Nabeel Kassis

Nabeel Kassis (Arabic: نبيل قسيس; born 16 February 1945), also transliterated as Nabil Kassis, Nabil Qasis, Nabeel Qassis, etc., is a Palestinian academic, politician, diplomat, physicist, and nuclear scientist.

Nabeel Kassis was born on 16 February 1945 in Jerusalem, Palestine during the British mandate period.

Kassis studied in Germany and Lebanon, earning a master's degree from the University of Mainz, and a PhD from the American University of Beirut, both in nuclear physics. He taught physics at a number of universities in Germany, Italy, France, England, Lebanon, and Jordan before joining Birzeit University in 1980.^[1] He served as President of Birzeit University from 2004 to 2010.^[2]

Kassis was a member of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991, and a deputy head of the negotiation delegation at the Washington talks in 1992 to 1993. He later became the Director-General of the Technical and Advisory Committee to the Palestinian negotiation team, established to do preparatory work for the transition to Palestinian self-government. He was a member of the Palestinian delegation on final status negotiations in 1999.^[1]

As a proponent of transparency and reform, Kassis was appointed member of the Special Committee for the Investigation of the Auditor's Report in 1997. He later entered government as a political independent, serving as minister of state in 1998, Tourism Minister in 2002, Planning Minister from 2003 to 2005,^[1] and Finance Minister from 2012 to 2013.^[3][4]