Aref al-Aref

Aref al-Aref ( Arabic عارف العارف, DMG ʿārif al-ʿārif ; * 1891 in Jerusalem , Ottoman Empire ; † July 30, 1973 in Ramallah , Jordan ) was an Arab journalist, politician and civil servant of Palestinian origin . He was the first free elected mayor of East Jerusalem , as well as a minister in the Jordanian government.

Aref al Aref (1930s)

Life

Ottoman Empire

Aref grew up in Jerusalem and completed his school education at the French-speaking Lycee de Constantinople in Istanbul . This was followed by a degree in political economy at the University of Istanbul . Aref's journalistic career, which began with the Filastin newspaper ( Palestine ) in Jaffa, was interrupted by the First World War . Aref was drafted as a lieutenant and was taken prisoner in 1916. He spent two years in Siberia before he could return to Palestine.

Mandate Palestine

Aref al Aref as Governor of Beersheba in the British mandate administration

In April 1920, the British authorities arrested a number of city notables and celebrities as reprisals after the Nabi Musa riots . Aref fled and was sentenced to ten years in prison in absentia. In 1921 he was pardoned on condition that he abstained from politics and accepted a position in the mandate administration. In 1933 he became civil servant.

Jordan

After the Palestinian War, Aref al Aref was elected mayor of East Jerusalem . In 1955 he was appointed minister for public relations in the Jordanian cabinet. In 1963 he was appointed director of the Palestine Archaeological Museum . Aref wrote numerous historical works in the mid-1950s about the Nakba and the collapse of Palestinian society during the war. In particular, he excelled in an almost complete documentation of the reports from all the destroyed Arab villages and settlements.

Web links

• Passia: Palestine Facts> Personalities> A ( Memento of March 5, 2005 in the Internet Archive )