Emile Touma (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: إميل توما, ; 16 March 1919 – 27 August 1985), was a Palestinian and

Israeli Arab The Arab citizens of Israel form the country's largest ethnic minority. Their community mainly consists of former Palestinian Citizenship Order 1925, Mandatory Palestine citizens (and their descendants) who continued to inhabit the territory ...

political historian, journalist and theorist. Emile was born in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

to a wealthy Orthodox Christian family in 1919. He attended the Orthodox School in

, then went to

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

to the Bishop Gobat's School to complete his high school studies. He enrolled in

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

but left it in 1939 when

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

started. In that year he joined the

Palestine Communist Party The Palestine Communist Party (, ''Palestinische Komunistische Partei'', abbreviated PKP; ) was a political party in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate of Palestine formed in 1923 through the merger of the Palestinian Communist Party (192 ...

which would be later led by him and Fuad Nassar. In 1944 Touma, Fuad Nassar and Emile Habibi established a new newspaper, ''

Al-Ittihad Al-Ittihad may refer to: Sports Football Men Teams * Al-Ittihad Club (Jeddah), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia * Al Ittihad SCSC (Tripoli), Tripoli, Libya * Al Ittihad Gheryan, Gharyan, Libya * Al Ittihad Misurata SC, Misurata, Libya * Al Ittihad SC ...

'', which published its first edition on 14 May 1944. In January 1947 Touma travelled to a conference of Communist parties of the British Empire in London, where he argued against partition of Palestine. He was arrested in Lebanon in 1948. In 1949 he returned to

and continued working as editor-in-chief of ''Al-Ittihad''. In 1965 he joined the eastrization foundation in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

where he got his PhD in History for his dissertation on

Arab nationalism Arab nationalism () is a political ideology asserting that Arabs constitute a single nation. As a traditional nationalist ideology, it promotes Arab culture and civilization, celebrates Arab history, the Arabic language and Arabic literatur ...

, "The March of the Arab Peoples and the Problems of Arab Unity" ("مسيرة الشعوب العربية ومشاكل الوحدة العربية") In 1942, along with Dr.

Haidar Abdel-Shafi Haidar Abdel-Shafi (Heidar Abdul-Shafi) ( June 10, 1919 – September 25, 2007), was a Palestinian physician, community leader and political leader who was the head of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Conference of 1991. Backgroun ...

, and the late Mukhlis Amer, Habibi and

Mufid Nashashibi Mufid Said Ahmad Nashashibi (; 16 July 1915 – April 1999) was one of the founders of the Palestinian National Liberation League, which was established in 1942. Born in Jerusalem, Nashashibi was educated at St. George's School in Jerusalem, th ...

, Touma was a founder of the

Palestinian National Liberation League The National Liberation League in Palestine (, ''ʿuṣbat at-taḥrīr al-waṭaniyy fi filasṭīn'') was a political party in Palestine, founded in early 1944 by Arab members of the Palestine Communist Party (which had experienced a split betwe ...

. He wrote 15 books and hundreds of articles about politics, history and culture. He was married to Chaia Karberg, an Israeli ceramic artist of Moldovan-Jewish background.

Commemoration

*The

Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies Emil may refer to: Literature *''Emil and the Detectives'' (1929), a children's novel *"Emil", nickname of the Kurt Maschler Award for integrated text and illustration (1982–1999) *''Emil i Lönneberga'', a series of children's novels by Astr ...

, established in 1986, is named for him. *In 2004 a street was named for him in Haifa's Wadi Nisnas.

References

External links

Touma's biography at Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies
1919 births 1985 deaths Writers from Haifa 20th-century Palestinian historians National Liberation League in Palestine politicians 20th-century newspaper founders Israeli people of Palestinian descent Arab citizens of Israel Palestinian newspaper founders Israeli Christian socialists Palestinian Christian socialists St. George's School, Jerusalem alumni {{Israel-bio-stub