Birth: NULL/NULL/1860 Death:13/4/1930
Born in Jerusalem in 1860; moved to Istanbul where he studied Law and French; was known for his shifting political agenda in response to the events of the day; worked in the Ottoman administration and became governor of Deir El-Zor, Yemen, and Anatolia; one of four Palestinians on whom the Ottoman State bestowed the title of ‘Pasha’ while being alive (in addition to Musa Kathem Husseini, Abdul Salam Al-Husseini and Yousef Diya’ Eddin Al-Khalidi); mayor of Jerusalem from 1909-18; was a representative to the Administrative Committee of the Muslim-Christian Association (MCA) in 1918; with the arrival of the British Mandate, he cooperated with the British administration and was present in their meetings with Chaim Weizmann in April 1918; became Pres. of the MCA in Jerusalem in Jan. 1919 and, through the senior status of the association’s Jerusalem branch, the MCA’s overall Pres.; under this presidency he initiated the First Palestinian National Congress in Jerusalem in 1919; soon became one of the leaders of the movement ‘Palestine for the Palestinians’ which emerged that same year; expressed at the 1919 King-Crane Commission hearings the opinion that it was impossible to live with the Jews; was elected representative to the 3rd (Dec. 1920, Haifa) and 4th (May 1921, Jerusalem) Congress of the Arab Executive Committee for Jerusalem and Vice-Pres. at the 4th Congress; elected member of the Arab Executive Committee until 1922 and Vice-Pres. of the Palestinian Congress demanding an independent Palestinian state in federation with Syria; he gradually shifted his positions moving towards the opposition (which maintained closer ties with the British and Zionists in contrast to the Husseini-led Muslim Council); led the opposition until it split in 1926/27; failed in the municipal elections of 1927; adopted pro-Hashemite positions and became one of the Jerusalemite leaders who signed a petition on 24 August 1929 following the demonstrations of the Wailing Wall, asking Arabs to cease the uprising and maintain good relations with the British; died on 13 April 1930 in Jerusalem; buried at Al-Aqsa Mosque graveyard and was eulogized by Omar Al-Saleh Al-Barghouthi.
