Aref al-Dajani
عارف الدجاني
Aref al-Dajani was born in Jerusalem into an illustrious Jerusalem family that was known by the surname of al-Dawoudi during the Ottoman era, because of its tradition of serving as custodians over the shrine of the Prophet David and its visitors and as guardians of its waqf (endowed) properties. Sources differ on the date of his birth; some claim it was 1856, while others say 1860. His father was Shaykh Bakr al-Dajani, and he had a son, Raʾfat, and a daughter, Muhsina.
Dajani received a religious education from his father who was one of the ulama or religious Islamic scholars of Jerusalem. He then studied in schools in Jerusalem, where he became proficient in both Arabic and Ottoman Turkish. When he was twenty-three, Dajani moved to Istanbul, where he studied law and French. After graduating, he joined the Ottoman civil service corps, where he rose through the ranks until he was appointed provincial governor of the mutasarrifate, or subdistrict, of Deir el-Zor in present-day Syria. He also held high-ranking positions in the vilayets (Ottoman provinces) of Diyarbakir and Yemen. In recognition of his services to the empire, the Ottoman Sultanate bestowed upon him the title of pasha (notable).
After the British occupation of Palestine in 1917, Dajani adopted a conciliatory stance toward the new ruling power and cooperated with the British officials. He was among the Palestinian notables invited by Mr. Ronald Storrs, the military governor of Jerusalem, to the banquet held on 27 April 1918 in honor of the Zionist Commission for Palestine led by Chaim Weizmann, which had arrived in Palestine earlier on the fourth of that month. The British had given this commission official status as an “advisory body to the British authorities in Palestine in all matters relating to Jews, or which may affect the establishment of a National Home for the Jewish people.”
In 1918, after the people of Palestine learned of the Balfour Declaration, Dajani helped establish the Muslim-Christian Associations, a set of political clubs in Palestine formed in accordance with the Ottoman Law of Associations, which had remained in effect. He was elected vice chair of the administrative committee of the Muslim–Christian Association for the city of Jerusalem and its surrounding villages. The Jerusalem and Jaffa associations were the most active of these associations. He subsequently became president of the Jerusalem association, after Musa Kazim al-Husseini stepped down as president.
As a delegate of the Jerusalem Muslim-Christian Association, Dajani presided over the first Palestine Arab Congress, held in Jerusalem from 27 January to 9 February 1919. On the very first day of its proceedings, the congress sent an urgent telegram to the Paris Peace Conference expressing the participants’ “strong protest against what they had heard about making their country a national home for the Jews, and granting them the right of immigration and colonization.” After several days of discussions, the congress sent two memoranda to the Peace Conference: the first contained their rejection of the Balfour Declaration and the second affirmed Palestine’s links to an Arab greater Syria. The British authorities prohibited the congress from publishing its resolutions and disseminating them among the people.
Dajani participated in the preparations for the third Palestinian National Congress, which convened in Haifa from 13 to 19 December 1920. The congress submitted a memorandum to the British High Commissioner requesting that Britain “form a national government answerable to a legislative assembly whose members would be elected by the Arabic-speaking people resident in Palestine as of the beginning of World War I.” At the conclusion of its proceedings, the congress elected a body that came to be known as the Arab Executive Committee for the congress and for all the subsequent congresses up to the seventh one. With its headquarters in Jerusalem, the committee named Musa Kazim al-Husseini the committee chairman and Dajani the vice-chairman.
Following the outbreak of clashes in Jaffa between Arabs and Jews on 1 May 1921, the British High Commissioner for Palestine Herbert Samuel appointed on 7 May a Commission of Inquiry to investigate these clashes. The commission was headed by Sir Thomas Haycraft, who was the British Mandate’s Chief Justice of Palestine; three assessors from among the inhabitants of Palestine were on the commission, and Dajani was one of them. This commission began its investigation on 12 May and issued its final report on 10 August 1921, which was, to a large extent, fair to the Arabs.
