Birth: 1/1/1917 Death:7/2/1993
Born in Hebron in 1917; brother of Ruhi Al-Khatib; studied social science at the Arab College in Jerusalem; worked as a teacher in Beersheba and Jerusalem; studied at the same time Law, receiving a BA in 1943; member of Hajj Amin Al-Husseini’s Arab Higher Committee for which he was imprisoned for six month; moved to Baghdad, then Muscat, until 1945; returned to Palestine and was appointed Sec.-Gen. of the Waqf Administration in Jerusalem; served as mayor of Jerusalem between 1949-1950, was elected as a member of the Jordanian parliament from 1951-54, and held various positions in the cabinet during 1961-67, incl. Minister for Economics & Construction, Jordan’s first ambassador to Egypt in 1963-64, and governor of the Jerusalem district in 1965; was a member of the Arab Socialist Party; was placed under house arrest in Safad by Israel for two months after the 1967 War for his opposition to the occupation; was a founding member of the Higher Islamic Council in Jerusalem in 1967; signed the (unreleased) ‘Palestinian Peace Document’ in Nov. 1982 which recognized the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people; served as member of the Jordanian delegation to the 1991 Madrid peace conference; died on 7 Feb. 1993.
