Amin al-Khatib

Dr. Amin al-Khatib was one of Jerusalem’s most respected physicians and civic leaders, remembered not only for his long medical career but also for his lifelong commitment to education, social welfare, charitable work, and the establishment and development of Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem.

Amin al-Khatib was born in Haret Bab al-Hadid in the Old City of Jerusalem on June 7, 1926. He received his primary and secondary education at the al-Bakriyya and al-Rashidiyya schools in Jerusalem, graduating in 1944. He then enrolled at the American University of Beirut (AUB) where he studied science.1

While in Beirut, al-Khatib joined the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), becoming close with revolutionary figures like George Habash and Wadie Haddad.2 It was his activism as a student that led AUB to ban him from continuing his studies in medicine at the university.3 After graduating in 1948, he thus returned to Jerusalem and volunteered by treating Palestinian civilians and fighters in the Jaysh al-Jihad al-Muqaddas.4 Trained in emergency response, al-Khatib was indispensable to the war effort during the tumultuous months of the 1948 War.

After the war, al-Khatib pursued his medical degree at the Syrian University in Damascus, completing his studies in 1954.5

Upon returning to Jerusalem, he married Rudaina Karimeh Abu al-Sa‘ud in 19556 and began working at Augusta Victoria Hospital, one of the city’s most important medical institutions, as well as with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Irbid (Jordan) and Jericho, providing health-care services to Palestinian refugees displaced during the war (see Seventy-Five Years of UNRWA in Jerusalem).7

In the 1950s, al-Khatib was a major figure in Jerusalem’s charitable and medical institutions. In 1954, he was among the founders of the Makassed Islamic Charitable Society, which was critical in establishing medical dispensaries in remote areas with limited access to Jerusalem.

He was also a founding member of the Red Crescent Society in the city, which served displaced and disadvantaged Palestinians.8

In 1960, he opened a private medical clinic near St. John’s Hospice in the Old City’s Armenian Quarter on the Via Dolorosa. His clinic quickly became known as a place where patients of limited means could receive care at no cost.9

Over the years, his willingness to treat poor patients irrespective of their ability to pay earned him widespread admiration and the affectionate title Abu al-Fuqara’ (Father of the Poor).

Samir, al-Khatib’s son, shared that his father’s clinic was visited by 60 to 70 patients a day. He treated them for free, and if they could not afford the needed medications, he would secure them and pay for them himself.10 

Al-Khatib worked in his clinic until 1994, when he retired due to illness.

In addition to his clinic, he also worked at the Spafford Children’s Center (see Spafford Children’s Center: A Place of Safety and Healing for Jerusalem Children for Almost a Century) and volunteered as a physician at the Orthodox Charitable Shelter Society, Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi, Dar al-Awlad, Dar al-Aytam, St. George’s School, the East Jerusalem Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) (see The East Jerusalem YMCA: Serving the Palestinian Community since 1948), and at the headquarters of the African and Moroccan communities in the Old City (see In the Heart of the Old City, the African Community Society Unites Jerusalem’s Afro-Palestinians).11 He also played a critical role in the establishment of the Makassed Islamic Charitable Society Hospital in 1966, which grew into one of the leading Palestinian hospitals in Jerusalem (see East Jerusalem Hospitals).12 To this day, it is an essential center for medical treatment, training, and community health.

Following the 1967 occupation of East Jerusalem, al-Khatib became committed to institution building beyond health care, especially in the education and cultural sectors. He helped establish and lead the Arab Alumni Club in Sheikh Jarrah in the mid-1970s and supported campaigns to combat illiteracy, promote elderly and mental health care, and assist Palestinian prisoners.13 In 1983, he helped found the Bayt al-Rahma Islamic Society for the Elderly in Abu Dis, a charitable nursing and hospice facility providing comprehensive medical, social, and psychological care for vulnerable Palestinian senior citizens.14

Al-Khatib was also an active member and president of the Union of Charitable Societies for nearly 20 years starting in the mid-1970s.15 The union is the oldest independent Palestinian nonprofit umbrella organization for civil, charitable, and developmental NGOs, established in Jerusalem in 1958.

And perhaps most significantly, he was among the founders of Al-Quds University and the Palestinian National Theatre—El-Hakawati in Jerusalem in 1984, two invaluable institutions in Jerusalem to this day (see Organizations on the Ground).16

Because of his civic and political activities, al-Khatib was arrested several times by Israeli authorities. The first, Samir explained, was in 1968, when he was imprisoned for treating Palestinian fedayeen after they carried out a resistance operation. The second was in 1988, when he was placed in administrative detention after being accused of supporting activities related to the First Intifada. The third time, he was detained in al-Moskobiyya for authorizing the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics to conduct a census of Jerusalemites in 1997. Furthermore, Samir said, for about 10 years in the 1980s, al-Khatib was placed under compulsory residence. He was banned from leaving Jerusalem and had to present himself at al-Moskobiyya twice a day.17

Al-Khatib was also a central member of the National Guidance Committee (NGC), founded in Jerusalem in 1978. The NGC united mayors, trade unionists, and prominent activists across the West Bank and Gaza in grassroots opposition against the Israeli occupation. Operating out of Jerusalem, it became a powerful Palestinian political force that organized strikes, demonstrations, and mass resignations to challenge Israeli military administration in the early 1980s. As a result of this work, al-Khatib and other members of the NGC faced assassination attempts, including by car bomb.18

Despite many pressures and threats to his life, al-Khatib continued his public service and remained active in a range of community institutions. Even after his retirement from his clinic in 1994, he continued treating patients, supporting social research initiatives, and participating in charitable projects informally. In fact, in 1997, he was awarded the honorary title of Dean of Voluntary Social Work in Palestine, among other accolades.19

Dr. Amin al-Khatib passed away in his modest home in Wadi al-Joz on September 30, 2016, at the age of 91. He left behind a family and a remarkable professional legacy that spanned nearly seven decades. “You could not believe,” Samir said, “the presence of Jerusalemites at his funeral” on that Friday.20

To this day, al-Khatib is remembered not only as a physician who treated countless patients but also as a founder of important institutions that continue to shape Palestinian life in Jerusalem. Indeed, many of Jerusalem’s most renowned Palestinian hospitals, educational institutions, charitable organizations, and cultural centers bear the imprint of al-Khatib’s efforts.

But beyond his innumerable professional accomplishments, it is al-Khatib’s unmatched humility and humanity that Jerusalemites remember most. On Sunday, January 18, 2026, a member of the Facebook group “Maqdisiyyun” (Jerusalemites) posted the following tribute to the late doctor and “father of Jerusalemites”:

Maqdisiyyun. “The Doctor of Jerusalem and the Poor: Dr. Amin al-Khatib in Brief.” [in Arabic.] Facebook, January 18, 2026.

“Amin al-Khatib.” PASSIA, accessed July 15, 2026.

“Jerusalem—Dr. Amin al-Khatib: Father of the Poor in Jerusalem.” [in Arabic.] Alghad TV, February 7, 2019.

“The Jerusalemite Amin al-Khatib: The Doctor, the Human, and Father of the Poor.” [in Arabic.] al-Quds al-Bawsala, June 7, 2023.

Sihtak bi-l-Dunya. “Dr. Amin al-Khatib.” [in Arabic.] Facebook, June 1, 2024.

“Painful Stories from a Nursing Home in Jerusalem.” [in Arabic.] Al Jazeera, March 22, 2017.

[Profile Photo: The Palestine Museum Digital Archive, Item 58166]