Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Judge, Lawyer, Bank manager, Statesman, was born in Jerusalem in 1897. He was the second oldest of twelve children born to Abdelnour Atalla and Mariyya Zachariah. He completed his elementary and high school studies in Jerusalem in 1912, first at the Lutheran Church School and then the American College, and then entered the American University in Beirut. In 1916 along with many other students he was forcefully conscripted into the Ottoman Army and taken to Istanbul for military training, after which he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Ottoman Army. However, when the Arab Revolt against the Turks under Sherif Hussein of the Hejaz was proclaimed, Atalla managed to escape and return to Jerusalem.
Anton Atalla's civic and public positions included Deputy Mayor of the City of Jerusalem,(1944-46) Member of Parliament from Jerusalem,(1954-56), Special Representative of Jordan to the United Nations (1961), Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs (1963-64, and 1970), and Senator. He went on a number of missions as Jordan's representative to His Holiness, the Pope, to various international conferences.
Atalla was a leader in the Christian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem and worked tirelessly to advance the interests of the Arab Laity and bring about their full participation in the Church hierarchy. He was president of the Arab Orthodox Executive Committee in Jerusalem, and presided at all the Orthodox conferences in Jordan. He was, also, President of the Jordan YMCA and the Chairman of the Middle East Council of Churches (?). An active Rotarian, Atalla was Rotary Governor of the Middle East District 195 (1965-66). Anton Atalla died in 1987 in Amman.
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