Yusuf Abu Durra

Yusuf Abu Durra
Abu Durra posing with his rifle, 1936
Born	1900 Silat al-Harithiya, Beirut Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Died	(1939-09-30)30 September 1939 Mandatory Palestine
Nationality	Palestinian
Other names	Abu Abed
Known for	Regional Commander of the 1936–39 Palestine revolt

Yusuf Sa'id Abu Durra (1900 – 30 September 1939) (nom de guerre: Abu Abed) was one of the chief Palestinian Arab rebel commanders during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine. Abu Durra was a close disciple of the Muslim preacher and rebel Izz ad-Din al-Qassam and one of the few survivors of a shootout between British forces and Qassam, in which the latter was killed. When the revolt broke out, Abu Durra led bands of Qassam's remaining disciples and other armed volunteers in the region between Haifa and Jenin. He also administered a rebel court system in his areas of operation, which prosecuted and executed several Palestinian village headmen suspected of colluding with the British authorities. After experiencing battlefield setbacks, Abu Durra escaped to Transjordan, but was arrested on his way back to Palestine in 1939. He was subsequently tried and executed by the authorities later that year.

Abu Durra was born during the Ottoman era, in 1900, in the village of Silat al-Harithiya, located near Jenin in Jabal Nablus (Samarian highlands). He hailed from the Jaradat clan, which at the time was part of a larger confederation of clans and tribes in Palestine and Transjordan known as the Qais. The Qais also included the Tuqan and Jarrar clans, and the Bani Saqr tribe.

During the period when the British administered Palestine, Abu Durra worked as a porter at a railway station in Zikhron Ya'akov. Later, he became a day laborer in the port city of Haifa, working with the Iraqi Petroleum Company.