two-state solution, The Electronic Intifada, 6 December 2017
  11. ↑ Trump Jerusalem move sparks Israeli-Palestinian clashes, BBC 7 December 2017
  12. ↑ Can the Palestinian Ambassador to the US survive the Trump era, Moment Magazine, 7 June 2018
  13. ↑ Trump Is Giving Palestinians a Choice. We’ll Choose Dignity. The New York Times, 25 September 2018
  14. ↑ UK continues to be among top donors to UNRWA, Foreign and Commonwealth 25 June 2019
  15. ↑ Israel-Gaza: Palestinian diplomat says 'people are dying due to Israeli occupation', retrieved 16 May 2021
  16. ↑ "Kay Burley's remarks about Palestinian ambassador 'potentially misleading'". Independent.co.uk. 21 October 2023.
  17. ↑ "Sky News apologises after claiming guest said 'Israel had it coming'". 21 October 2023.
  18. ↑ Palestinian Politician Gets Browbeaten After He Describes The Loss Of His Relatives!, 10 October 2023
  19. ↑ Mirkinson, Jack (13 October 2023). "A Reminder to the Media: Palestinian Lives Matter Too". ISSN 0027-8378.
  20. 1 2 Palestinian diplomat rebuffs UK media claims that he’s a Holocaust denier, Times of Israel, 21 August 2018
  21. ↑ "شبهة فساد في التوظيف بسفارة فلسطين في لندن.. والسفير يعلق". الترا فلسطين | Ultra Palestine.
  22. ↑ "السفير الفلسطيني في بريطانيا يستدعي الشرطة وتعتقل مجموعة من الطلاب الفلسطينيين". 20 August 2020.
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