Faisal Abdel Qader Al-Husseini (; 17 July 1940 – 31 May 2001) was a Palestinian politician.

Early life and education

Al-Husseini was born in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

, Kingdom of Iraq, son of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, 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 ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

and

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

. He was a founding member of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) in 1959.

Career and activities

Al-Husseini went to work for the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

(PLO) upon its establishment in

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 ...

, 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. He was also a member of the National Guidance Committee. 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 The First Intifada (), also known as the First Palestinian Intifada, was a sustained series of Nonviolent resistance, non-violent protests, acts of civil disobedience, Riot, riots, and Terrorism, terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinians ...

. In 1982, he became a member of the Supreme Muslim Council 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 is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, and

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...

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, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

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

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

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

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

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 31 May 2001. Following Husseini's death, Israeli police seized his headquarters, the Orient House. Husseini was buried in a family tomb in the Khātūniyya (where his grandfather and his father had also been buried), near the Dome of the Rock, in a funeral attended by thousands.

References

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External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Husseini, Faisal 1940 births 2001 deaths Faisal Government ministers of the Palestinian National Authority 20th-century Palestinian politicians Central Committee of Fatah members Politicians from Jerusalem People from Jerusalem Palestinian expatriates in Kuwait Arab people in Mandatory Palestine Palestinian expatriates in Saudi Arabia Palestinian expatriates in Iraq Members of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization