{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1", "title": "FALASTEEN.AI — Figures", "description": "Historians, medics, journalists, leaders and artists of Palestine — cited biographies with verified portraits.", "home_page_url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures", "feed_url": "https://falasteen.ai/feeds/figures.json", "language": "en", "icon": "https://falasteen.ai/icon-key-512.png", "favicon": "https://falasteen.ai/favicon-key.svg", "authors": [ { "name": "FALASTEEN.AI", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/" } ], "_falasteen": { "licence": "Free to read, quote and cite. Attribution to FALASTEEN.AI required.", "attribution": "FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine (https://falasteen.ai)", "manifest": "https://falasteen.ai/api/index.json", "rss": "https://falasteen.ai/feeds/figures.xml", "count": 78 }, "items": [ { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/abd-al-qadir-al-husayni/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/abd-al-qadir-al-husayni/", "title": "Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni", "content_text": "The most prominent Palestinian field commander of his generation, who fought in the 1936–39 rebellion, rebuilt the Army of the Holy War after the partition resolution, and was killed retaking al-Qastal on 8 April 1948.", "summary": "The most prominent Palestinian field commander of his generation, who fought in the 1936–39 rebellion, rebuilt the Army of the Holy War after the partition resolution, and was killed retaking al-Qastal on 8 April 1948.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "عبد القادر الحسيني", "years": "1908–1948", "role": "Commander of the Army of the Holy War, killed at al-Qastal in April 1948", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Istanbul, Turkey" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/abdel-aziz-al-rantisi/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/abdel-aziz-al-rantisi/", "title": "Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi", "content_text": "The pediatrician from Yibna, a refugee at six months old, who was one of the seven founders of Hamas in 1987, spokesman of the Marj al-Zuhur deportees, and was killed by Israeli missiles on 17 April 2004, twenty-six days after succeeding Ahmed Yassin.", "summary": "The pediatrician from Yibna, a refugee at six months old, who was one of the seven founders of Hamas in 1987, spokesman of the Marj al-Zuhur deportees, and was killed by Israeli missiles on 17 April 2004, twenty-six days after succeeding Ahmed Yassin.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "عبد العزيز الرنتيسي", "years": "1947–2004", "role": "Pediatrician and co-founder of Hamas, killed three weeks after succeeding Ahmed Yassin", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Yibna, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/abu-ali-mustafa/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/abu-ali-mustafa/", "title": "Abu Ali Mustafa", "content_text": "Mustafa al-Zabri, the peasant's son who spent five years in a desert prison and thirty-two in exile, returned in 1999 to lead the PFLP and was killed by an Israeli missile in his Ramallah office.", "summary": "Mustafa al-Zabri, the peasant's son who spent five years in a desert prison and thirty-two in exile, returned in 1999 to lead the PFLP and was killed by an Israeli missile in his Ramallah office.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "أبو علي مصطفى", "years": "1938–2001", "role": "Secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Arraba, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/adel-manna/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/adel-manna/", "title": "Adel Manna", "content_text": "Palestinian historian of Ottoman Palestine and of the Palestinians who were not expelled in 1948 — the minority whose survival inside Israel he was the first to write as a social history from within.", "summary": "Palestinian historian of Ottoman Palestine and of the Palestinians who were not expelled in 1948 — the minority whose survival inside Israel he was the first to write as a social history from within.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "عادل مناع", "years": "1947–", "role": "Historian of Ottoman Palestine and of the Palestinians who remained", "kind": "historian", "birthplace": "Majd al-Krum, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/annemarie-jacir/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/annemarie-jacir/", "title": "Annemarie Jacir", "content_text": "Palestinian filmmaker whose four features — from *Salt of This Sea* to *Palestine 36* — have all represented Palestine at the Academy Awards.", "summary": "Palestinian filmmaker whose four features — from *Salt of This Sea* to *Palestine 36* — have all represented Palestine at the Academy Awards.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "آن ماري جاسر", "years": "1974–", "role": "Filmmaker and founder of Philistine Films", "kind": "artist", "birthplace": "Bethlehem, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/aref-al-aref/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/aref-al-aref/", "title": "Aref al-Aref", "content_text": "Ottoman officer, Siberian prisoner of war, Mandate district officer, mayor of Jerusalem — and the man who spent the years after 1948 interviewing survivors across the Arab world to write the six-volume Arabic history of the catastrophe he had watched happen.", "summary": "Ottoman officer, Siberian prisoner of war, Mandate district officer, mayor of Jerusalem — and the man who spent the years after 1948 interviewing survivors across the Arab world to write the six-volume Arabic history of the catastrophe he had watched happen.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "عارف العارف", "years": "1892–1973", "role": "Historian of the Nakba", "kind": "historian", "birthplace": "Jerusalem, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/atta-al-zir/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/atta-al-zir/", "title": "Atta al-Zir", "content_text": "The eldest of the three men hanged at Acre on 17 June 1930. A labourer and farmer from Hebron, he dictated his last letter to his mother in peasant dialect: dance, mother, do not grieve — and plant olives over the grave.", "summary": "The eldest of the three men hanged at Acre on 17 June 1930. A labourer and farmer from Hebron, he dictated his last letter to his mother in peasant dialect: dance, mother, do not grieve — and plant olives over the grave.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "عطا الزير", "years": "1895–1930", "role": "Rebel of the Buraq uprising, hanged at Acre", "kind": "activist", "birthplace": "Hebron, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/avi-shlaim/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/avi-shlaim/", "title": "Avi Shlaim", "content_text": "Iraqi-born Israeli-British historian at Oxford, one of Israel's 'New Historians', whose archival work on 1948 and its aftermath challenged the founding myths of the Israeli state.", "summary": "Iraqi-born Israeli-British historian at Oxford, one of Israel's 'New Historians', whose archival work on 1948 and its aftermath challenged the founding myths of the Israeli state.