Ahmad Shukeiri
Palestinian politician (1908-1980)
Ahmad al-Shukeiri (Arabic: أحمد الشقيري, also transliterated al-Shuqayri, Shuqairi, Shuqeiri, Shukeiry; 1 January 1908 – 26 February 1980) was a Palestinian political leader and the first chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, serving from 1964 to 1967.
Early life
Shukeiri was born in Tebnine, south Lebanon, then Ottoman Empire, to a Turkish mother and a Palestinian father, As'ad Shukeiri (1860–1940), who was elected to the Ottoman Parliament in 1908 and 1912. Ahmad acquired the Turkish language from his mother. After studying law in the British law college in Jerusalem, he became a prominent lawyer in British Palestine and a member of the Independence Party (Istiqlal). In 1945 he went to Washington, D.C. to establish a Palestinian office and in 1946 joined the Arab Higher Committee.
Political career
Shukeiri was a member of the Syrian delegation to the United Nations from 1949 to 1951. He then became assistant Secretary General for the Arab League from 1950 to 1956, Saudi ambassador to the United Nations from 1957 to 1962.
In December 1962, representing Saudi Arabia, he told the Special Political Committee of the United Nations General Assembly that the Tacuara movement had been formed to combat Zionism and he hoped it would spread in Latin America and its principles adopted by the United Nations. After receiving information about Tacuara from the Argentinian and Chilean delegations, he backed down, acknowledging that Tacuara was a fascist movement and claiming instead that it was more appropriate to compare Tacuara to Israel.
In 1963, the Arab League appointed him Representative of Palestine at the Arab League.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q977935. VIAF identifies the subject as 313187199. The Library of Congress control number is n83217390. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1908, 1980, 1964 and 1967.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ahmad Shukeiri” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.