BARGHUTHI FAMILY

Prominent Palestinian family from the Ramallah area, north of Jerusalem.

Since the latter years of the Ottoman Empire, members of the Barghuthi family have played prominent roles in Palestinian politics. Umar Salih (1894–1965), a lawyer, politician, and historian, was an active Arab nationalist during Ottoman rule in Palestine. He received a law degree from the Government Law School in Jerusalem in 1924 and taught there from 1933 to 1948. He was a founding member of the Palestinian Arab National Party in 1923. In 1952, he was appointed to the Jordanian senate and in 1954 was elected to the chamber of deputies. Bashir (1931–), the general secretary of the Palestinian People's Party (formerly the Palestine Communist Party), founded Jerusalem's Palestinian weekly al-Taliʿa in 1978. In 1996, he was appointed minister without portfolio in the Palestinian Authority. Mustafa (1954–) is a physician and chairman of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, one of the grassroots organizations that formed the social and political backbone of the first Intifada.

see also arab nationalism; barghuthi, marwan; intifada (1987–1991); palestinian authority.

Bibliography

Petterson, Matthew W. Palestinians in Profile: A Guide to Leading Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Jerusalem: PANORAMA Center for Dissemination of Alternative Information, 1993.

Porath, Yehoshua. The Emergence of the Palestinian-Arab National Movement, 1918–1929. London: Frank Cass, 1974.

Smith, Pamela Ann. Palestine and the Palestinians: 1876–1983. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984.

Steve Tamari

Updated by Michael R. Fischbach