Nabeel Kassis

Nabeel Kassis
نبيل قسيس
Minister of Finance
In office 2012–2013
President	Mahmoud Abbas
Prime Minister	Salam Fayyad
Preceded by	Salam Fayyad
Succeeded by	Shoukry Bishara
Minister of Planning
In office 2003–2005
President	Yasser Arafat
Prime Minister	Ahmed Qurei
Succeeded by	Ghassan Khatib
Minister of Tourism and Antiquities
In office 2002–2003
President	Yasser Arafat
Prime Minister	Mahmoud Abbas
Preceded by	Abdul Razzak Yehiyeh
Succeeded by	Mitri Abu Aita
Minister of State
In office 1998–2002
President	Yasser Arafat
Prime Minister	Various
Preceded by	Hasan Abu-Libdeh
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Personal details
Born	1945 (age 80–81) Ramallah, Palestine
Alma mater	University of Mainz, American University of Beirut
Occupation	Academic, politician

Nabeel Kassis (Arabic: نبيل قسيس; born 1945), also transliterated as Nabil Kassis, Nabil Qasis, Nabeel Qassis, etc., is a Palestinian academic and politician from Ramallah.

Academic career

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. He served as President of Birzeit University from 2004 to 2010.

Diplomatic career

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.

Political career

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, and Finance Minister from 2012 to 2013.