Hazem Zaki Nuseibeh (; 6 May 1922 – 10 April 2022), also spelled Nusseibeh and Nusaybah, was a Jordanian politician and diplomat of

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

descent. He was a member of the old Nusaybah family.Mattar, 334 During his career for the Jordanian administration he served amongst other positions as Minister of Foreign Relations, Ambassador to Egypt, and Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He is also seen as having been one of the most important ideologists of Arab nationalism.

Early years

Nuseibeh was born in 1922 in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine. For his secondary education he went to

Victoria College, Alexandria Victoria College, Alexandria, () is an Egyptian private school, operating under the supervision of Ministry of Education, located in the city of Alexandria, Egypt. It was founded in 1902. The school was founded under the impetus of the recently ...

, Egypt between 1936 and 1940. He started his university studies at the

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs le ...

, completing a BA in Political Science in 1943. Afterwards, he returned to Jerusalem to study law between 1943 and 1948. During this time Nuseibeh became a broadcaster and chief news editor of the Palestine Broadcasting Service, where he reported about the

Deir Yassin massacre The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when Zionist paramilitaries attacked the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, then part of Mandatory Palestine, killing at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and childr ...

. His studies carried him abroad once more when he went to study at

Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (''abbrev.'' SPIA; formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of c ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in New Jersey, United States. There he earned a Master of Public Affairs in 1952. At the Politics Department of Princeton he earned a further MA in 1953 and his PhD in 1954.

Diplomatic career

Minister

In 1958 Nuseibeh was to be appointed under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Federation, a union of Jordan and

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. However, the

14 July Revolution The 14 July Revolution, also known as the 1958 Iraqi military coup, was a ''coup d'état'' that took place on 14 July 1958 in Iraq, resulting in the toppling of King Faisal II and the overthrow of the Hashemite-led Kingdom of Iraq. The Ira ...

brought down the ruling family in Iraq several days before Nuseibeh's appointment, and the union disbanded. At one point in time thereafter Nuseibeh served as the Jordanian representative in the

Jordan–Israel Mixed Armistice Commission Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan/Israel Mixed Armistice Commission (HKJI MAC) was the United Nations organisation of observers which dealt with complaints from Jordan and Israel to maintain the fragile cease fire along the demarcation line (Green Line ...

. During the 1950s and 1960s the Nusaybah family became more influential in the Jordanian Government, as Hazem's brother Anwar Nusseibeh was appointed governor and custodian of the sanctuaries in the West Bank, including the

Church of the Holy Sepulchre The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also known as the Church of the Resurrection, is a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, Old City of Jerusalem. The church is the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchat ...

in Jerusalem, and at times was Minister of Defence. Hazem Nuseibeh himself later served as Foreign Affairs Minister between January 1962 and April 1963 and once more in 1965,Mattar, 334 although other sources mention that he served continuously between 1962 and 1966. In February 1965 Jordanian Prime Minister,

Wasfi al-Tal Wasfi Tal (; also known as Wasfi Tell; 1920 – 28 November 1971) was a Jordanian politician, statesman and military officer. He served as the 15th Prime Minister of Jordan for three separate terms, 1962–63, 1965–67 and 1970 until his assass ...

, presented a White Paper designed to improve the relationship between Jordanians and Palestinians, which had been troublesome for the last couple of years under King

Hussein of Jordan Hussein bin Talal (14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 1952 until Death and state funeral of King Hussein, his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemites, Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, Hu ...

.Ashton, 99–100 The White Paper was mainly drafted by Nuseibeh and it called for the establishment of a United Kingdom of Palestine and Jordan.Slaim, 311 The plan gave 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 ...

limited autonomy from the state of Jordan and allowed for the election of Palestinians. With the plan Nusseibeh hoped to make the Palestinians in the state of Jordan feel more included. Prime Minister Wasfi al-Tal voted against the plan as he feared it would create more friction between the Palestinians and Jordanians. The plan also received criticism from Egyptian president

Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 a ...

, who wished to take the Palestinians under his pan-Arab umbrella. Later, Nuseibeh came to regret that his White Plan was not implemented, as he felt that 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 ...

could gain prominence because it could call itself the only representative of the Palestinian people. In 1963 Nuseibeh also became Minister of the Hashemite Royal Court and Political Adviser to

. This was followed by a term as Minister of Reconstruction and Development between 1967 and 1968.

