Talk:Ahmad Shukeiri
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[edit] Historical anachronisms
Ahmed Shukairy, born in 1908, could not have had a "Palestinian" father. Palestine did not yet exist during the many centuries of Ottoman rule. In 1908,what we know of today as Jordan and Israel, including Judea-Samaria and The Gaza Strip, then, was made up of five provinces under the Ottoman Rulers: Sanjak Acre, Sanjak Nablus,[these were part of the Vilayet Beirut]the Independent Sanjak of Jerusalem [where Tel Aviv was founded in 1909] and on the other side of the Jordan River, the Sanjak of Maan and Sanjak Hauran [Druze], both part of the Vilayet Damascus.These last two became Transjordan, until Abdullah in 1948, attacked the newly established State of Israel and captured Judea-Samaria. Now because he was on both sides of the Jordan River, he renamed his kingdom Jordan. In 1950, he granted Jordanian citizenship to all the Arabs in his newly acquired territories, now called the Western Bank of his Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In 1951, an Arab killed him!
The 1915 Sykes-Picot Agreement, does not mention a "palestine". The 1917 Balfour Declaration was to establish a Jewish Homeland called Palestine. The 1919 agreement between Emir Feisal and Dr. Weizmann looked forward to a cordial relationship between Emir Feisal's Arab State [his father was King of Hejaz and Nejd] and the Jewish State to be. [Feisal went on to become the King of the three Vilayets the British gave him: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, which he renamed, IRAQ.] When T.E. Lawrence had his meoirs published of his adventures as "Lawrence of Arabia" called "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom" it contained four maps of the area he had been in. None of the maps has the word "palestine" on them, yet he, Gen. Allenby and Storrs managed to get around. -- unsigned comment by IP 81.218.115.163 11:07, 17 August 2005
[edit] The True Bio of Ahmed Al-Shukairy
>Source:http://www.ahmad-alshukairy.org
- Profile:The First Arab Palestinian Leader, Ahmad Al-Shukairy
Prominant Palestinian lawyer and first president of the PLO. Ahmad Al-Shukairy was born in Tebnin, in the south of Lebanon, where his father Sheikh As’ad Al-Shukairy was banished because of his opposition to the policies of the Ottoman rule during the reign of the Sultan Abdul Hameed.
Ahmad moved as a child to the city of Toulkarm in Palestine to live with his mother. In 1916, he moved to Akka where he completed his primary school education. He then proceeded to Jeruslem to complete his secondary schooling in 1926. Then he joined the American University in Beirut, but was expelled the following year by the French Mandatory Power in Lebanon, due to his participation in addressing a demonstration organized by the Arab students at the AUB in memory of the 6th of May. At that point, he returned to Palestine and joined the Institute of Law in Jerusalem, studying at night and working during the day at a newspaper called Mir’at Alshark “Mirror of the East”.
After he graduated from the Institute of Law, he worked and trained at the office of the distinguished lawyer Awni Abdul Hadi who was one of the founders of the Istiklal party “the Independence party” in Palestine. During this period, he met many of the leaders of The Great Syrian Revolution who found refuge in Palestine, including Shukry Al-Quwatly, Riyadh Al-Sulh, Nabih Al-Athmeh and Adel Arsalan.
In the nineteen twenties and thirties, Palestine had lived consecutive revolutions. The Great Palestinian Revolution (1936 – 1939) was the most important one of all. Al-Shukairy became actively involved in this great nationalist movement and struggled against the British mandatory rule and the Zionist infiltration into Palestine. He also defended prisoners and Arab Palestinian revolutionists in the British courts. When the Revolution ended, Al-Shukairy was persecuted by the British, and therefore had to leave Palestine and move to Egypt. He returned to Palestine, in the early days of World War II, and started his own law office in Akka. He specialized in defending the nationalist militants and concentrated on the issues of the threatened Palestinian territories. Al-Shukairy succeeded in saving many Arab lands and preventing the Zionists from laying their hands on them.
When it was decided to establish the Arab Bureaus, headed by Musa Al Alami, in foreign countries, Al-Shukairy was chosen in 1945 as the first director of the Arab Media office in Washington, D.C. Later in 1946 he was appointed as the head of The Central Arab Media Office in Jerusalem, where he resumed his law practice. He remained in Palestine until he was forced in 1948 to migrate to Lebanon and take refuge with his family in Beirut.