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "أفي شلايم", "years": "1945–", "role": "Historian and emeritus professor of international relations", "kind": "historian" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/bisan-owda/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/bisan-owda/", "title": "Bisan Owda", "content_text": "The Palestinian reporter whose first-person AJ+ report documented civilian life and displacement in Gaza and won both a Peabody and a 2024 News & Documentary Emmy.", "summary": "The Palestinian reporter whose first-person AJ+ report documented civilian life and displacement in Gaza and won both a Peabody and a 2024 News & Documentary Emmy.", "_falasteen": { "role": "Journalist and filmmaker reporting from Gaza", "kind": "journalist" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/diana-buttu/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/diana-buttu/", "title": "Diana Buttu", "content_text": "Palestinian-Canadian lawyer who advised the PLO's negotiating team from 2000 to 2005 and has since become one of the sharpest analysts of the failed negotiations process.", "summary": "Palestinian-Canadian lawyer who advised the PLO's negotiating team from 2000 to 2005 and has since become one of the sharpest analysts of the failed negotiations process.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "ديانا بطو", "role": "Lawyer and political analyst", "kind": "intellectual" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/dimitri-baramki/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/dimitri-baramki/", "title": "Dimitri Baramki", "content_text": "Chief archaeologist of Mandate Palestine and excavator of Hisham's Palace at Jericho, who lost his country in 1948 and rebuilt his career in the museum of the American University of Beirut.", "summary": "Chief archaeologist of Mandate Palestine and excavator of Hisham's Palace at Jericho, who lost his country in 1948 and rebuilt his career in the museum of the American University of Beirut.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "ديمتري برامكي", "years": "1909–1984", "role": "Archaeologist", "kind": "historian", "birthplace": "Jerusalem, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/edward-said/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/edward-said/", "title": "Edward W. Said", "content_text": "The Jerusalem-born critic whose Orientalism remade the study of empire, and who spent three decades arguing that Palestinians were owed what he called permission to narrate.", "summary": "The Jerusalem-born critic whose Orientalism remade the study of empire, and who spent three decades arguing that Palestinians were owed what he called permission to narrate.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "إدوارد سعيد", "years": "1935–2003", "role": "Literary critic and public intellectual", "kind": "intellectual" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/elia-suleiman/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/elia-suleiman/", "title": "Elia Suleiman", "content_text": "Nazareth-born filmmaker whose deadpan, near-silent cinema turned Palestinian life under occupation into absurd, precise comedy.", "summary": "Nazareth-born filmmaker whose deadpan, near-silent cinema turned Palestinian life under occupation into absurd, precise comedy.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "إيليا سليمان", "years": "1960–", "role": "Filmmaker", "kind": "artist", "birthplace": "Nazareth, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/elias-sanbar/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/elias-sanbar/", "title": "Elias Sanbar", "content_text": "Carried out of Haifa as an infant in 1948, he became the historian of Palestinian photography, Darwish's French translator, and Palestine's ambassador to UNESCO.", "summary": "Carried out of Haifa as an infant in 1948, he became the historian of Palestinian photography, Darwish's French translator, and Palestine's ambassador to UNESCO.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "إلياس صنبر", "years": "1947–", "role": "Historian, translator, and diplomat", "kind": "historian", "birthplace": "Haifa, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/emily-jacir/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/emily-jacir/", "title": "Emily Jacir", "content_text": "Artist who used her American passport to carry out the errands Palestinians were not permitted to make themselves, and who sewed the names of 418 destroyed villages into a refugee tent.", "summary": "Artist who used her American passport to carry out the errands Palestinians were not permitted to make themselves, and who sewed the names of 418 destroyed villages into a refugee tent.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "إميلي جاسر", "years": "1970–", "role": "Artist", "kind": "artist" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/eyad-al-sarraj/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/eyad-al-sarraj/", "title": "Eyad al-Sarraj", "content_text": "Gaza's first practising psychiatrist, who built mental health care under occupation into a form of human rights work.", "summary": "Gaza's first practising psychiatrist, who built mental health care under occupation into a form of human rights work.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "إياد السراج", "years": "1944–2013", "role": "Psychiatrist and founder of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme", "kind": "medic", "birthplace": "Beersheba, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/faisal-husseini/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/faisal-husseini/", "title": "Faisal al-Husseini", "content_text": "Son of Abd al-Qadir al-Husseini, known as the Lion of Jerusalem — he built Orient House into the PLO's political address in the occupied city and defended its Arab identity until his death in 2001.", "summary": "Son of Abd al-Qadir al-Husseini, known as the Lion of Jerusalem — he built Orient House into the PLO's political address in the occupied city and defended its Arab identity until his death in 2001.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "فيصل الحسيني", "years": "1940–2001", "role": "PLO Executive Committee member and head of Jerusalem affairs; founder of the Arab Studies Society at Orient House", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Baghdad, Iraq" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/farhan-al-saadi/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/farhan-al-saadi/", "title": "Farhan al-Saadi", "content_text": "The old sheikh from a village west of Jenin who fired the opening shot of the 1936 revolt, and whom the British hanged at Acre in November 1937 while he was keeping the Ramadan fast. He was around eighty.", "summary": "The old sheikh from a village west of Jenin who fired the opening shot of the 1936 revolt, and whom the British hanged at Acre in November 1937 while he was keeping the Ramadan fast. He was around eighty.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "فرحان السعدي", "years": "c. 1858–1937", "role": "Qassamite commander, hanged at Acre", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "al-Mazar, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/fathi-shaqaqi/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/fathi-shaqaqi/", "title": "Fathi Shaqaqi", "content_text": "The physician from Rafah refugee camp, son of a family expelled from Zarnuqa, who founded the Islamic Jihad Movement and was shot dead by Mossad agents on the island of Malta on 26 October 1995.", "summary": "The physician from Rafah refugee camp, son of a family expelled from Zarnuqa, who founded the Islamic Jihad Movement and was shot dead by Mossad agents on the island of Malta on 26 October 1995.