Early life Aref al-Aref was born in 1892 as Aref Shehadeh in
Jerusalem, then part of the
Ottoman Empire. His father was a vegetable vendor. Excelling at his studies in primary school, he was sent to the Marjan Preparatory School and Mulkiyya College in
Constantinople (Istanbul). During his college studies, he wrote for a Turkish newspaper. Later, he worked as a translator for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served as an officer in the
Ottoman Army in
World War I. He was captured on the Caucasus front and spent three years in a
prisoner of war camp in
Krasnoyarsk,
Siberia, where, he learned Russian from the Russian officers and soldiers who were digging the camp, and he also learned German from the German and Austrian prisoners who were with him in captivity. In October 1919, he became editor of the recently established newspaper
Suriya al-Janubiya (Southern Syria), which was the first Arab nationalist newspaper published in Jerusalem and was an organ of the al-Nadi al-'Arabi (The Arab Club). while Bernard Wasserstein wrote "he seems to have cooperated with the police, and there is no evidence that he actively instigated violence". He advised Arabs against violence, urging them instead to adopt the "discipline, silence, and courage" of their opponents.
Political career In 1921, he was appointed as a
district Officer of the British administration by the Civil Secretary, Colonel
Wyndham Deedes. In 1967, he was appointed director of the Palestine Archaeological Museum (
Rockefeller Museum) in Jerusalem. Aref al-Aref died on 30 July 1973, in
al-Bireh. ==Published works==