Sunday 22 July, 2012
Jamal: ‘Our’ Man in Palestine
Hameed Abdul Karim
It’s not every day that you see a foreigner greeting another foreigner with the words ‘Ayubowan’ with clasped hands and all in a foreign land. But that’s how Jamal Soliman greeted the Palestinian secretary of Dr. T. Jayasinghe, our affable ambassador in Palestine, when Mahinda Hattaka and I visited our embassy in Ramallah.
Jamal Soliman is our ambassador’s driver and translator and PR man all rolled into one. Tall, handsome and built like an ox, with features similar to British actor John Gleese; he is quite as jovial as his look alike and never at a loss for words to give you a laugh. Quite a guy this Jamal!