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "فتحي الشقاقي", "years": "1951–1995", "role": "Physician and founder of the Islamic Jihad Movement, assassinated in Malta in 1995", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Rafah, Gaza" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/fatima-ghazzal/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/fatima-ghazzal/", "title": "Fatima Ghazzal", "content_text": "A peasant woman of Azzun, past fifty, shot by British soldiers on 26 June 1936 while carrying food and water to fighters holding the ground west of her village. Palestinians count her as the first woman martyr of the modern national movement.", "summary": "A peasant woman of Azzun, past fifty, shot by British soldiers on 26 June 1936 while carrying food and water to fighters holding the ground west of her village. Palestinians count her as the first woman martyr of the modern national movement.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "فاطمة غزال", "years": "d. 1936", "role": "Fighter of the 1936 revolt", "kind": "activist", "birthplace": "Azzun, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/fayez-sayegh/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/fayez-sayegh/", "title": "Fayez Sayegh", "content_text": "Palestinian philosopher and diplomat who founded the PLO's Palestine Research Center, produced the first systematic analysis of Zionism as settler colonialism, and was a principal architect of the UN's 1975 resolution declaring Zionism a form of racism.", "summary": "Palestinian philosopher and diplomat who founded the PLO's Palestine Research Center, produced the first systematic analysis of Zionism as settler colonialism, and was a principal architect of the UN's 1975 resolution declaring Zionism a form of racism.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "فايز صايغ", "years": "1922–1980", "role": "Intellectual, diplomat, and UN delegate", "kind": "intellectual" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/fuad-hijazi/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/fuad-hijazi/", "title": "Fuad Hijazi", "content_text": "The youngest of the three men hanged by the British at Acre prison on 17 June 1930. A day before he died he wrote home asking that the date of his hanging be kept every year as a day of songs and speeches — and it has been.", "summary": "The youngest of the three men hanged by the British at Acre prison on 17 June 1930. A day before he died he wrote home asking that the date of his hanging be kept every year as a day of songs and speeches — and it has been.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "فؤاد حجازي", "years": "1904–1930", "role": "Rebel of the Buraq uprising, hanged at Acre", "kind": "activist", "birthplace": "Safad, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/george-habash/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/george-habash/", "title": "George Habash", "content_text": "The physician from Lydda, expelled with his town in 1948, who founded the Arab Nationalist Movement and then the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.", "summary": "The physician from Lydda, expelled with his town in 1948, who founded the Arab Nationalist Movement and then the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "جورج حبش", "years": "1925–2008", "role": "Physician, founder of the Arab Nationalist Movement and the PFLP", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Lydda, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/ghassan-kanafani/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/ghassan-kanafani/", "title": "Ghassan Kanafani", "content_text": "One of the great Arabic novelists of the century and the Popular Front's spokesman, killed by a car bomb in Beirut in 1972 with his niece Lamis.", "summary": "One of the great Arabic novelists of the century and the Popular Front's spokesman, killed by a car bomb in Beirut in 1972 with his niece Lamis.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "غسان كنفاني", "years": "1936–1972", "role": "Novelist, editor of al-Hadaf, and spokesman of the PFLP", "kind": "intellectual", "birthplace": "Acre, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/haidar-abdel-shafi/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/haidar-abdel-shafi/", "title": "Haidar Abdel Shafi", "content_text": "Gaza physician who founded the Red Crescent Society in Gaza and headed the Palestinian delegation to the 1991 Madrid peace conference.", "summary": "Gaza physician who founded the Red Crescent Society in Gaza and headed the Palestinian delegation to the 1991 Madrid peace conference.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "حيدر عبد الشافي", "years": "1919–2007", "role": "Physician and head of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Conference", "kind": "leader" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/hanan-ashrawi/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/hanan-ashrawi/", "title": "Hanan Ashrawi", "content_text": "Palestinian legislator and scholar who became one of the most recognisable voices of the Palestinian cause during the 1990s peace negotiations.", "summary": "Palestinian legislator and scholar who became one of the most recognisable voices of the Palestinian cause during the 1990s peace negotiations.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "حنان عشراوي", "years": "1946–", "role": "Legislator, scholar, and peace negotiator", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Nablus, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/hind-al-husseini/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/hind-al-husseini/", "title": "Hind al-Husseini", "content_text": "The Jerusalem educator who opened her home to children displaced from Deir Yasin in 1948 and built that act of care into Dar al-Tifl al-Arabi.", "summary": "The Jerusalem educator who opened her home to children displaced from Deir Yasin in 1948 and built that act of care into Dar al-Tifl al-Arabi.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "هند الحسيني", "years": "1916–1994", "role": "Educator and founder of Dar al-Tifl al-Arabi", "kind": "humanitarian", "birthplace": "Jerusalem, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/ibrahim-abu-lughod/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/ibrahim-abu-lughod/", "title": "Ibrahim Abu-Lughod", "content_text": "He left Jaffa on the last ship out of the port in May 1948, built Arab-American scholarship in the United States for four decades, then returned to teach at Birzeit and be buried at home.", "summary": "He left Jaffa on the last ship out of the port in May 1948, built Arab-American scholarship in the United States for four decades, then returned to teach at Birzeit and be buried at home.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "إبراهيم أبو لغد", "years": "1929–2001", "role": "Political scientist", "kind": "intellectual" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/ilan-pappe/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/ilan-pappe/", "title": "Ilan Pappé", "content_text": "Israeli historian at the University of Exeter whose archival work on 1948 reshaped the scholarly debate over the Nakba.", "summary": "Israeli historian at the University of Exeter whose archival work on 1948 reshaped the scholarly debate over the Nakba.