24 Facts About Jibril Rajoub

Jibril Rajoub leads the Palestinian Football Association and the Palestine Olympic Committee.

Jibril Rajoub was the head of the Preventive Security Force in the West Bank until being dismissed in 2002.

Jibril Rajoub had been a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council until 2009 and was elected to the Fatah Central Committee at the party's 2009 congress, serving as Deputy-Secretary until 2017, before being elected Secretary General of the Central Committee in 2017.

Jibril Rajoub's tasks were to assist fighters and build up cells in the Hebron hills.

In September 1970, Rajoub was arrested for throwing a grenade at an Israeli army bus near Hebron.

Jibril Rajoub was tried and convicted of this attack and of membership in an armed group, and sentenced to life in prison.

Jibril Rajoub became a prominent figure among prisoners, leading hunger strikes and protests.

Jibril Rajoub studied Zionism and Hebrew extensively and, together with a cellmate, translated The Revolt by Menachem Begin into Arabic.

Jibril Rajoub spent time in numerous prisons throughout the West Bank and Israel, as Israeli authorities moved prisoners around to disrupt their organization.

In 1985, Jibril Rajoub was one of 1,150 Arab prisoners freed in exchange for three Israeli hostages held by the PFLP-GC.

Jibril Rajoub was rearrested for resuming militant activities, and was interrogated and placed in solitary confinement.

Jibril Rajoub continued to work with Fatah cells in the West Bank.

Jibril Rajoub was arrested for his activities during the First Intifada in December 1987, and was deported to Lebanon in January 1988.

Jibril Rajoub relocated to Tunis, Tunisia, where he was an advisor on the Intifada to Fatah deputy leader Khalil al-Wazir.

In 1994, Jibril Rajoub was allowed to return to the West Bank following the signing of the Oslo Accords.

Jibril Rajoub served as head of the Preventive Security Force until 2002, and Yasser Arafat appointed him as his national security advisor in 2003.

Since 2006 Jibril Rajoub has been President of the Palestinian Football Association.

Jibril Rajoub is President of the Palestine Olympic Committee, Head of the PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs and Chairman of the Palestinian Scout Association.

Jibril Rajoub was awarded the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Creative Sports Award for sports administrative creativity in 2013.

In June 2012, as head of the Palestine Olympic Committee, Jibril Rajoub called a request for a minute of silence to remember the 11 Israeli athletes murdered at the Munich Olympics in the Munich Massacre by Palestinian terrorists in 1972 "racist".

In November 2015, Jibril Rajoub named a table tennis tournament in honor of Muhannad Halabi, who had stabbed and killed two Israeli civilians in Jerusalem a month prior.

In January 2019 FIFA launched an investigation into Jibril Rajoub for glorifying terror and inciting violence.

On 13 August 2024, upon his return from the Olympics, the Israeli Defense Forces briefly detained Jibril Rajoub, confiscating his passport and summoning him for interrogation for the next day.

Jibril Rajoub stated that he would not comply with the order, as it was issued by "an occupation authority".