palestine

At the Arab League headquarters in Cairo in February 1948
From left to right: Sheikh Yusuf Yassin of Saudi Arabia, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Riad al-Sulh, Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmud Fihmi al-Nokrachi Pasha, Syria’s Prime Minister Jamil Mardam Bey, and Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem.

A gathering of leading Arab politicians in Damascus during the mid-1940s
A gathering of leading Arab politicians in Damascus during the mid-1940s. Front row (third from left) is Sati al-Husari, the Syrian-born Minister of Education in Iraq, followed by two unidentified gentlemen, then Jamil Mardam Bey, and Jamil al-Madfaii, the future Prime Minister of Iraq. Eight from left, standing in the middle of the front row is Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem. Next to him is Fares al-Khury, then Ihsan al-Jabiri, and Riad al-Sulh, the Prime Minister of Lebanon. Next to him is President Quwatli, then Ihsan al-Sharif.

The attorney Mohammad al-Fadel with Leila Khaled of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1969
Fadel, the future president of Damascus University, with Leila Khaled, member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who made world headlines at the age of 25 when she hijacked a TWA Flight 840 heading from Rome to Athens on August 29, 1969. She was arrested in London after another hijacking of an Israeli El Al Flight heading from Amsterdam to New York in September 1970. Fadel was one of those who defended her and she was released by the British on October 1, 1970.

Arab leaders in Damascus on September 21, 1978 assembled to discuss the Egyptian-Israeli Camp David Accords
From left to right: Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya, King Hussein of Jordan, Yasser Arafat (chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization PLO), and Mudar Badran, the Prime Minister of Jordan

President Hafez al-Assad with Arab leaders in Damascus
From left to right: Hourai Boumedienne of Algeria, President Hafez al-Assad, Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya. Standing behind them is Yasser Arafat, chairman of the PLO.

Yasser Arafat paying his respects to President Hafez al-Assad in 1994 over the passing of his son Basel al-Assad
From left to right: Former Vice President Rifaat al-Assad, President Hafez al-Assad, Chairman Arafat, Assistant Secretary General of the Baath Party, Abdullah al-Ahmar

Syrian poets Nizar Qabbani and Adonis with the Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali in London in 1986
From left to right: The Lebanese writer Mustapha Zein, Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali, Syrian poet Adonis, Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani, Iraqi poet Baland Haidari, Iraqi poet Ahmad Matar

Arab leaders at the funeral of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia in March 1975
From left to right: An American guest, a Libyan envoy, Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Yasser Arafat, Crown Prince Mohammad of Morocco, Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani the Emir of Qatar, Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat, Algerian President Houari Boumédiène - Syrian President Hafez al-Assad

President Shukri al-Quwatli with the veteran Palestinian nationalist Akram Zuaiter at the Presidential Palace in 1957
Akram Zuaiter (1909-1996) was a co-founder of the anti-French and anti-British League of National Action during the inter-war years. He then became a close confident and friend of President Quwatli, serving as his advisor on Palestinian Affairs after the war of 1948. In the 1950s, he served as Palestine's Ambassador to the Arab League in Cairo

National Bloc chief Nasib al-Bakri with Arab politicians at the Cairo Railways in the early 1930s.
The politicians are assembled to bid farewell to Mohammad Ali Allouba Pasha before traveling to London to attend the Parliamentary Conference for the Defense of Palestine. Mohammad Ali Allouba Pasha is standing in the middle, and to his right is Nasib al-Bakri, a ranking member of the Syrian National Bloc, the leading anti-French movement in Syria. Next to Bakri stands the veteran Palestinian journalist Mohammad Ali Taher, followed by Mirza Mahdi Rafi Meshki, dean of the Iranian community in Egypt. To Allouba Pasha’s left is the Palestinian nationalist Amin al-Tamimi. From the archives of Mohammad Ali Eltaher (www.eltaher.org).

Fawzi al-Qawiqji, commander of the Army of Deliverance, preparing for war in Palestine in April 1948
The photo was taken at the Qatana barracks in Syria. From left to right: Egyptian nationalist Ahmad Hussein - Fawzi al-Qawiqji, commander of the Arab Army in Palestine - General Mohamed Saleh Harb Pasha, former Egyptian Minister of War

President Shukri al-Quwatli with top Syrian and Palestinian visitors at the Presidential Palace in 1956
From left to right: The ex-Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husseini, Parliament Speaker Nazem al-Qudsi, the Damascus-based Palestinian journalist Mohammad Ali Eltaher (owner of the suspended Cairo-based nationalist newspaper Asshoura), President Shukri al-Quwatli, Sultan Pasha al-Atrash (commander of the 1925-1927 Syrian Revolt against the French), Ex-Prime Minister and Parliament Speaker Fares al-Khury, Prime Minister Sabri al-Asali. From the archives of Mohammad Ali Eltaher (www.eltaher.org).