The Syrian Government decided to make use of Al-Shukairy’s growing experience in foreign policy. He was therefore appointed as a member of the Syrian delegation to the United Nations (1949 – 1950). Soon after, Al-Shukairy was nominated to become the Assistant Secretary General for the Arab League in Cairo, Egypt, and he remained in office until the year 1957. Al-Shukairy was then appointed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as minister of state for the United Nations affairs. During his extensive work at the United Nations between 1949 and 1963, Al-Shukairy was always a dedicated, strong and eloquent advocate of the Palestinian cause as well as other Arab nationalist issues, especially those concerning Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.
After Al-Shukairy returned from the United Nations in 1962, he was chosen by the heads of the Arab states to represent Palestine in the Arab League, following the death of the previous representative, Ahmed Hilmi Abdul Baki. The decision was made in the 1st Arab Summit held in January 1964 to entrust Al-Shukairy, as the Palestinian representative, to start contacts for establishing the Palestinian Entity. Al-Shukairy accomplished his mission with excellent results. He toured the Arab countries, where Palestinians had taken residence, and presented to them his proposals for the National Charter as well as the by-laws of establishing the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). The preparatory committees were chosen, and these in turn nominated their representatives to the Palestinian Conference, which was held in Jerusalem between May 28 - June 2, 1964. The Conference was entitled The First Palestinian National Council for the Liberation Organization. The Conference elected Ahmed Al-Shukairy as its president and announced the establishment of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. It approved the by-laws and National Charter of the PLO, and elected Al-Shukairy as Chairman of the Executive Committee. He was delegated the task of choosing the 15 members of the Executive Committee. The Conference also decided to mobilize the Palestinian people and establish the Palestinian National Fund.
Al-Shukairy presented his report to the Second Arab Summit Conference (September 1964) on the establishment of the PLO as the Palestinian Entity. His report explained the organizational aspects of the PLO and its goal to achieve the mobilization of the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberating their homeland. Al-Shukairy also presented the members of the Executive Committee of the PLO and urged the Summit to pledge financial support for the Organization. Al-Shukairy devoted himself to the tasks of the Executive Committee in Jerusalem. These included the establishment of PLO disciplines and departments as well as representative offices in Arab and Foreign states, and above all the creation of the military body, named the Palestinian Liberation Army. At the end of the second Palestinian National Council (Cairo, May 31- June 4, 1965), Al-Shukairy presented the achievements of the Executive Committee. He then submitted his resignation and the Council accepted it. His presidency of the Executive Committee was immediately renewed and this granted him the right to choose its members once again.
After the Israeli invasion of June 1967, major changes affected both the Arab and the Palestinian fronts, and differences of opinion arose among the Executive Committee. Al-Shukairy, therefore, submitted his resignation to the Palestinian people in December 1967.
From this point onward, Al-Shukairy declined any official position and directed his efforts towards writing. He alternated his residence between Cairo in winter and Lebanon in summer.
His house was never void of Palestinian and Arab visitors, who exchanged opinions on various Arab and international issues. Al-Shukairy always argued that political bargaining would not liberate Palestine, and that armed struggle was the only means towards liberation. He also stressed that Arabs should try to curtail the American imperialist support to Israel and its Zionist plans to contain the Arab Nation and destroy its resources. Furthermore, Al-Shukairy emphasized that oil could be used as a weapon to fight imperialism.
The Camp David Agreement, the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty, and the normalization of relations between Egypt and the Zionist state were considered by Al-Shukairy as high treason towards the Arab and Palestinian cause. He, therefore, left Cairo for Tunisia in 1979. He spent several months there until a chronic illness, aggravated by disppointment, required his transfer to the Hussein Medical Center, in Amman, where he died on the 26th of February 1980. He was buried upon his request in the cemetery of Abu Obaida, one of Prophet Muhammad’s companions, in the Jordan Valley, only a stone’s throw from his beloved homeland: Palestine.
Al-Shukairy had left a number of valuable books, speeches and publications on various Arab and Palestinian issues.
- Ahmed AlShukairy's Family History in Breif
Ahmad Al-Shukairy was born to an Arab Family that immigrated to Egypt from Hijaz. His father is Sheikh Asa’ad Al-Shukairy who was a member in the Ottoman Parliament. He was also one of the prominent members in the Assembly of Unity and Development. Moreover, he was one of the supporters of the Islamic Unity and one of those who opposed any dealings with the Foreign Allies.
