1. Aref al-Aref was a Palestinian journalist, historian and politician.
10 Facts About Aref al-Aref
1. 2.
Aref al-Aref served as mayor of East Jerusalem in the 1950s during the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank.
3.
Aref al-Aref was born in 1892 as Aref Shehadeh in Jerusalem, then part of the Ottoman Empire.
4.
Aref al-Aref served as an officer in the Ottoman Army in World War I Aref al-Aref was captured on the Caucasus front and spent three years in a prisoner of war camp in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia.
5.
Aref al-Aref advised Arabs against violence, urging them instead to adopt the "discipline, silence, and courage" of their opponents.
6.
In Damascus, al-Aref became a deputy to the General Syrian Congress and with Hajj Amin and others formed al-Jam'iyya al-'Arabiyya al-Filastiniyya.
7.
Aref al-Aref became its Secretary-General and campaigned against the decisions of the San Remo conference.
8.
Aref al-Aref returned to Jerusalem late in 1920 after being pardoned by the new British High Commissioner for Palestine, Herbert Samuel, but the government refused to allow his newspaper to reopen.
9.
Aref al-Aref served in that capacity in Jenin, Nablus, Beisan, and Jaffa.
10.
Aref al-Aref returned to Palestine in 1929, where he served as District Officer in Beersheba and later in Gaza.