Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Born in Jerusalem in 1882; graduated in Civil Engineering from the University of Constantinople; returned and became District Engineer in Jerusalem under the Ottoman Empire; in 1914, elected to the Ottoman parliament as Jerusalem representative until 1918; was and remained a lifetime opposition leader against the Husseini family; became head of the Ottoman Dept. of Public Works; was a member of the All-Syrian Congress in 1919; returned and replaced Musa Kathem (Pasha) Al-Husseini as mayor of Jerusalem from May 1920-Jan. 1935; welcomed British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel to Jerusalem in July 1920; was a founding member and leading figure of Al-Hizb Al-Watani (Palestine Arab National Party), founded in Nov. 1923; was elected mayor of Jerusalem in 1927 in the first municipal elections since the British Mandate began; became Pres. of the Congress of Palestinian Mayors; was a member of the Palestinian delegation to London in March 1930; founded, on 2 Dec. 1934, and led the National Defense Party (Hizb Ad-Difa’a Al-Watani); was a member and his party’s representative in the Arab Higher Committee formed in 1936; resigned from the Arab Higher Committee in preparation to accept partition; was appointed head of the new Jordanian Ministry for Refugees and Rehabilitation in Aug. 1949; also appointed first Governor-General for Arab Palestine in Sept. 1949; was appointed in Jan. 1950 as Custodian of the Holy Places of Jerusalem with cabinet rank; that same year became Jordanian Minister of Agriculture and later of Transport; died from cancer in Jan. 1951.
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Achievements and Awards
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