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FAISAL HUSSEINI |
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FAISAL HUSSEINI |
Faisal Husseini was the PLO representative in Jerusalem and a Palestinian Authority (PA) minister, born in Baghdad in 1940. For centuries, the Husseinis have been landowners, mayors and Islamic leaders. His grandfather, Musa Qassem Hussein, led Palestinian opposition to the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. His uncle Haj Amin was the notorious Grand Mufti of Jerusalem whose agitations against British mandatory rule and Jewish immigration sparked the Arab riots of 1936-1939. His father died in the war that ended in Israel's founding in 1948.
He met Yasser Arafat (his distant cousin) in Egypt and joined his Fatah and the PLO during the early years. At that time, Israel did not control the disputed Judea-Samaria-Gaza territories, and not a single Jewish settlement existed in those areas; the "Palestine" that Husseini and the PLO were seeking to "liberate" was pre-1967 Israel.
Husseini served with PLO forces in Syria, where he was an explosives expert and later boasted that he personally trained 1,200 terrorists in the art of making and placing explosives. In 1968, Husseini was sentenced to prison by Israel after he was convicted of assisting a terrorist cell by storing their weapons and ammunition in his home. Over the years, he was jailed or put under house arrest several times. Husseini's defining achievement was the founding of the Arab Studies Society in 1978, which was eventually to transform Orient House from a hotel owned by the Husseini family into the seat of Palestinian power in Jerusalem, making it the headquarters for the PLO in the city.
He became one of the leaders behind the Palestinian participation in the seminal Madrid peace conference in 1991. When Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian leadership returned from Tunisia in 1994, Husseini was seen as a rival and pushed somewhat to the sidelines of power. He nurtured several academics, such as Hanan Ashrawi and Saeb Erekat, who became influential during the peacemaking era. Husseini was the leading Palestinian figure in Jerusalem, out of Orient House, even though Arafat continued to try to undercut him.
Faisal Husseini died of a heart attack on June 1, 2001 while attending a conference in Kuwait on freezing "normalization" with Israel. Considered a moderate, some Israelis attended his funeral out of respect for his efforts during the peace process. However, his published views included the vision of a Palestine that would include all of Israel. In a speech in Beirut in April 2001, Husseini said:
Husseini also constantly praised and encouraged the ongoing Palestinian Arab violence against Israel. For example, he said on December 5, 2000:
In April 2002, the Israeli government released documents that were seized at Orient House when it was raided and closed in August 2001. One document was submitted to Husseini and lists a summary of terrorist activities in Jerusalem, reading: "Please advance the sum of 5,000 shekels for necessary needs." It is affixed with the Orient House seal. This and other documents establish a definite link between Arafat, Husseini and specific terrorists and their actions. Any fiction that the terrorists were isolated "fringe elements" has been dispelled.
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