Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Faisal Abdul Qader Al-Husseini ( July 17 , 1940 - May 31 , 2001 ) is a Palestinian politician from the Palestinian Al-Husseini family .
His upbringing
Faisal was born in Baghdad . His father was Abdul Qader al-Husseini, the leader and founder of the Holy Jihad Army who was martyred in the Battle of Qastal, and his grandfather was Musa Kazim, the mayor of Jerusalem . When Faisal was born, his father was imprisoned by the Iraqi authorities. He moved with his father to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where he requested political asylum. The Iraqi authorities allowed him to be released if any country was willing to receive him.
He then moved to Cairo and his father was martyred there when he was eight years old. He studied in Cairo and Aleppo . He met Yasser Arafat during his university studies in Cairo . He joined the Arab Nationalist Movement in 1957. He also participated in establishing the Palestinian Student Organization in 1959 , which later became the nucleus of the Palestine Liberation Organization .
He worked in the PLO office in Jerusalem in 1966 in the Popular Guidance Department. He then moved to the PLO office in Beirut as an assistant military attaché with the rank of first lieutenant, when Shafiq al-Hout was the organization's representative in Lebanon . He studied engineering at the Military Academy in Aleppo and graduated in 1966. He then joined the Palestine Liberation Army forces stationed in Syria in early 1967.
After the 1967 war
After the June 1967 war, he went to Jerusalem and led the political work of the PLO there. He was arrested in October 1967 and sentenced to one year in prison on charges of possessing weapons. After his release, he worked as a radiology technician.
In 1979, he founded the Arab Studies Society ( Orient House ) in Jerusalem . Israeli Minister of State Rehavam Ze'evi called him a terrorist, son of a terrorist . He led the Palestinian struggle in the first intifada and was imprisoned for two full years.
He held early talks with members of the Israeli government. He headed the Palestinian negotiating delegation that met with US Secretary of State James Baker . He headed the Palestinian negotiating team and formed the Palestinian negotiating delegation that went to Madrid , which was headed by Dr. Haidar Abdel Shafi . He did not head the delegation at the time due to Israel's objection that he was from Jerusalem. He returned and headed the negotiating delegation in the Washington talks in 1993. After the Oslo Accords, Israel refused to let him join the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, on the pretext that he lived in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem file
He was appointed as the person in charge of the Jerusalem file and was elected by the Palestinian National Council as a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1996. As the person in charge of the Jerusalem file, he attended the meetings of the Palestinian Council of Ministers. His relationship with Yasser Arafat witnessed many disagreements and tensions. Arafat froze the funding of Al-Husseini's office in the Orient House and appointed Ziad Abu Zayyad as the Minister of Jerusalem Affairs .
His death
He died in Kuwait, where he was conducting talks to end the hostility between the Palestinian Authority and the Kuwaiti government, which followed the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait . His brother Ghazi al-Husseini believes that he was assassinated by poisoning in Beirut, and his body was carried from the landing site of the plane at President Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah to Jerusalem in a funeral that was unprecedented in Palestine, as Jerusalem was liberated during this funeral for several hours, during which Palestinians from the West Bank entered Jerusalem accompanying the body and the occupation disappeared from the streets. He was buried in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Mosque next to his father and grandfather. This is the first time that a Palestinian has been buried in this place since the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem in 1967.
Source
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
: From
To