Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has mourned Qadri Abu Bakr, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Chairman of the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Commission, who died in a tragic traffic accident in the northern West Bank.
The President eulogized Abu Bakr « as a strong freedom fighter who has spent his life defending Palestine, its cause, its people, and its independent national decision, » praising his role and work for the Palestinian state.
Abbas expressed on Saturday his “deep condolences to the family of Abu Bark, the whole people of Palestine, and all the free people of the World on the death of the Palestinian freedom fighter.”
The Red Crescent announced that Abu Bakr, his wife, and another citizen died in a traffic accident in Jama’in, south of Nablus, in the northern West Bank.
He was returning from Ramallah after attending with Abbas a celebration for the children of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, Secretary of the Executive Committee of the PLO Hussein al-Sheikh, the National Council, the Prisoners’ Authority, the Hamas movement, and Palestinian officials and factions mourned Abu Bakr and praised his role.
Abu Bakr was born in Biddya, west of Salfit, on January 10, 1953. He graduated from high school in the Israeli occupation prisons in 1974. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science from Beirut Arab University in 1991.
In 1968, Abu Bakr became a Fatah member, then received military training in its camps in Jordan and the camps of the Palestine Liberation Army in Iraq.
The late minister was imprisoned for 17 years by Israel for his role in the resistance and for participating in transporting weapons. In 1986, he was exiled to Iraq.
He was appointed director of the office of Fatah’s Khalil al-Wazir, assassinated by Israel in Tunisia in 1988.
In 1996, he returned to the West Bank, and in 2009, he was appointed as a member of the Administrative Committee of the National Authority and assumed responsibility for the Israeli file and archive after participating in Fatah’s 6th General Conference.
In 2016, he was named a Revolutionary Council of Fatah member.
Two years later, he was appointed head of the Commission for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs within the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the following year he became the minister, with a membership at the National Council.
While in prison, Abu Bakr published two books in collaboration with others and three other books after his release.
An official and popular burial ceremony at the presidential residence in Ramallah will be held for Abu Bakr before he is laid to rest.