Hassan Faraj

Hassan Faraj (حسن فرج) is a member of Fatah‘s Revolutionary Council and the secretary general of the party’s youth movement (al-Shabiba al-Fathawiya). He was born in c.1980 in Dheisheh refugee camp (Bethlehem). He attended an UNRWA primary school and later studied at Bethlehem and Al-Quds (Abu Dis) universities.

Faraj has held a number of positions with Fatah, including president of the Student’s Union at Bethlehem University; president of the Shabiba’s committee for universities and colleges, and secretary general for the northern governorates of the West Bank.

Ahead of Fatah ‘s Seventh General Conference, in December 2016, Faraj reportedly “lobbied hard to ease minimum age requirements for candidates for the decision-making Central Committee and a second-tier group, the Revolutionary Council. [He] succeeded in getting the minimum age lowered by 10 and five years [for the Central and Revolutionary Committees], respectively, enabling him and others to compete. As a result, he and another activist of the same age are now the two youngest members of the Revolutionary Council”.

In January 2018 he was detained by Israeli security forces on the outskirts of Bethlehem while participating in protest against Israeli settlements.