Izzat Darwaza
Born in Nablus, 1887, to a middle-class family; served in the local Ottoman administration as clerk in the Department of Telegraphic and Postal Services in Nablus; director of al-Najah School in Nablus; among those who set up Al-Jam'iyya al-Filastiniyya (The Palestinian Society) in Damascus in 1919, whose aim was to promote the Palestinian cause and to enlist the support of the Arabs in Syria and Palestine; delegate for the Jamma'in district and secretary at the 1st Palestinian Arab Congress (Jerusalem, 1919), in favour of Palestinian unity with Syria;
Wrote anti-Zionist articles in the local press pointing out the catastrophic impact of Jewish immigration on the country and the threat that Zionism posed to Syria and the Arab world; rejected the mandate of any foreign power over Palestine; later secretary of Nadi al-Arabi;
Elected representative for Nablus to the 4th (May 1921, Jerusalem) and 7th (June 1928) Palestinian National Congress; member of the Arab Executive Committee; secretary of the Nablus MCA in the early 1930s; appointed General Administrator of the Waqf in the 1930s by the Supreme Muslim Council; member of the Istiqlal party.
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