Sami Hadawi (; March 6, 1904 – April 22, 2004) was a Palestinian scholar and author. He is known for documenting the effects of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on the Arab population in

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

and publishing statistics for individual villages prior to Israel's establishment. Hadawi worked as a land specialist until he was exiled from

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 ...

after a fierce battle in his neighborhood between Israeli and Jordanian forces. He continued to specialize in documenting Palestine's lands and published several books about the 1948 Palestine war and the Palestinian refugees.

Early life

Hadawi was born in Jerusalem to Palestinian Anglican Christian parents. His father was a soldier in the army of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

and died in combat during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In 1915, after his father's death, Hadawi's family moved to

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

, Jordan. Three years later, he worked as an unofficial interpreter for the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

and then moved back to

the year after to work as a clerk for the Land Registration Office. His interest in the structure of Arab villages began with his job there and then his job at the Land Settlement Department from 1920 to 1927. Hadawi eventually became an inspector and land value assessor from 1938 to 1948 and was the major contributor to the ''Village Statistics 1945: A Classification of Land and Area Ownership in Palestine'', which was a land and population census of the Arab localities in

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

. He lived in his grandfather's home in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City until 1948. In 1948, he, his wife Nora and their two children built a home for themselves in Katamon. That same year, they were forced to leave with the advance of Israeli forces.

After exile

Hadawi had similar work with Jordanian land authorities as he did with the British. He retained that job until 1952 when he became a land specialist for the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine in New York City. His job was to determine the extent of property that Palestinian refugees left behind after the 1948 War. This led him to co-found the Palestinian Information Office in 1959 and then two

Arab League The Arab League (, ' ), officially the League of Arab States (, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world. The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945, initially with seven members: Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt, Kingdom of Iraq, ...

offices in the United States. His final work years were as Director of the

Institute for Palestine Studies The Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS) is the oldest independent nonprofit public service research institute in the Arab world. It was established and incorporated in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1963 and has since served as a model for other such ins ...

(IPS) in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

throughout 1960–70 in which he published ''Palestine – Loss of a Heritage''. Hadawi's wife died of a heart attack in 1965. He retired in 1970, moved to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

in Canada, and began writing books on the history of the

Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict about Territory, land and self-determination within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation ...

, including ''Palestinian Rights and Losses in 1948'' (1988) and ''Bitter Harvest: a Modern History of Palestine'' (1989). Hadawi died on April 22, 2004, at the age of 100. He was buried in Toronto instead of his desired request to be buried in his hometown of Jerusalem. "I would like to be buried in Jerusalem, but I have no choice," he told journalist Hicham Safieddine, in the last interview he gave.

Publications

*
Land ownership in Palestine
', New York: Palestine Arab Refugee Office, 1957 *''Palestine partitioned, 1947–1958'', New York: Arab Information Center, 1959 *
Israel and the Arab minority
', New York: Arab Information Center, 1959 *''Israel according to Holy scriptures'', Dallas, Texas : .n. 1960 *''Palestine: questions and answers. '', New York: Arab Information Center, 1961 *''German reparation versus Israeli confiscations'', New York: Arab Information Center, 1961 *''Who benefits from anti-Semitism'', New York: Arab Information Center, 1961 *''Palestine Loss of Heritage'', San Antonio, Texas: The Naylor Co., 1963 *
Palestine in the United Nations
' New York : Arab Information Center, 1964 (Information paper #24) *''Bitter Harvest: Palestine 1914–1967'', New York: New World Press, 1967 *
The case of Palestine before the 23rd session of the United Nations, October–December 1968
', 1969 *''Palestine in focus'', Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center: 1969 *''Village statistics, 1945: A classification of land and area ownership in Palestine'', Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center: 1970 *''The Palestine Diary : Volume I and II'', New World Press: 1972 *''Crime and no punishment: Zionist Israeli terrorism, 1939–1972 (Palestine essays)'', Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center: 1972 *''Bitter Harvest, Palestine Between 1914–1979'', Caravan Books: 1979 *''The Jews, Zionism, and the Bible: (a study of 'Biblical' and 'historical' claims) '', Toronto, Ontario: The Arab Palestine Association, 1981 *''Palestinian Rights and Losses in 1948: A Comprehensive Study'', Saqi Books: 2000

References

External links

Catastrophe Overtakes the Palestinians: Memoirs, Part II
Sami Hadawi, 2014, ''Jerusalem Quarterly'',

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hadawi, Sami 1904 births 2004 deaths Arab people in Mandatory Palestine Palestinian men centenarians Writers from Jerusalem Centenarians from Mandatory Palestine 20th-century Palestinian historians Arab people from Ottoman Palestine Palestinian Anglicans Palestinian expatriates in Canada

Early life

After exile

Publications

See also

Archives

References

External links