Bios

Palestinian Jerusalemites have made myriad and diverse contributions to their city’s history and community fabric. Here we profile some of those people—past and present; famous and obscure—whose lives and work and stories have helped shape the larger Jerusalem Story over time.

Find alphabetically by first letter of last name

Shireen Abu Akleh

A venerated Palestinian journalist who reported from the field in the occupied territories for a quarter of a century until she was murdered while on assignment.

Khaled Abu Arafeh

Jerusalemite appointed first-ever minister of Jerusalem affairs in 2006 who was arrested, jailed, stripped of residency, and deported by Israel

Maha Abu Dayyeh

A feminist activist and leader who worked to protect and promote the legal, social, and political rights of women locally and worldwide

Albert Aghazarian

Jerusalem’s historian and defender of academic freedom, who fought to preserve the city’s diversity and plurality

Aref al-Aref

A renowned journalist, historian, and politician whose account of the 1948 War remains one of the most authoritative texts on the subject

Husni al-Ashhab

A notable Palestinian educator who worked tirelessly to preserve the Arab curriculum in East Jerusalem after 1967

Kamal Boullata

A renowned Jerusalemite artist and art historian who was exiled in 1967 and spent the rest of his life creating art that would convey, and lead him back to, the city of his birth

Fatima Budeiri

An Arabic-language teacher and media personality who became the first Palestinian woman to work as a radio broadcaster

Tawfiq Canaan

An epidemiologist, ethnographer, and institution builder who made foundational contributions to medicine and health care in Jerusalem and Palestine

Henry Cattan

A Jerusalemite jurist and lawyer who wrote widely on the status of Jerusalem and the Palestinian claim to Palestine

Ibrahim Dakkak

A talented and dedicated engineer who devoted his life to institution building, Jerusalem, and the Palestinian national cause

Land Gaza Win

Gaza Win