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "إيلان بابيه", "years": "1954–", "role": "Historian and professor", "kind": "historian", "birthplace": "Haifa, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/intissar-al-wazir/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/intissar-al-wazir/", "title": "Intissar al-Wazir (Umm Jihad)", "content_text": "The Gaza City militant who became Fatah's first woman member in 1959, built the PLO's institutions for the families of martyrs and prisoners, survived her husband Khalil al-Wazir's assassination beside her in Tunis, and returned from decades of exile as minister of social affairs.", "summary": "The Gaza City militant who became Fatah's first woman member in 1959, built the PLO's institutions for the families of martyrs and prisoners, survived her husband Khalil al-Wazir's assassination beside her in Tunis, and returned from decades of exile as minister of social affairs.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "انتصار الوزير (أم جهاد)", "years": "1941–", "role": "First woman member of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority's first minister of social affairs", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Gaza City, Gaza" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/ismail-shammout/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/ismail-shammout/", "title": "Ismail Shammout", "content_text": "Pioneering Palestinian painter whose images of the 1948 expulsion from Lydda — above all *Where to?* (1953) — became icons of the Nakba.", "summary": "Pioneering Palestinian painter whose images of the 1948 expulsion from Lydda — above all *Where to?* (1953) — became icons of the Nakba.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "إسماعيل شموط", "years": "1930–2006", "role": "Painter", "kind": "artist", "birthplace": "Lydda, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/issam-abdul-hadi/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/issam-abdul-hadi/", "title": "Issam Abdul Hadi", "content_text": "The Nablus women's organizer who led the General Union of Palestinian Women from its founding in 1965 until 2009, was tortured and deported by Israel in 1969, and became the first woman on the PLO's Central Council.", "summary": "The Nablus women's organizer who led the General Union of Palestinian Women from its founding in 1965 until 2009, was tortured and deported by Israel in 1969, and became the first woman on the PLO's Central Council.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "عصام عبد الهادي", "years": "1928–2013", "role": "First president of the General Union of Palestinian Women", "kind": "activist", "birthplace": "Nablus, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/izz-ad-din-al-qassam/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/izz-ad-din-al-qassam/", "title": "Izz al-Din al-Qassam", "content_text": "The al-Azhar-educated preacher who ministered to Haifa's dispossessed peasants, declared armed revolt against British rule in November 1935, and whose death in battle at Ya'bad helped ignite the Great Rebellion of 1936–39.", "summary": "The al-Azhar-educated preacher who ministered to Haifa's dispossessed peasants, declared armed revolt against British rule in November 1935, and whose death in battle at Ya'bad helped ignite the Great Rebellion of 1936–39.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "عز الدين القسّام", "years": "1882–1935", "role": "Preacher of Haifa's Istiqlal Mosque who organized the first armed revolt against British rule", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Jabla, Syria" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/juliano-mer-khamis/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/juliano-mer-khamis/", "title": "Juliano Mer-Khamis", "content_text": "Actor and director who founded the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp and was assassinated outside it in 2011.", "summary": "Actor and director who founded the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp and was assassinated outside it in 2011.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "جوليانو مير خميس", "years": "1958–2011", "role": "Actor and founder of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin", "kind": "artist", "birthplace": "Nazareth, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/kamal-boullata/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/kamal-boullata/", "title": "Kamal Boullata", "content_text": "A Jerusalem painter locked out of his city by the 1967 war, who built an abstraction out of Kufic script and the eight-pointed star, and wrote the first full history of Palestinian art.", "summary": "A Jerusalem painter locked out of his city by the 1967 war, who built an abstraction out of Kufic script and the eight-pointed star, and wrote the first full history of Palestinian art.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "كمال بلاطة", "years": "1942–2019", "role": "Painter and art historian", "kind": "artist", "birthplace": "Jerusalem, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/kamal-nasser/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/kamal-nasser/", "title": "Kamal Nasser", "content_text": "The poet from Birzeit who edited the PLO's Filastin al-Thawra and spoke for the revolution until Israeli agents killed him in Beirut in April 1973 — Salah Khalaf called him \"the conscience of the Palestinian revolution.\"", "summary": "The poet from Birzeit who edited the PLO's Filastin al-Thawra and spoke for the revolution until Israeli agents killed him in Beirut in April 1973 — Salah Khalaf called him \"the conscience of the Palestinian revolution.\"", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "كمال ناصر", "years": "1925–1973", "role": "Poet, PLO Executive Committee member and official spokesman", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Gaza City, Gaza" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/karimeh-abbud/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/karimeh-abbud/", "title": "Karimeh Abbud", "content_text": "The first woman photographer in Palestine, who stamped her prints 'Karimeh Abbud — Lady Photographer' and left a portrait record of Palestinian life two decades before the Nakba.", "summary": "The first woman photographer in Palestine, who stamped her prints 'Karimeh Abbud — Lady Photographer' and left a portrait record of Palestinian life two decades before the Nakba.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "كريمة عبود", "years": "1893–1940", "role": "Photographer", "kind": "artist", "birthplace": "Bethlehem, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/khalida-jarrar/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/khalida-jarrar/", "title": "Khalida Jarrar", "content_text": "The Nablus-born parliamentarian and Addameer director, arrested five times and held for years in administrative detention and solitary confinement — denied even her daughter's funeral — who emerged from each imprisonment restating the same demand: freedom from colonial domination.", "summary": "The Nablus-born parliamentarian and Addameer director, arrested five times and held for years in administrative detention and solitary confinement — denied even her daughter's funeral — who emerged from each imprisonment restating the same demand: freedom from colonial domination.