Akram Zuaiter

Akram Zuaiter (1909–1996) (Arabic: أكرم زعيتر ; also Romanized as Akram Zu'ayter, among other spellings) was a Palestinian activist, publicist, orator, diplomat, and educator who contributed to the Arab nationalist movement in Mandatory Palestine.^[1][2][3]

Portrait of Akram Zuaiter.

Biography

He was born in Nablus and was the son of an Opposition politician.^[4] He attended the American University of Beirut.^[4] He worked for the major Palestinian newspapers Mir'at al-Sharq and al-Hayat and also taught at al-Najah school.^[4][1]

He was a founding member of the Istiqlal Party and played an instrumental role in the development of nationalism in Palestine during the 1930s.^[4][5][6] He authored the text Ta'rikhuna ("Our History") in 1935. He also supported transnational Arab nationalist organizing in Syria and Iraq, coordinating with the League of Pan-Arab Action and the fascist group Nadi al-Muthanna in each country respectively. In 1941 he participated in the fascist revolt in Iraq led by Rashid Ali al-Kaylani.^[1] He also lectured at the Teachers' Training College in Baghdad.^[3]

Following the Nakba, Zuaiter served in the Jordanian government as ambassador to Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and Lebanon, followed by a year as Jordanian foreign minister (1966) and then in the Jordanian Upper House of Parliament and as chief of the Royal Court.^[1]

He published the text al-Qadiyya al-Filastiniyya ("The Palestine Cause") in 1956.^[1] In 1979, his papers were published as Watha'iq al-Haraka al-Wataniyya al-Filastiniyya 1918–1939 ("Documents on the Palestinian National Movement 1918–1939"), edited by Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout, and his diaries were published in 1980.^[7][6][1]

Zuaiter (second from the left) among dignitaries in Cairo, 1953.

Views

Zuaiter espoused a nationalist philosophy of opposition to British administration of Palestine, taking a "hard line" that resulted in his arrest and detention by the British colonial government in 1931 and 1936. He was a staunch Arab nationalist and advocate of pan-Arabism.^[1][6][8]

See also

• Izzat Darwaza
• Arab nationalism