Birth: NULL/NULL/1912 Death:NULL/NULL/1958
Born in Qalqilya, near Nablus, in 1912; educated in the local school, then at An-Najah School where he also became active in the student movement and graduated in 1925; began at the same time to write articles in the Filastin and Al-Shura newspapers; was arrested for his political activism, incl. fighting against land purchasing by the Zionists in the Qalqilya area; participated in the student conferences in Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa, that were banned by the British government, and fled to Irbid, Jordan, then to Damascus, where he was arrested during a demonstration, but released on bail; moved to Beirut after 1929, where he became editor-in-chief of Al-I’tidal newspaper (following an offer by Jamil Shuman); was deported by the French authorities, first to Acre Prison then to Jerusalem Prison; again bailed out and returned to Qalqilya; continued his education at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, earning an ‘Alamiyah Certificate; also attended Cairo University as a listener audit student for one year; returned to Palestine in 1933; was deported to Jaffa in 1934 following a political dispute with the Qaimqam of Tulkarem; became teacher at the Islamic An-Nahda School and the Young Men’s Muslim Association in Jaffa; served as headmaster of the Islamic Al-Islah Educational Society; then established a private school known as Al-Falah; left the field of education and moved to business, opening his own firm, dealing, among others, stock exchanges; co-founded several magazines in Jaffa, incl. Al-Hurriyah (with Saud Jamil), Nida’ Al-Ard and Al-Sarih; was imprisoned for two years in 1937-38 following the assassination of the British Governor of Galilee, Mr. Andrews; was involved in smuggling weapons to the revolutionaries during the 1947/48 fighting; fled to Jordan to escape arrest for his critical articles and became close to King Abdullah I; witnessed the destruction of Jaffa during a brief visit in 1948; headed towards Egypt on 14 May 1948 but soon returned to continue issuing Al-Sarih from Amman; was arrested by Egyptian on his way back and imprisoned for five months after critical political cartoons were found in his pockets; went through hunger strikes and had different politicians interfere on his behalf (incl. King Abdullah of Jordan, who threatened to arrest an Egyptian journalist if he was not to be released); was eventually released and returned to Palestine on 25 May 1949; resumed publication of Al-Sarih in Nablus; was arrested again in Al-Sarih’s Jerusalem office in Oct. 1951 for his articles opposing reconciliation with Israel but was released upon the interference of former PM Said Pasha Al-Mufti; was among the first Palestinian journalists renowned for sarcastic and critical approach to reporting; published his memoirs in Arabic in 1951; died in Jerusalem on 5 Nov. 1958.