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "خالدة جرار", "years": "1963–", "role": "PFLP parliamentarian and prisoners' rights advocate, imprisoned five times by Israel", "kind": "activist", "birthplace": "Nablus, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/khalil-al-sakakini/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/khalil-al-sakakini/", "title": "Khalil al-Sakakini", "content_text": "Jerusalem teacher who built a school without grades or punishments, and kept a diary for forty-five years that is now one of the fullest private records of Palestinian life before 1948.", "summary": "Jerusalem teacher who built a school without grades or punishments, and kept a diary for forty-five years that is now one of the fullest private records of Palestinian life before 1948.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "خليل السكاكيني", "years": "1878–1953", "role": "Educator and diarist", "kind": "intellectual", "birthplace": "Jerusalem, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/khalil-al-wazir/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/khalil-al-wazir/", "title": "Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad)", "content_text": "Expelled from Ramla at twelve, he co-founded Fatah in Kuwait in 1959, ran its operations inside occupied Palestine, helped architect the First Intifada, and was assassinated by an Israeli commando unit in Tunis in 1988.", "summary": "Expelled from Ramla at twelve, he co-founded Fatah in Kuwait in 1959, ran its operations inside occupied Palestine, helped architect the First Intifada, and was assassinated by an Israeli commando unit in Tunis in 1988.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "خليل الوزير (أبو جهاد)", "years": "1935–1988", "role": "Co-founder of Fatah and deputy commander-in-chief of the Palestinian revolution's forces", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Ramla, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/khalil-beidas/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/khalil-beidas/", "title": "Khalil Beidas", "content_text": "The Nazareth schoolmaster who brought Pushkin and Tolstoy into Arabic, founded the magazine that carried a generation of Palestinian writing, was sentenced to death by the Ottomans and to fifteen years by the British — and lost his library and his manuscripts in 1948.", "summary": "The Nazareth schoolmaster who brought Pushkin and Tolstoy into Arabic, founded the magazine that carried a generation of Palestinian writing, was sentenced to death by the Ottomans and to fifteen years by the British — and lost his library and his manuscripts in 1948.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "خليل بيدس", "years": "1875–1949", "role": "Novelist, translator and editor of al-Nafa'is", "kind": "intellectual", "birthplace": "Nazareth, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/le-trio-joubran/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/le-trio-joubran/", "title": "Le Trio Joubran", "content_text": "Three brothers from Nazareth, sons of an oud maker, who built an ensemble out of three ouds alone — and who accompanied Mahmoud Darwish on stage until his death.", "summary": "Three brothers from Nazareth, sons of an oud maker, who built an ensemble out of three ouds alone — and who accompanied Mahmoud Darwish on stage until his death.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "الثلاثي جبران", "years": "2004–", "role": "Oud trio", "kind": "artist" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/leila-khaled/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/leila-khaled/", "title": "Leila Khaled", "content_text": "Driven from Haifa at four, she hijacked two airliners for the PFLP in 1969 and 1970 and has sat on the front's political bureau since 2005.", "summary": "Driven from Haifa at four, she hijacked two airliners for the PFLP in 1969 and 1970 and has sat on the front's political bureau since 2005.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "ليلى خالد", "years": "1944–", "role": "PFLP political bureau member and hijacker of 1969 and 1970", "kind": "activist", "birthplace": "Haifa, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/mahmoud-hamshari/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/mahmoud-hamshari/", "title": "Mahmoud Hamshari", "content_text": "The schoolteacher from Umm Khalid who became the PLO's first representative in Paris, wounded by an explosive device planted by Israeli intelligence on 8 December 1972; he died of his injuries a month later.", "summary": "The schoolteacher from Umm Khalid who became the PLO's first representative in Paris, wounded by an explosive device planted by Israeli intelligence on 8 December 1972; he died of his injuries a month later.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "محمود الهمشري", "years": "1938–1973", "role": "First PLO representative in Paris, killed by an Israeli bomb planted in his home", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Umm Khalid, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/marwan-barghouti/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/marwan-barghouti/", "title": "Marwan Barghouti", "content_text": "The Fatah leader from Kobar, imprisoned since 2002 under five life sentences after an Inter-Parliamentary Union-appointed observer concluded that breaches of international law made a fair trial impossible and that guilt had not been established — an observer's conclusion, not a court acquittal.", "summary": "The Fatah leader from Kobar, imprisoned since 2002 under five life sentences after an Inter-Parliamentary Union-appointed observer concluded that breaches of international law made a fair trial impossible and that guilt had not been established — an observer's conclusion, not a court acquittal.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "مروان البرغوثي", "years": "1959–", "role": "General secretary of Fatah in the West Bank, imprisoned in Israel since 2002", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Kobar, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/mona-hatoum/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/mona-hatoum/", "title": "Mona Hatoum", "content_text": "Palestinian-British artist whose installations turn familiar objects into unsettling meditations on displacement, the body, and systems of control.", "summary": "Palestinian-British artist whose installations turn familiar objects into unsettling meditations on displacement, the body, and systems of control.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "منى حاطوم", "years": "1952–", "role": "Installation and video artist", "kind": "artist" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/muhammad-jamjoum/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/muhammad-jamjoum/", "title": "Muhammad Jamjoum", "content_text": "Hanged with Fuad Hijazi and Atta al-Zir at Acre on 17 June 1930. His last letter asked that the nation not sell one span of its land — and that the words on his grave read: complete independence or a bitter death.", "summary": "Hanged with Fuad Hijazi and Atta al-Zir at Acre on 17 June 1930. His last letter asked that the nation not sell one span of its land — and that the words on his grave read: complete independence or a bitter death.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "محمد جمجوم", "years": "1902–1930", "role": "Rebel of the Buraq uprising, hanged at Acre", "kind": "activist", "birthplace": "Hebron, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/mustafa-barghouti/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/mustafa-barghouti/", "title": "Mustafa Barghouti", "content_text": "The Moscow-trained physician who built the Palestinian Medical Relief Society into a health service reaching over a million patients a year, co-founded the Palestinian National Initiative with Edward Said and Haidar Abdel Shafi, and came second to Abbas in the 2005 presidential election.", "summary": "The Moscow-trained physician who built the Palestinian Medical Relief Society into a health service reaching over a million patients a year, co-founded the Palestinian National Initiative with Edward Said and Haidar Abdel Shafi, and came second to Abbas in the 2005 presidential election.