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Majed Faraj / Abu Bashar

Director of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service, Major General Majid Faraj, whose nickname is Abu Bashar, is a Palestinian politician, leader in the Palestinian National Liberation Movement ( Fatah ), Faraj was arrested at the beginning of high school for a year and a half, and the arrests continued and intensified in the occupation prisons, as he was one of the first detainees in the prisons of Al-Fara’a, Al-Dhahiria, Al-Maskobiyya, Hebron, Nablus, Atlit, and Al-Naqab. The total number of cases of his arrest by the occupation reached more than 25 times, during which he spent a total of 8 years in Israeli prisons and detention centers.

Israeli Channel 14 reported 13 March 2024 that Palestinian Intelligence Director Majid Faraj is working to establish an armed force in the southern Gaza Strip. The IDF contacted Majed Faraj to manage the scene in Gaza, and he in turn communicated with a number of Gaza Strip tribes that had a previous dispute with Hamas. Communication took place through international institutions, and the message of the occupation and Majid Faraj was conveyed through these institutions to 12 clans, but all the families, or at least 11 families, rejected the offer for a number of reasons, the most important of which is that the Qassam Brigades are still strong despite their management of the battle from Underground, and their fear of the resistance.

Security Council President Tzachi Hanegbi recently met with Faraj, with the approval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. KAN indicated that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant proposed that the head of Palestinian Authority intelligence take over the administration of the Gaza Strip temporarily after the end of the war. KAN said that Israel is considering using the head of Palestinian intelligence to build an alternative to Hamas the day after the war. The proposal stipulates that Majid Faraj will take over the administration of Gaza with the help of figures who do not include a member of the Hamas movement.

The seriousness of the issue is evident in a reproduction of the model of the Awakening in Iraq, which was offered financial temptations and huge weapons before surrendering to the American desire under the temptations, and here in Gaza there are promises of temptations of food, aid, weapons and money to engage in a conflict with the Qassams and the armed factions on behalf of the Israeli army.

Observers commented on the news by saying that what the occupation was unable to achieve through its aggression against Gaza, it seeks to achieve through the Palestinian Authority and Majid Faraj. Some observers added that the event is a very dangerous development in the context of the war, as the occupation contacted Majed Faraj to manage the scene in Gaza, and he in turn communicated with a number of Gaza Strip tribes that had a previous dispute with Hamas.

Others pointed out that when the occupation fails to win, it resorts to civil war, and here the matter depends on the awareness of those concerned and whether they will be a tool in the hands of the occupier or not, adding that the stupidest act a person can do is to be a tool in the hands of the occupier against his own people. As for anyone who will come on the back of a tank or take advantage of the war situation, he is a spy and will fight like the enemy, according to what one of them said.

Commentators on the news said that family rule is one of the ideas that expresses the dilemma of the entire security system, and not just Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that this type of rule Israel wants is not to manage a situation but to manage failure, and it seems like experiments from which what succeeds is chosen, and they wondered if this is the thinking of an entity waging an existential war, because short-term plans are only made by short-term governments.

The President of the PA 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. 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.”

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 faced 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.

Majed Ali Muhammad Khalil Faraj 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. 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 establishment of the Fatah Youth, and he was also one of the prominent figures in the first Palestinian Intifada.

Faraj was 22 years old when he joined 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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, DC.

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 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.