Aref al-Aref

Aref al-Aref (Arabic: عارف العارف‎‎,‎ 1892–1973) was a Palestinian journalist, historian and politician. Aref al-Aref served as mayor of East Jerusalem in the 1950s, during the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank.

Aref al-Aref was born as Aref Shehadeh in Jerusalem in 1892. His father was a vegetable vendor. Excelling at his studies in primary school, he was sent to high school in Turkey. He attended the Marjan Preparatory School and Mulkiyya College in Istanbul. During his college studies, he wrote for a Turkish newspaper. Later, he worked as a translator for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served as an officer in the Ottoman Army in World War I. He was captured on the Caucasus front and spent three years in a prisoner of war camp in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. In Krasnoyarsk, he edited a newspaper in handwritten Arabic called Nakatullah [Camel of God] and translated Ernst Haeckel’s Die Weltraethsel ("The Riddles of the Universe") into Turkish. After the Russian Revolution he escaped and returned to Palestine.

Aref al-Aref died on July 30, 1973 in al-Bireh.

By 1919, al-Aref was involved in political activism in Palestine, agitating for unity of Palestine with Syria. In October 1919, he became editor of the recently established newspaper Suriya al-Janubiya (Southern Syria), which was the first Arab nationalist newspaper published in Jerusalem and was an organ of the al-Nadi al-'Arabi (The Arab Club). Initially Suriya al-Janubiya supported the British military authorities, but soon became an opponent of the British Mandate.

Al-Aref attended the Nebi Musa religious festival in Jerusalem in 1920 riding on his horse, and gave a speech at the Jaffa Gate. The nature of his speech is disputed. According to Benny Morris, he said "If we don't use force against the Zionists and against the Jews, we will never be rid of them", while Bernard Wasserstein wrote "he seems to have co-operated with the police, and there is no evidence that he actively instigated violence". In fact, "Zionist intelligence reports of this period are unanimous in stressing that he spoke repeatedly against violence". Soon the festival became a riot involving attacks on the local Jews. Al-Aref was arrested for incitement, but when he was let out on bail he escaped to Syria together with co-accused Haj Amin al-Husseini. In another version, he was warned and escaped before being arrested. He advised Arabs against violence, urging them instead to adopt the "discipline, silence, and courage" of their opponents. In his absence, a military court sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment.

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