Hamas recognized Dweik as the interim President of the Palestinian National Authority and of the State of Palestine from 15 January 2009, when the elected term of Mahmoud Abbas officially expired, until 2 June 2014, when Hamas and Fatah agreed on the establishment of a national unity government under Abbas as President.
[4] Prior to becoming involved in political office, Dweik was a professor of urban geography at An-Najah National University in Nablus on the West Bank.
Dweik's wife runs a daycare centre out of the family's house named Marj al-Zohour, after the place in Lebanon where her husband spent a year in exile in 1992.
[2] In 1992, Dweik was among 415 Palestinians associated with Hamas or the Islamic Jihad who were arrested and exiled to southern Lebanon by the Israeli administration of Yitzhak Rabin.
[2] Duweik ran for a position in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in the January 2006 elections on the Change and Reform list, made up primarily of Hamas members.
The victory of Hamas in the elections prompted Israel and the United States to cut off ties to the new government, maintaining contact only with Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian National Authority, and not Ismail Haniyeh, its new prime minister, or any other elected parliamentarians from Hamas, including Duweik.
[11] On 19 January 2012, while traveling to Hebron, Dweik was arrested by the Israeli Army at a checkpoint outside the Palestinian village of Jaba' located between Ramallah and Jerusalem.
The BBC's Jerusalem correspondent Wyre Davies said Dweik's arrest will be seen by "many" as "further proof that Israel is pursuing a policy of restricting the movements of senior Palestinian figures.
"[12] Hamas claimed that Israel made the arrest in order to hinder unity negotiations between their organization and rival Fatah.
[16] Hamas recognized Dweik as the interim President of the Palestinian National Authority and of the State of Palestine from 15 January 2009, when the elected term of Mahmoud Abbas officially expired, until 2 June 2014, when Hamas and Fatah agreed on the establishment of a national unity government under Abbas as President.
[2][3] In October 2023, amidst the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Aziz Dweik, who was then living in the West Bank, was arrested by the Israel Defense Forces.