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "مصطفى البرغوثي", "years": "1954–", "role": "Physician, founder of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society and general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative", "kind": "medic", "birthplace": "Jerusalem, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/najati-sidqi/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/najati-sidqi/", "title": "Najati Sidqi", "content_text": "The Jerusalem postal clerk who studied in Moscow, served two years in Acre and Jaffa prisons, was sent by the Comintern to Spain in 1936 to argue Franco's Moroccan troops out of the war, and broke with the party over the Nazi–Soviet pact.", "summary": "The Jerusalem postal clerk who studied in Moscow, served two years in Acre and Jaffa prisons, was sent by the Comintern to Spain in 1936 to argue Franco's Moroccan troops out of the war, and broke with the party over the Nazi–Soviet pact.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "نجاتي صدقي", "years": "1905–1979", "role": "Communist writer and translator", "kind": "intellectual", "birthplace": "Jerusalem, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/naji-al-ali/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/naji-al-ali/", "title": "Naji al-Ali", "content_text": "The Arab world's most beloved political cartoonist, whose barefoot child Handala became the conscience of Palestine.", "summary": "The Arab world's most beloved political cartoonist, whose barefoot child Handala became the conscience of Palestine.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "ناجي العلي", "years": "c. 1938–1987", "role": "Political cartoonist, creator of Handala", "kind": "artist" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/nayef-hawatmeh/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/nayef-hawatmeh/", "title": "Nayef Hawatmeh", "content_text": "The Arab Nationalist Movement organiser who split from the PFLP in 1969 to found the DFLP, and who pressed the PLO towards its 1974 interim programme.", "summary": "The Arab Nationalist Movement organiser who split from the PFLP in 1969 to found the DFLP, and who pressed the PLO towards its 1974 interim programme.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "نايف حواتمة", "years": "1935–", "role": "Founder and secretary-general of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "al-Salt, Jordan" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/noura-erakat/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/noura-erakat/", "title": "Noura Erakat", "content_text": "Palestinian-American human rights attorney and Rutgers professor whose book Justice for Some examines how international law has shaped — and so often failed — the Palestinian struggle.", "summary": "Palestinian-American human rights attorney and Rutgers professor whose book Justice for Some examines how international law has shaped — and so often failed — the Palestinian struggle.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "نورة عريقات", "years": "1980–", "role": "Human rights attorney and legal scholar", "kind": "intellectual" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/nuh-ibrahim/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/nuh-ibrahim/", "title": "Nuh Ibrahim", "content_text": "The printing-press worker from Haifa who wrote in the language people actually spoke, and whose lament for the three men hanged at Acre in 1930 became the most-sung Palestinian song of the century. The British censor banned his collected work by name.", "summary": "The printing-press worker from Haifa who wrote in the language people actually spoke, and whose lament for the three men hanged at Acre in 1930 became the most-sung Palestinian song of the century. The British censor banned his collected work by name.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "نوح إبراهيم", "years": "1913–1938", "role": "Zajal poet of the 1936 revolt", "kind": "artist", "birthplace": "Haifa, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/nur-masalha/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/nur-masalha/", "title": "Nur Masalha", "content_text": "Palestinian historian whose work on memory, the Nakba, and the long history of Palestine challenges the erasure of the country's indigenous past.", "summary": "Palestinian historian whose work on memory, the Nakba, and the long history of Palestine challenges the erasure of the country's indigenous past.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "نور مصالحة", "years": "1957–", "role": "Historian and professor", "kind": "historian" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/omar-barghouti/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/omar-barghouti/", "title": "Omar Barghouti", "content_text": "The human rights defender who co-founded the BDS movement in 2005 after a year of consultations across Palestinian society, and has lived under an Israeli travel ban and judicial harassment for leading its nonviolent campaign ever since.", "summary": "The human rights defender who co-founded the BDS movement in 2005 after a year of consultations across Palestinian society, and has lived under an Israeli travel ban and judicial harassment for leading its nonviolent campaign ever since.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "عمر البرغوثي", "role": "Co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement", "kind": "activist" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/raja-shehadeh/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/raja-shehadeh/", "title": "Raja Shehadeh", "content_text": "Ramallah-based writer and lawyer, founder of Al-Haq, whose memoirs record the vanishing landscape of the West Bank.", "summary": "Ramallah-based writer and lawyer, founder of Al-Haq, whose memoirs record the vanishing landscape of the West Bank.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "رجا شحادة", "years": "1951–", "role": "Writer and human rights lawyer", "kind": "intellectual", "birthplace": "Jaffa, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/rashid-khalidi/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/rashid-khalidi/", "title": "Rashid Khalidi", "content_text": "Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University and one of the most influential historians of modern Palestine.", "summary": "Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University and one of the most influential historians of modern Palestine.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "رشيد خالدي", "years": "1948–", "role": "Historian and professor", "kind": "historian" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/razan-al-najjar/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/razan-al-najjar/", "title": "Razan al-Najjar", "content_text": "A 21-year-old volunteer paramedic from Khan Younis, shot dead by an Israeli sniper while tending to wounded protesters in Gaza in 2018.", "summary": "A 21-year-old volunteer paramedic from Khan Younis, shot dead by an Israeli sniper while tending to wounded protesters in Gaza in 2018.