He was born in the year 1908 in the castle of Tibneen in south Lebanon. Ahmad acquired the Turkish language from his mother. He remembers opening his eyes Tulkarm on the news of the first World War in 1914 and becoming acquainted with world affairs. In the second year of the war, his mother became quite ill. After two or three days, she passed away. Ahmad was then only seven years old. In the summer of 1916, Ahmad was taken to the village of Qaqun. From there, he was taken in a carriage to Haifa. He stayed there for the night and in the morning was taken along the wonderful beach to Akka to meet with his father’s family. He spent two or three days in his uncle’s house, then he was taken to his father’s house.
- AlShukrairy's National Activities
Since the days when Al-Shukairy was young, he took part in many Palestinian national activities. His main aim was to unite the nationalist movement. He took part in many strikes and demonstrations while he was studying, and was arrested due to his continuous activities. He was always enthused by the national events taking place across Palestine, and in turn gave many nationalistic speeches to encourage young men. He was also very active in his hometown Akka, delivering speeches and calling for resisting colonialism and Zionism.
He attended several conferences, sometimes as a member, at others as the president. His main concern was Palestine, and the founding of committees throughout the country in order to establish the Palestinian State which would unite the people to stand in the face of colonialism and Zionism.
- 1933 – 1948
Ahmad Al-Shukairy participated in the great demonstration of 1933 in Jerusalem, which was led by Musa Kathim Al-Husseini. He also participated in the demonstration organized by the executive committee in Yafa in the same year. Al-Shukairy at the time was one of the lawyers who volunteered to defend arrested and imprisoned Palestinians and freedom fighters.
Along with other young men, he took part in the awareness campaigns which took place in the mid thirties. The campaigns called on Great Britain to change its policies in Palestine and to put an end to Zionist immigration into Palestine.
In April of 1936, Yafa was on strike to condemn the cruelty of the governing Colonialists and their bloody treatment of local residents, especially on 15/4/1936. Al-Shukairy took part in the strike and consequently helped in the founding of a national committee in his hometown Akka. The committee joined up with the dignitaries of Northern Palestine and headed to Jerusalem to hold talks with the leaders of the National Movement to unify the different fronts and to establish a Consolidated National Front to lead the fight.
Al-Shukairy was arrested during one of the demonstrations he was addressing and was deported to Samakh. He was later moved to Al-Hemma in July 1936 where he was kept under house arrest.
In 1937, the Arabs reacted strongly to the suggestion of partitioning Palestine.
Al-Shukairy joined the media and awareness committee that was established to fight the suggestion. But the year 1938 was the most important in Al-Shukairy's life: he was involved in politics and the media at the same time, and he met a number of leaders of the revolution in Damascus and Beirut.
Al-Shukairy was not a member of the High Arab Committee, but he attended all its important meetings. He prepared a full study on the White Book, which was issued by the United Kingdom in 1939. Al-Shukairy was forced to move to Cairo soon after.
Al-Shukairy’s father died in 1940, at which time revolutions had stopped in Palestine, and so the British authority allowed him to return to Palestine to attend his funeral. Al-Shukairy was also busy with the events of World War II.
When the Arab League was founded in 1945, Al-Shukairy was in Cairo, close to the league’s activities and meetings. Mussa Al-Alami offered him to travel to Washington to establish an Arab Media Office there. The office started working by the end of September of that year.
Al-Shukairy held a press conference at the opening of the Arab Media Office in Washington and delivered a speech. He also fielded a number of embarrassing questions posed by Jewish journalists.
Al-Shukairy attended the conference held in Anshas, Egypt, in 1946. The conference dealt with the Arab League. The Syrian President Shukri Al-Quwatly showed him a preview of the clause pertaining to the Palestinian issue before it was published at the conference.
Al-Shukairy participated with the Palestinian delegation in the meeting of the Arab League held in Bloudan, Syria, in 1946.
In March 1947, the Arab League held a meeting, which Al-Shukairy attended as an advisor to the Syrian delegation. During that meeting he presented a legal memo about the right to self-determination.
In june 1948, he participated in the Arab League delegation to Rohdes where they met with Count Bernadot the U.N. Mediator.
Also in automn of 1948, Al-Shukairy attend the UN meeting in Paris as a member in the Palestinian delegation. He gave a lengthy statement on the Palestinian problem.
- 1949 – 1963
Al-Shukairy also attended the meeting organized by the United Nations in Saint George Hotel in Beirut in 1949, also as an advisor to the Syrian delegation. He gave a lengthy speech in which he focused on the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland without any conditions.
At the end of 1949, Al-Shukairy returned to Damascus from America, and presented a report to the Syrian Government concerning the Palestinian refugees. In 1950, Al-Shukairy traveled to Switzerland to represent Syria before the Reconciliation Committee.
