Birth: 1/1/1914 Death:6/7/1994
Born in Jerusalem in 1914; studied at Al-Rashidiyeh School and the English College in Jerusalem; later went for his higher education to Oxford and Cambridge; returned and became teacher at Dar Al-Aytam Islamic orphanage in Jerusalem; was appointed in the Immigration and Travel Dept. of the British Mandate authorities; became active in the Palestinian national movement; moved to the Labor Affairs Dept. in 1943; resigned and was appointed Director of the Arab office (‘diwan’) in Jerusalem in 1946; remained in that post until 1948, when he became Director of the Travel Permit Office in Jerusalem until April 1949; moved to working in the field of economy and architectural renovation in Jerusalem; supported projects that helped strengthen the Arab existence in the city after the 1948 Nakba, incl. founding the Arab Hotels Company in 1949 (as whose elected Dir.-Gen. he served until 1968) and founding Az-Zahra Hotel in Jerusalem, which was the first Arab hotel in East Jerusalem after the Nakba; in his capacity as Director of the Arab Hotels Company he encouraged investment in the hotel industry, leading to the establishment of some 70 hotels in Jerusalem at one point; served as Director of the Ambassador Hotel since its establishment in 1949 (and until his deportation in 1968); was Administrative Director of the Jerusalem Construction Company and the Jerusalem Electricity Company, which aimed since the late 1920s at Arabizing the British company; became a member in the Jerusalem Municipal Council in 1951; was elected Mayor of Jerusalem on 19 Jan. 1957, and re-elected in 1959 and 1963 (the municipality was later known as the ‘Amana of Jerusalem’ and he became known as the ‘Amin of Jerusalem’); was dismissed by Israel in 1967 and deported to Jordan in March 1968 for his role in leading the Supreme Muslim Council; continued to speak out against Israeli occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem through many Arab, Islamic and international conferences and the Save Jerusalem Committee; was pro-Jordanian; was allowed to return to the West Bank in May 1993; wrote a book entitled Israeli Annexation of Jerusalem (translated into English by the Palestinian Research Center in Beirut, 1970); died on 6 July 1994.
