Awni Abd al-Hadi

Awni Abd al-Hadi (1889 - 1970) was a Palestinian political figure. He was educated in Beirut, Istanbul, and at the Sorbonne University in Paris.

In 1911 Hadi was a founding member of the "al-Fatat" nationalist society, which was devoted to Arab independence and unity and was among the organizers of the 1913 Arab Nationalist Congress in Paris. He served as private secretary of Faisal I of Iraq at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. Hadi was later an adviser to Amir Abdullah in Transjordan.

On his return to Palestine in 1924 Hadi became one of the chief spokesmen of the Palestinian-Arab nationalist movement and was elected representative to the 5th (August 1922, Nablus) and 6th (June 1923, Jaffa) Congress of the Arab Executive Committee for Jenin and to the 7th (June 1928) for Beisan. He was secretary of the Executive Committee's Congress in 1928.

In 1930 Hadi was a member of the Palestinian Delegation to the United Kingdom and a lawyer for the Supreme Muslim Council. In August, 1932 he was a founder, general secretary and first elected president of the Palestinian Istiqlal (Independence) Party, the first regularly constituted Palestinian political party. He was also the party's representative to the Arab Higher Committee, formed in April 1936, of which he served as General Secretary. Hadi was a moderate who was prepared to negotiate with members of the "Yishuv". He testified to the Peel Commission, "There is no such country [as Palestine] . . . . Palestine is a term the Zionists invented. . . . Our country was for centuries part of Syria." However, even before his meeting with David Ben-Gurion in 1934 he had noted that "the goal of the Jews was to take over the country and the goal of the Arabs was to fight against that takeover" (Eisenberg and Caplan, 1998, p. 14).

Hadi held some responsibility for the Arab Revolt of 1936-39 and was banned from re-entry to the country when the British decided to deport the committee members in 1937 (until 1941). He was a member of the Palestinian delegation to the London Conference, St. James's Palace in February 1939.

In 1948 Hadi was a member and appointed Minister for Social Affairs of the Egyptian-sponsored All-Palestine Government headed by Amin al-Husayni.

Hadi served as Jordan's Minister and later ambassador to Cairo, from 1951-55. From 1955-58 he was a Jordanian senator and from 1958 chairman of the Arab League's Judicial Affairs Committee in Cairo;

Hadi died on March 15, 1970 in Cairo.

References

*Brinner, William M. (1987). "Like All the Nations: The Life and Legacy of Judah L. Magnes". SUNY Press. ISBN 0-88706-507-4
*Eisenberg, Laura Zittrain and Caplan, Neil (1998). "Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities". Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21159-X