Faisal Abdel Qader Al-Husseini ( ar, فيصل عبدالقادر الحسيني) (July 17, 1940 – May 31, 2001) was a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

politician. Al-Husseini was born in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

, Kingdom of Iraq, son of

Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni ( ar, عبد القادر الحسيني), also spelled Abd al-Qader al-Husseini (1907 – 8 April 1948) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and fighter who in late 1933 founded the secret militant group known as the Orga ...

, commander of local Arab forces during the siege of 1948, grandson of Musa Kazim Pasha Al-Husseini, Mayor of Jerusalem and a relative of Haj Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. He studied in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

and Damascus. He was a founding member of the

General Union of Palestinian Students The General Union of Palestine Students ( ar, الإتحاد العام لطلبة فلسطين) (GUPS) is an organization run by Palestinian students since the early 1920s. It is generally considered one of the first Palestinian institutions start ...

(GUPS) in 1959. Al-Husseini went to work for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) upon its establishment in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, as deputy manager of the Public Organisation Dept, a post he filled from 1964 to 1965. He later received military training at the Damascus Military College, after which he joined the Palestinian Liberation Army in 1967. In 1979, Al-Husseini founded and became chairman of the

Arab Studies Society The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, No ...

. Israel, from 1982 to 1987, repeatedly placed him under house and city arrest. He was imprisoned several times from April 1987 to January 1989, but remained active in the First Intifada. In 1982, he became a member of the

Supreme Muslim Council The Supreme Muslim Council (SMC; ar, المجلس الإسلامي الاعلى) was the highest body in charge of Muslim community affairs in Mandatory Palestine under British control. It was established to create an advisory body composed of ...

in Jerusalem. Subsequently, he served as a Palestinian spokesperson, head of the Jerusalem National Council/Palestine, an advisor the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Middle East Peace Conference and subsequent talks, head of the Fatah faction in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, and Palestinian Authority Minister without Portfolio. His last post was Palestinian Authority Minister for Jerusalem Affairs for which he was based in East Jerusalem. He died while he was trying to mend relations between the

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

i government and the PLO, which were broken at the time of the 1991

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

. Al-Husseini was considered a pragmatist by journalists. He taught himself to speak

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and regularly appeared in radio and television shows in Israel to explain the Palestinians' point of view.

Death

Husseini died of a heart attack in Kuwait on May 31, 2001. Following Husseini's death, Israeli police seized his headquarters, the

Orient House Orient House ( ar, بيت الشرق ''bayt ʾal-šarq'', he, האוריינט האוס) is a building located in East Jerusalem that served as the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the 1980s and 1990s. Built in 189 ...

. Husseini was buried in a family tomb in the Khātūniyya (where his grandfather and his father had also been buried), [structure number 88 on PDF's p. 40 (= p. 79). Text als
available here
] near the Dome of the Rock, in a funeral attended by thousands.Deborah Sontag, A Funeral in Jerusalem Arouses Palestinian Nationalism, ''The New York Times'', 2 June 2001, p6.

References

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External links

* * * 1940 births 2001 deaths Fatah members Faisal Government ministers of the Palestinian National Authority 20th-century Palestinian people Central Committee of Fatah members People from Baghdad {{Palestine-politician-stub