Abdel Bari Atwan holds book signing

The Palestinian Committee of Jordan’s Professional Syndicates, in cooperation with publisher ‘Dar El-Shourk’ will on Wednesday host the signing of Abdel Bari Atwan's book “A Country of Words” which was released in Arabic and English. A Country of Words, Atwan's memoir, was published in 2008 by Saqi Books. It traces his remarkable journey from the Gazan refugee camps where he was born and raised, to a highly successful London-based career as an international journalist, author and broadcaster. Taking in stints as a factory worker in Jordan, a student in Cairo and a journalist in Libya, the memoir also documents Atwan's meetings with remarkable people such as Osama Bin Laden, Yasser Arafat and Margaret Thatcher. Abdel Bari Atwan is the editor-in chief of the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi. He was born on February 17, 1950 in Deir El-Balah, a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, two years after the creation of Israel. After receiving his primary school education at the camp, his schooling was continued first in Jordan in 1967, and then in Cairo, Egypt. In 1970 he joined Cairo University where he studied journalism and also received a diploma in English-Arabic translation. After graduation he started work as a journalist, first with the Al-Balaagh newspaper in Libya, then with al-Madina in Saudi Arabia. In 1978, he moved to London, where he has lived ever since, and assumed a job with Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a major Saudi-owned international daily. In 1980 he set up the London office of Al-Madina and in 1984 returned to Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. In 1989, Al-Quds Al-Arabi was founded by expatriate Palestinians and Abdel Bari Atwan was offered the job as editor-in-chief, a job he has held since.