In 1951, Al-Shukairy was appointed Assistant Secretary General to the Arab League. The following year was full of Arab and International events.
Throughout 1950 – 1956 Al-Shukairy represented Syria in the United Nations, in order to defend the Palestinian cause and those of Arab Maghrib.
In May 1957, Al-Shukairy headed the Arab League mission to Yemen to investigate Britain's invasion of Southern Yemen. He also advised Imam Ahmad of Yemen on the matter.
From 1957 – 1963 Al-Shukairy worked with Saudi Arabia as head of its mission to the United Nations.
He was chosen in 1963 as the representative of Palestine in the Arab League and headed a Palestinian delegation to the United Nations session in that year.
- 1964 – 1967
Al-Shukairy attended the First Arab Summit Conference in January 1964, which discussed the Palestinian issue and the importance of establishing the Palestinian entity, as well as the issue of altering the course of the Jordan River by Israel.
He founded the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in Jerusalem, in May 1964, and advised the outcome to the second Arab summit in September 1964 in Alexandria. He founded the Palestinian Liberation Army, the Palestine Broadcasting Service and the Research Center and opened offices for the organization in the Arab states and in other friendly countries.
He participated in the Casablanca Summit Conference, held on 13/9/1965, in which the covenant of Arab Solidarity was signed and the plan for a Unified Arab Military Leadership was approved.
In December 1967, Al-Shukairy submitted his resignation as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
- 1968 – 1980
Still concerned with Arab and Palestinian issues, Al-Shukairy followed up international politics, and continued meeting with officials and citizens. In addition to his visits to the Arab countries, he wrote a letter to the Arab Summit Conference in 1974, in which he called for the preservation of the Ramadan (October1973) War achievements.
In 1977 and 1978 Al-Shukairy delivered several messages and held media conferences concerning the so called peace process. He strongly opposed the agreement of Camp David between Egypt and Israel.
Al-Shukairy wrote his memoirs and published several books on Arab affairs, especially the Palestinian issue.
- Personal achievements
>His Education
Ahmad Al-Shukairy completed his second secondary class in Akka with the highest grades he then enrolled in Zion School in Jerusalem to continue his studies, where he was exempted from taking Arabic lessons as he was excellent in Arabic. He was able to overcome the difficulty of the English language by memorizing many words which helped him in his political life.
He enrolled in the American University of Beirut, and joined a club known as “Al-Urwa Al-Wuthqa” (The Strong Knot) in the University. Students from all countries join this club. He was expelled from the AUB and Lebanon due to his participation in demonstrations.
He completed his study in the Institute of Law in Jerusalem. He worked during the daytime and studied at night. Al-Shukairy was an outstanding student despite the pressures that he faced due to his national activities and published articles.
- His Journalist work during his study
Al-Shukairy took a job in a newspaper in Jerusalem called “Eastern Mirror”. His journalist work acquainted him with the political situations arising and the Palestinian national activities. Therefore, his office at the newspaper became a meeting place for young nationalists in Jerusalem.
Al-Shukairy also wrote many articles and papers that turned the attention of the leaders, writers, and journalists on highly important matters.
**Political Achievements**
- A prominant Palestinian lawyer 1933 – 1948.
- First director of the Arab Media Office in Washington in 1945 then Director of the Central Arab Media Office in Jerusalem in 1946.
- Assistant General Secretary for the Arab League and a representative to Syria in the United Nations 1950 - 1957.
- Minister for the United Nations affairs in the Saudi Arabia Government and permanent ambassador for the United Nations 1957 - 1962.
- Representative of Palestine in the Arab League 1963 – 1967.
- Founder and first president of the Palestinian Liberation Organization 1964 – 1967.
Corrected and Submitted by *StarStealer7* -- unsigned comment by IP 69.224.180.199 20:48, 22 October 2005
[edit] Nothing on Perceptions
Why is there nothing on the fact that he is widely perceived to be an ineffectual loudmouth who accomplished very little -- not to mention his most famous utterance, just before the 6-day war, about "Throwing the Jews into the sea"? AnonMoos 16:13, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
-
- There are two good reasons here (a) he didn't say it, though he did say other much more objectionable things (see Shemesh, Moshe (2003). Did Shuqayri Call for "Throwing the Jews into the Sea"? Israel Studies. 8(2), 70-81 and (b) the Arab states were more interested in covering their own failings in the Six-Day War by using him as a fall guy. --Ian Pitchford 19:42, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
