Aref al-Aref (Arabic :عارفالعارف;1892–1973) was a Palestinian journalist,historian and politician. He served as mayor of East Jerusalem in the 1950s during the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank.
Aref al-Aref was born in 1892 as Aref Shehadeh in Jerusalem. [1] His father was a vegetable vendor. Excelling at his studies in primary school,he was sent to high school in the Ottoman Empire. He attended the Marjan Preparatory School and Mulkiyya College in Istanbul. During his college studies,he wrote for a Turkish newspaper. Later,he worked as a translator for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [1] [2] He served as an officer in the Ottoman Army in World War I. He was captured on the Caucasus front and spent three years in a prisoner of war camp in Krasnoyarsk,Siberia. [1] In Krasnoyarsk,he edited a newspaper in handwritten Arabic called Nakatullah [Camel of God] and translated Ernst Haeckel's Die Weltraethsel ("The Riddles of the Universe") into Turkish. [1] After the Russian Revolution he escaped and returned in 1918 to what had become British-occupied Palestine. [1]
Aref al-Aref died on 30 July 1973,in al-Bireh.
By 1919,al-Aref was involved in political activism in Palestine,agitating for unity of Palestine with Syria. [3] In October 1919,he became editor of the recently established newspaper Suriya al-Janubiya (Southern Syria),which was the first Arab nationalist newspaper published in Jerusalem and was an organ of the al-Nadi al-'Arabi (The Arab Club). [2] [3] Initially the paper supported the British military authorities,but soon became an opponent of the British Mandate. [3]
Al-Aref attended the Nebi Musa religious festival in Jerusalem in 1920 riding on his horse,and gave a speech at the Jaffa Gate. [2] The nature of his speech is disputed. According to Benny Morris,he said "If we don't use force against the Zionists and against the Jews,we will never be rid of them", [4] while Bernard Wasserstein wrote "he seems to have cooperated with the police,and there is no evidence that he actively instigated violence". [2] In fact,"Zionist intelligence reports of this period are unanimous in stressing that he spoke repeatedly against violence". [2] Soon the festival became a riot involving attacks on the local Jews. Al-Aref was arrested for incitement,but when he was let out on bail he escaped to Syria together with co-accused Haj Amin al-Husseini. [2] In another version,he was warned and escaped before being arrested. [5] He advised Arabs against violence,urging them instead to adopt the "discipline,silence,and courage" of their opponents. [2] In his absence,a military court sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment. [2]
In Damascus,al-Aref became a deputy to the General Syrian Congress and with Hajj Amin and others formed al-Jam'iyya al-'Arabiyya al-Filastiniyya (Palestinian Arab Society). [2] [5] He became its Secretary-General and campaigned against the decisions of the San Remo conference. [5] After the French invasion of Syria in July 1920,he fled to Transjordan. [2] He returned to Jerusalem late in 1920 after being pardoned by the new British High Commissioner for Palestine,Herbert Samuel,but the government refused to allow his newspaper to reopen. [2]
In 1921,he was appointed as a district Officer of the British administration by the Civil Secretary,Colonel Wyndham Deedes. [2] He served in that capacity in Jenin,Nablus,Beisan,and Jaffa. [2] In 1926 he was seconded to the Government of Transjordan as Chief Secretary,where he served for three years. [2] However he continued his political activities on the side to the displeasure of his British superior. [2] He returned to Palestine in 1929,where he served as District Officer in Beersheba and later in Gaza. [2] In 1933 he received a special commendation from the High Commissioner for keeping his district quiet during a time of disturbances elsewhere. [2] In 1942 he was promoted and transferred to al-Bireh. [2] He continued as a Mandate official until 1948. [2]
Upon Jordanian control of the West Bank,al-Aref was first appointed military governor of Ramallah governorate,and then,from 1949 to 1955,served as mayor of East Jerusalem. [6] In 1967,he was appointed director of the Palestine Archaeological Museum (Rockefeller Museum) in Jerusalem. [6]
All following books have been published in Arabic,unless mentioned otherwise,and the English titles are literal translations of the Arabic ones.
The 1920 Nebi Musa riots or 1920 Jerusalem riots took place in British-controlled part of Occupied Enemy Territory Administration between Sunday,4 April,and Wednesday,7 April 1920 in and around the Old City of Jerusalem. Five Jews were killed and several hundred injured;four Arabs were killed,and eighteen injured;seven Britons were injured. The riots coincided with and are named after the Nebi Musa festival,which was held every year on Easter Sunday,and followed rising tensions in Arab–Jewish relations. The events came shortly after the Battle of Tel Hai and the increasing pressure on Arab nationalists in Syria in the course of the Franco-Syrian War.
Southern Syria is a geographical term referring to the southern portion of either Ottoman-period Vilayet of Syria,or modern-day Arab Republic of Syria.
Suriyya al-Janubiyya was the name of a newspaper published in Jerusalem beginning in 1918 by the lawyer Muhammad Hasan al-Budayri,and edited by Aref al-Aref,with contributions from,amongst others,Amin al-Husseini.
