Aref al-Dajani
Palestinian politician, mayor of Jerusalem (1917-1918)
Aref Basha al-Dajani (Arabic: عارف الدجاني; 1856 – April 14, 1930) was an Arab Palestinian politician who served as mayor of Jerusalem in 1917–1918.
Aref al-Dajani was born in Jerusalem in 1856.
Political activism
In 1918, after serving for one year as mayor of Jerusalem, al-Dajani joined the Administrative Committee of the Muslim-Christian Association (MCA) and went on to become Jerusalem and then regional president of the organization. The Jerusalem Congress convened January 27 – February 10, 1919, under the leadership of Aref al-Dajani and Izzat Darwazah. The resolution reached at this forum was cabled to the Paris Peace Conference on behalf of the Arabs of Palestine, demanding a renunciation of the Balfour Declaration and the inclusion of Palestine as "an integral part of...the independent Arab Government of Syria within an Arab Union, free of any foreign influence or protection."
As chairman of the Jerusalem Congress, al-Dajani rejected political Zionism and agreed to accept British assistance on condition that it did not impinge on Arab sovereignty in Palestine. He envisaged Palestine as part of an independent Syrian state governed by Faisal of the Hashemite family.
In a speech to the King-Crane Commission in 1919, as a leader of the delegation for the Muslim-Christian Association, he stated,
“It is impossible for us to make an understanding with them [the Jews] or even to live them together… Their history and all their past proves that it is impossible to live with them. In all the countries where they are at present they are not wanted and undesirables, because they always arrive to suck the blood of everybody, and to become economically and financially victorious. If the League of Nations will not listen to the appeal of the Arabs this country will become a river of blood.”
In September 1920, al-Dajani became deputy president of a committee of notables established by the Pan-Islamic Movement. In his opening speech, he read letters received from Turkey and India, and called for Pan-Islamic ideals to be embraced by Palestinian Muslims.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Aref al-Dajani” is palestinian politician, mayor of Jerusalem (1917-1918). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Aref, al-Dajani and Palestinian, not as a finished interpretation.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2915421. VIAF identifies the subject as 5518157162103878980007. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1856, 1930, 1917 and 1918.
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This entry incorporates text from “Aref al-Dajani” 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.