Ambassador and Permanent Representative

After these terms as minister, Nuseibeh became an ambassador of Jordan, serving in several high-profile posts. His first assignment was Egypt, where he served from 1968 to 1971. He continued as ambassador in Turkey, being stationed there between 1971 and 1972. He left the Middle East for Europe in 1972 to become ambassador to Italy, Switzerland and Austria, serving until 1974. Nuseibeh changed continents once again when he became the Permanent Representative of Jordan at the United Nations in New York, United States in 1976. During his time as Permanent Representative he on numerous occasions fell out with the Israeli Representative Yehuda Zvi Blum. In December 1980 Nuseibeh partially based a speech on the ''

Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated text purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into multip ...

'', an anti-semitic hoax purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. For the speech he received severe criticism from Blum. Early in 1982 they fell out over the position of Palestinians in Jordan and Israel. Blum wished to point out that Palestinians already had a home in Jordan and referred to the country as "the Palestinian Arab State of Jordan", while Nuseibeh responded by calling Israel "the Israeli entity". During the discussion of the

1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982 in a military operation code-named Operation Rosario (). The invasion served as a catalyst for the subsequent Falklands War. The Argentines mounted amphibious landings and the invas ...

in the United Nations Security Council, Nuseibeh assured the Argentinian Representative, Eduardo Roca, that Jordan would vote against the United Kingdom. However, after a conversation between Nuseibeh and United Kingdom Representative,

Anthony Parsons Sir Anthony Derrick Parsons (9 September 1922 – 12 August 1996) was a British diplomat, ambassador to Iran at the time of the Iranian Revolution and Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations, Permanent Representa ...

, the Jordanian vote would later be in favor of the United Kingdom in

United Nations Security Council Resolution 502 United Nations Security Council Resolution 502 was a resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council on 3 April 1982. After expressing its concern at the invasion of the Falkland Islands by the armed forces of Argentina, the council d ...

. Nuseibeh served as

President of the United Nations Security Council The presidency of the United Nations Security Council is responsible for leading the United Nations Security Council. It rotates among the fifteen member-states of the council monthly. The head of the country's delegation is known as the president ...

in October 1982 and he retired as Permanent Representative in 1985.

Political career and retirement

After his retirement from the diplomatic service he was member of the Senate of Jordan between either 1982 or 1985 and 1989. And during 1986 he served as a Government Minister and was seen as a prominent moderate in the discussion about Palestinians. In 1989 he retired altogether from public service. He did however teach Arab and International Affairs at the

University of Jordan The University of Jordan (), often abbreviated UJ or JU, is a public university located in Amman, Jordan. Founded in 1962, and it is the largest and oldest institution of higher education in Jordan. It is located in the capital Amman in the J ...

and the national War College. In the 2009 published book, ''Jerusalemites: a living memory'', were his personal memoirs. Nuseibeh said on his family's website that he dedicated his time to farming. On Nuseibeh's 90th birthday, on 6 May 2012, a banquet was hosted by Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan for Nuseibeh's achievements in Jordanian society.

Personal life

During his youth, Nuseibeh managed to win several national and international tournaments in tennis. Nuseibeh was married to Qadar Masri Nuseibeh and had four children; sons Haitham and Khaled, and daughters Laila and Lina. He died on 10 April 2022, at the age of 99.

Honour

Foreign honour

* Malaysia: ** Honorary Commander of the

Order of the Defender of the Realm The Most Esteemed Order of the Defender of the Realm () is a Malaysian federal award presented for meritorious service to the country. The Order Motto are 'Dipeliharakan Allah-Pangkuan Negara' (By the Grace of God-Defender of the Realm). The o ...

(PMN (K)) - Tan Sri (1965)

Works and publications

* ''The ideas of Arab nationalism'' (1954) * ''Palestine and the United Nations'' (1972) * ''Jerusalemites : a living memory'' (2009)

References

Notes

Sources

* Ashton, Nigel (2008)
''King Hussein of Jordan: a political life''
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. . * Matter, Philip (2005)
''Encyclopedia of the Palestinians''
New York : Facts on File. . * Slaim, Avi (2008)
''Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace''
London: Penguin UK. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Nuseibeh, Hazem 1922 births 2022 deaths Jordanian people of Palestinian descent Hazem Politicians from Jerusalem Victoria College, Alexandria alumni American University of Beirut alumni Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumni Jordanian Arab nationalists Ministers of foreign affairs of Jordan Prime ministry affairs ministers of Jordan Construction ministers of Jordan Ambassadors of Jordan to Egypt Ambassadors of Jordan to Turkey Ambassadors of Jordan to Italy Ambassadors of Jordan to Switzerland Ambassadors of Jordan to Austria Permanent representatives of Jordan to the United Nations Members of the Senate of Jordan Academic staff of the University of Jordan Honorary commanders of the Order of the Defender of the Realm Recipients of the Order of The Star of Jordan