Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Was born in Ar-Rameh, near Acre, on 18 Jan. 1912, his family moved to Haifa in 1919, he was educated in several schools in Haifa and the St. George’s School in Jerusalem then he moved to the National University in ‘Aleih, Lebanon, then enrolled at the AUB in 1928 to study Engineering but left for Damascus University in 1930 and changed his major to Law, graduating in 1933. Hanna returned and worked as a lawyer in Palestine, he was active in the 1936 Revolt, among the leaders of the An-Nahda Orthodox Society in the 1940s, he became a Marxist.
Source
Achievements and Awards
He was one of the founders of the National Liberation League.he joined the Arab Nationalist Movement in 1944 and be one of the founders of Al-Mihmaz newspaper in 1946 and editor of its political section. He was a member of the Arab Fund branch in Haifa, established in 1946 to protect Arab land from Zionist confiscation;practiced as lawyer in Acre during the 1948 War and was not allowed to return to Haifa afterwards so that he moved to Lebanon instead, from where he tried again to return to Haifa but was arrested by Zionist forces and imprisoned until 1951. He resumed his work as lawyer, defending land cases as well as fighting for more justice for Arabs inside the Green Line; was able to convince and defend farmers in Majd Al-Kuroum to reject temporary red ID cards (whose holders were soon deported) and receive blue ID cards instead. He had a similar role in saving the residents of Bi’na village from deportation and was among the founders of the Society for the Defense of the Arab Minority in Israel. He believed in joint Arab-Jewish work for justice and had been one of initiators of the Arab-Jewish conference both in Oct. 1954 and Feb. 1956, demanding equality and citizenship rights for Arabs and the end of Israeli military rule and land expropriation; died in 1983
- Years in active
: From
To