Dajani planned to participate in the fourth Palestinian National Congress that was held in Jerusalem from 29 May to 4 June 1921, but his engagement on the Haycraft Commission of Inquiry prevented him from participating.
To weaken the Palestinian Arab nationalist movement and sow discord within its ranks, the Zionist Organization entrusted Frederick Kisch, a former British army officer who headed the political department of the Zionist Organization, with the task of setting up a people’s party in Palestine that would have economic goals as a subterfuge; the party was supported by Dajani, As‘ad al-Shuqairi, and Raghib al-Nashashibi. (They were known as opponents of the majlisiyyun, or “councilists,” supporters of Haj Amin al-Husseini, president of the Supreme Muslim Council.) On 8 November 1923, the party, called the Arab National Party (al-Hizb al-Watani al-ʿArabi), held its first meeting in Jerusalem, with 120 members in attendance, Dajani being the most prominent among them. However, the stated policies of this new party were based on the same general principles as those of the nationalist movement: it called for the formation of a national government that would take its mandate from an elected legislative assembly, refused to acknowledge the Balfour Declaration, and regarded Palestine as an Arab country and part of the Arab world. Dajani decided to withdraw from the conference before it ended; he had intended to develop the party into an instrument for cooperation with the government and economic cooperation with the Zionist movement, which conflicted with the principles adopted by the new party.
On 17 February 1926, Dajani participated in a meeting held by the oppositionists at the Allenby Hotel in Jerusalem. Together with Raghib al-Nashashibi, he was elected as one of two representatives from Jerusalem in the executive board that emerged from that meeting.
In late 1926, Musa Kazim al-Husseini was able to persuade Dajani, whom he had friendly relations with, to run for mayor of Jerusalem in the municipal elections scheduled to be held the following year. In doing so, he would be running against Raghib al-Nashashibi and thereby distancing himself from the opposition. However, Dajani’s election bid was unsuccessful.
Aref al-Dajani was one of the delegates to the 7th Palestinian National Congress, held in Jerusalem from 20 to 27 June 1928, in which the number of oppositionists was equal to the number of councilists. This congress, which was the last one to be held during the Mandate, reiterated the demand for the formation of a parliamentary government, but without explicitly rejecting the Balfour Declaration in a special clause.
In June 1929, Dajani, along with Muhammad Amin al-Husseini, Mohammad Ali al-Tamimi, Ragheb Abu al-Saud, Awni Abd al-Hadi, Muʿin al-Madi, and Ragheb al-Imam, took part in drafting the Supreme Muslim Sharia Council Election Law and its bylaws. However, the British Mandate authorities prevented elections for the council from being held and instead appointed its members.
In the last week of August 1929, bloody clashes between Arabs and Jews broke out (later referred to as the Buraq Uprising). The British police force intervened during these clashes, showing especially violent force against the Arab demonstrators. On 24 August, Dajani, along with six other leaders from notable Jerusalem families, issued a plea calling on Palestinian Arabs to remain calm. The statement reads: “O Arabs! For the sake of the country's interests, which are of paramount importance to you, we ask of you all to sincerely do your utmost to resolve this strife, prevent bloodshed, and protect lives ... When we consulted the government to inquire about the veracity of these rumors [about the handing over of the government to the Jews], it confirmed to us—and we have further verified this—that there is absolutely no truth to them, that weapons have not been handed to any of the Jews, and that the government is not biased in any way towards one group over another. Rather, it has been maintaining public safety and fulfilling its duties as a neutral governing power above all else. It did not open fire on Arabs alone, but rather protected lives and safeguarded people without bias. We have further ascertained that these were the orders repeated to the troops.”
Dajani died on 13 April 1930 at his home in Jerusalem. He was buried the following day in the family cemetery on Jabal al-Nabi Daoud (Mount of King David, or Mount Zion), and his eulogy was given by Omar Saleh al-Barghouti on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian National Congress.
Sources
Abdul Hadi, Mahdi, ed. Palestinian Personalities: A Biographic Dictionary. 2nd ed., revised and updated. Jerusalem: Passia Publication, 2006.
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