Al-Bireh,al-Birah,or el-Bira is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank,15 kilometers (9.3 mi) north of Jerusalem. It is the capital of the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the central ridge running through the West Bank and is 860 meters (2,820 ft) above sea level,covering an area of 22.4 square kilometers (8.6 sq mi). Al-Bireh is under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority.
Palestinian Jews or Jewish Palestinians were the Jews who inhabited Palestine prior to the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948.
Khalil Beidas (1874–1949) was a Palestinian scholar,educator,translator and novelist. Beidas was the father of Palestinian Lebanese banker Yousef Beidas and was a cousin of Edward Said's father.
Issa Daoud El-Issa was a Palestinian poet and journalist. With his cousin Yousef El-Issa,he founded and edited the biweekly newspaper Falastin in 1911,based in his hometown of Jaffa. Falastin became one of the most prominent and long running in the country at the time,and was dedicated to the cause of the Arab Orthodox Movement in struggle with the Greek clergy of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The newspaper was the country's fiercest and most consistent critic of the Zionist movement,denouncing it as a threat to Palestine's Arab population. It helped shape Palestinian identity and was shut down several times by the Ottoman and British authorities.
Tawfiq Canaan was a pioneering Palestinian physician,medical researcher,ethnographer,and Palestinian nationalist. Born in Beit Jala during the rule of the Ottoman Empire,he served as a medical officer in the Ottoman army during World War I.
Husayni is the name of a prominent Palestinian Arab clan formerly based in Jerusalem,which claims descent from Husayn ibn Ali.
Muhammad Kāmil ibn Wahba al-Shāfi'īal-Muqaddasīal-Budayrī was a famous Arab figure in the early 20th century. He was born in Jerusalem in 1882 and assassinated in 1923 in Wadi Rum in Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan.
The Palestinian people are an ethnonational group with family origins in the region of Palestine. Since 1964,they have been referred to as Palestinians,but before that they were usually referred to as Palestinian Arabs. During the period of the British Mandate,the term Palestinian was also used to describe the Jewish community living in Palestine.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the State of Palestine:
Between 1919 and 1928,the Palestinian Arab population in the British Mandate of Palestine held a series of congresses,organized by a nationwide network of local Muslim-Christian Associations. Seven congresses were held in Jerusalem,Jaffa,Haifa and Nablus. Despite broad public support their executive committees were never officially recognised by the British,who claimed they were unrepresentative. After the British defeat of Ottoman forces in 1918,the British established military rule and (later) civil administration of Palestine. The Palestine Arab Congress and its organizers in the Muslim-Christian Associations were formed when the country's Arab population began coordinated opposition to British policies.
Falastin was an Arabic-language Palestinian newspaper. Founded in 1911 in Jaffa,Falastin began as a weekly publication,evolving into one of the most influential dailies in Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine.
The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been,at the start of the war,British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. During the war,the British withdrew from Palestine,Zionist forces conquered territory and established the State of Israel,and over 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled. It was the first war of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the broader Arab–Israeli conflict.
Palestinian nationalism is the national movement of the Palestinian people that espouses self-determination and sovereignty over the region of Palestine. Originally formed in the early 20th century in opposition to Zionism,Palestinian nationalism later internationalized and attached itself to other ideologies;it has thus rejected the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the government of Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestinian nationalists often draw upon broader political traditions in their ideology,such as Arab socialism and ethnic nationalism in the context of Muslim religious nationalism. Related beliefs have shaped the government of Palestine and continue to do so.
Muhammad Najati Sidqi was a Palestinian public intellectual and activist,trade unionist,translator,writer,critic and erstwhile communist. Though almost forgotten as a figure in the Palestinian movement for independence,he played an important role in it,and witnessed many momentous moments in the early history of the 20th century. Aside from his native Arabic,he was fluent in French,Russian and Spanish.
The Nakba is the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs through their violent displacement and dispossession of land,property,and belongings,along with the destruction of their society and the suppression of their culture,identity,political rights,and national aspirations. The term is used to describe the events of the 1948 Palestine war in Mandatory Palestine as well as the ongoing persecution and displacement of Palestinians by Israel. As a whole,it covers the fracturing of Palestinian society and the long-running rejection of the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
"Mawat" was an Ottoman legal category used to classify lands as unused ("dead") land,and thus as state land. This legal category is related to the terra nullius concept,used during the colonial period to classify "land without a sovereign." Critics refer to the interpretation of this legal category by the State of Israel as the Mawat land doctrine,under which many Palestinians,particularly in the Negev,were dispossessed based on this legal basis. An alternative term for this is,therefore,the "Dead Negev Doctrine".
Al-Asma'i was a short-lived Arabic literary and political biweekly magazine published in 1908 and 1909 in Palestine,then part of the Ottoman Empire. The magazine was one of the first publications to emerge in Palestine following the lifting of press censorship. It was printed and distributed in Jerusalem,while the magazine's headquarters and offices were in Jaffa.