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "رزان النجار", "years": "1996–2018", "role": "Volunteer paramedic", "kind": "medic" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/reem-kelani/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/reem-kelani/", "title": "Reem Kelani", "content_text": "Palestinian-British singer and researcher who has spent three decades collecting, reviving, and performing traditional Palestinian song, blending it with jazz.", "summary": "Palestinian-British singer and researcher who has spent three decades collecting, reviving, and performing traditional Palestinian song, blending it with jazz.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "ريم كيلاني", "years": "1963–", "role": "Singer, music researcher, and broadcaster", "kind": "artist" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/rim-banna/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/rim-banna/", "title": "Rim Banna", "content_text": "The Nazareth singer who went looking for the Palestinian children's songs that were being forgotten, recorded them, and set modern Palestinian poetry to her own melodies.", "summary": "The Nazareth singer who went looking for the Palestinian children's songs that were being forgotten, recorded them, and set modern Palestinian poetry to her own melodies.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "ريم بنّا", "years": "1966–2018", "role": "Singer and composer", "kind": "artist", "birthplace": "Nazareth, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/rosemary-sayigh/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/rosemary-sayigh/", "title": "Rosemary Sayigh", "content_text": "For half a century she recorded Palestinian refugees in Lebanon's camps in their own words, arguing that a people's history had to be built from below or it would not be built at all.", "summary": "For half a century she recorded Palestinian refugees in Lebanon's camps in their own words, arguing that a people's history had to be built from below or it would not be built at all.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "روزماري صايغ", "years": "1927–", "role": "Anthropologist and oral historian", "kind": "historian" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/sadhij-nassar/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/sadhij-nassar/", "title": "Sadhij Nassar", "content_text": "Editor at Haifa's al-Karmil, founder of the Arab Women's Union, and the first Palestinian woman the British Mandate imprisoned for her politics — eleven months in the Bethlehem detention camp, on a file that described her as a very dangerous woman.", "summary": "Editor at Haifa's al-Karmil, founder of the Arab Women's Union, and the first Palestinian woman the British Mandate imprisoned for her politics — eleven months in the Bethlehem detention camp, on a file that described her as a very dangerous woman.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "ساذج نصّار", "years": "1900–1970", "role": "Journalist and organiser of the Arab Women's Union", "kind": "journalist", "birthplace": "Haifa, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/salah-khalaf/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/salah-khalaf/", "title": "Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad)", "content_text": "The Jaffa-born co-founder of Fatah who ran the PLO's security apparatus, was among the first Palestinian leaders to advocate a two-state solution, and was assassinated in Tunis in 1991 by an agent of the Abu Nidal group.", "summary": "The Jaffa-born co-founder of Fatah who ran the PLO's security apparatus, was among the first Palestinian leaders to advocate a two-state solution, and was assassinated in Tunis in 1991 by an agent of the Abu Nidal group.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "صلاح خلف (أبو إياد)", "years": "1933–1991", "role": "Co-founder of Fatah and head of PLO intelligence and security", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Jaffa, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/salman-abu-sitta/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/salman-abu-sitta/", "title": "Salman Abu Sitta", "content_text": "Civil engineer turned mapmaker, who spent decades reconstructing the villages, land holdings, and place names of pre-1948 Palestine into an atlas and a register of the depopulated.", "summary": "Civil engineer turned mapmaker, who spent decades reconstructing the villages, land holdings, and place names of pre-1948 Palestine into an atlas and a register of the depopulated.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "سلمان أبو ستة", "years": "1937–", "role": "Engineer and cartographer of the Nakba", "kind": "historian" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/samiha-khalil/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/samiha-khalil/", "title": "Samiha Khalil", "content_text": "The 'Oak Tree of Palestine' from Anabta, who built the Family Revival Society into a lifeline for thousands of families under occupation, was arrested six times, and took 12 percent of the vote against Yasser Arafat in 1996.", "summary": "The 'Oak Tree of Palestine' from Anabta, who built the Family Revival Society into a lifeline for thousands of families under occupation, was arrested six times, and took 12 percent of the vote against Yasser Arafat in 1996.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "سميحة خليل", "years": "1923–1999", "role": "Founder of In'ash al-Usra and the only candidate ever to run against Yasser Arafat", "kind": "activist", "birthplace": "Anabta, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/ahmed-yassin/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/ahmed-yassin/", "title": "Sheikh Ahmed Yassin", "content_text": "The quadriplegic refugee preacher from al-Jura who founded Hamas in December 1987 and was killed by Israeli helicopter missiles as he left dawn prayers in Gaza on 22 March 2004.", "summary": "The quadriplegic refugee preacher from al-Jura who founded Hamas in December 1987 and was killed by Israeli helicopter missiles as he left dawn prayers in Gaza on 22 March 2004.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "أحمد إسماعيل ياسين", "years": "1936–2004", "role": "Founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, assassinated in Gaza in 2004", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "al-Jura, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/shireen-abu-akleh/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/shireen-abu-akleh/", "title": "Shireen Abu Akleh", "content_text": "Veteran Al Jazeera correspondent and household name across the Arab world, killed while covering an Israeli raid in Jenin in 2022.", "summary": "Veteran Al Jazeera correspondent and household name across the Arab world, killed while covering an Israeli raid in Jenin in 2022.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "شيرين أبو عاقلة", "years": "1971–2022", "role": "Journalist, Al Jazeera correspondent", "kind": "journalist", "birthplace": "Jerusalem, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/sliman-mansour/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/sliman-mansour/", "title": "Sliman Mansour", "content_text": "Palestinian painter whose images of porters, peasants, and olive trees made him a founding figure of contemporary Palestinian art.", "summary": "Palestinian painter whose images of porters, peasants, and olive trees made him a founding figure of contemporary Palestinian art.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "سليمان منصور", "years": "1947–", "role": "Painter", "kind": "artist" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/suad-amiry/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/suad-amiry/", "title": "Suad Amiry", "content_text": "Founder of Riwaq, the first organisation dedicated to conserving Palestinian architectural heritage, and author of a curfew diary that won Italy's Viareggio Prize.", "summary": "Founder of Riwaq, the first organisation dedicated to conserving Palestinian architectural heritage, and author of a curfew diary that won Italy's Viareggio Prize.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "سعاد العامري", "years": "1951–", "role": "Architect and writer", "kind": "intellectual" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/tawfiq-canaan/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/tawfiq-canaan/", "title": "Tawfiq Canaan", "content_text": "Jerusalem physician who documented Palestinian folk life — amulets, saints' shrines, and popular medicine — in foundational works of early twentieth-century ethnography.", "summary": "Jerusalem physician who documented Palestinian folk life — amulets, saints' shrines, and popular medicine — in foundational works of early twentieth-century ethnography.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "توفيق كنعان", "years": "1882–1964", "role": "Physician and ethnographer", "kind": "medic" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/vera-tamari/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/vera-tamari/", "title": "Vera Tamari", "content_text": "Ceramicist and museum-builder who, after Israeli tanks crushed hundreds of cars in Ramallah in 2002, lined five of the wrecks up on a road she built and called it Going for a Ride?", "summary": "Ceramicist and museum-builder who, after Israeli tanks crushed hundreds of cars in Ramallah in 2002, lined five of the wrecks up on a road she built and called it Going for a Ride?", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "فيرا تماري", "years": "1945–", "role": "Ceramicist, installation artist, and art historian", "kind": "artist", "birthplace": "Jerusalem, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/wadie-haddad/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/wadie-haddad/", "title": "Wadie Haddad", "content_text": "Physician, co-founder of the Arab Nationalist Movement and the PFLP, and the architect of its aircraft hijackings — expelled by his own front, killed by poison in 1978.", "summary": "Physician, co-founder of the Arab Nationalist Movement and the PFLP, and the architect of its aircraft hijackings — expelled by his own front, killed by poison in 1978.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "وديع حداد", "years": "1927–1978", "role": "Physician and head of the PFLP's external operations branch", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Safad, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/wael-al-dahdouh/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/wael-al-dahdouh/", "title": "Wael al-Dahdouh", "content_text": "Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief, who kept reporting through the killing of his wife, son, daughter, and grandson in 2023 and became a global symbol of press freedom.", "summary": "Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief, who kept reporting through the killing of his wife, son, daughter, and grandson in 2023 and became a global symbol of press freedom.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "وائل الدحدوح", "years": "1970–", "role": "Journalist, Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief", "kind": "journalist", "birthplace": "Gaza City, Gaza" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/wael-zuaiter/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/wael-zuaiter/", "title": "Wael Zuaiter", "content_text": "The Nablus-born translator and PLO representative in Rome — a friend of Moravia, Genet and Pasolini, at work on the first Italian translation of the Thousand and One Nights — shot dead by Israeli agents outside his apartment on 16 October 1972.", "summary": "The Nablus-born translator and PLO representative in Rome — a friend of Moravia, Genet and Pasolini, at work on the first Italian translation of the Thousand and One Nights — shot dead by Israeli agents outside his apartment on 16 October 1972.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "وائل زعيتر", "years": "1934–1972", "role": "Writer, translator and PLO representative in Rome, first man killed in the Wrath of God assassinations", "kind": "intellectual", "birthplace": "Nablus, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/walid-khalidi/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/walid-khalidi/", "title": "Walid Khalidi", "content_text": "Palestinian historian whose documentary works, above all *All That Remains*, preserved the record of the villages emptied in 1948.", "summary": "Palestinian historian whose documentary works, above all *All That Remains*, preserved the record of the villages emptied in 1948.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "وليد خالدي", "years": "1925–2026", "role": "Historian and founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies", "kind": "historian", "birthplace": "Jerusalem, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/widad-kawar/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/widad-kawar/", "title": "Widad Kawar", "content_text": "Over fifty years she assembled more than two thousand Palestinian and Jordanian dresses and textiles, saving a village-by-village record of dress that 1948 had otherwise scattered.", "summary": "Over fifty years she assembled more than two thousand Palestinian and Jordanian dresses and textiles, saving a village-by-village record of dress that 1948 had otherwise scattered.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "وداد قعوار", "years": "1931–", "role": "Collector and historian of Palestinian dress", "kind": "historian", "birthplace": "Tulkarm, Palestine" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/yasser-arafat/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/yasser-arafat/", "title": "Yasser Arafat", "content_text": "Founder of Fatah and chairman of the PLO for thirty-five years, who told the UN in 1974 that he came bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun.", "summary": "Founder of Fatah and chairman of the PLO for thirty-five years, who told the UN in 1974 that he came bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "ياسر عرفات", "years": "1929–2004", "role": "Founder of Fatah, chairman of the PLO, president of the State of Palestine", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Cairo, Egypt" } }, { "id": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/yusuf-abu-durra/", "url": "https://falasteen.ai/figures/yusuf-abu-durra/", "title": "Yusuf Abu Durra", "content_text": "A railway worker from a village near Jenin who escaped the cordon at Ya'bad where Qassam was killed, became one of the five commanders of the Great Revolt, stormed Atlit prison to free its inmates — and was handed to the British by the Arab Legion and hanged.", "summary": "A railway worker from a village near Jenin who escaped the cordon at Ya'bad where Qassam was killed, became one of the five commanders of the Great Revolt, stormed Atlit prison to free its inmates — and was handed to the British by the Arab Legion and hanged.", "_falasteen": { "arabicName": "يوسف أبو درة", "years": "1900–1939", "role": "Commander of the 1936–39 revolt", "kind": "leader", "birthplace": "Silat al-Harithiya, Palestine" } } ] }