Upbringing, Education, and Early Political Career
Anwar Zaki Nusseibeh was born in Jerusalem in 1913 into two of the city’s most prominent families. The son of Zaki Nusseibeh and Fatima Nashashibi, Nusseibeh grew up in a large family with six brothers and three sisters.1 As a young child, he attended the Rawdat al-Ma‘arif al-Wataniyya School in Jerusalem and then the city’s famed Government Arab College for secondary school.
In 1929, when he was just 16, Nusseibeh’s parents sent him to England to complete his secondary education and enroll in university. He attended the Perse School in Cambridge before pursuing a law degree at Queens’ College, University of Cambridge.2 He was called to the bar by Gray’s Inn in London and was known for his athleticism, particularly in tennis, as well as his horsemanship and piano skills.3
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A conversation with the Nusseibehs about their family’s centuries of history in and contributions to Jerusalem
Nusseibeh (right) with a friend while studying at Queens’ College in the United Kingdom, early 1930s
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245657
Like many of his peers from Jerusalem’s elite, upon graduating in 1934,4 he returned to Palestine and was appointed by Colonial British Mandate forces to serve first as a land officer and then as a judge in several courts across Palestine, including Ramallah, Nazareth, Jenin, and Jerusalem.5 But not long after his return, Palestinians began preparing for an uprising against British forces that would lead to the devastation of Palestine and the Palestinian nationalist movement. In the lead-up to the Great Palestinian Revolt of 1936–39, Nusseibeh joined the Majlisiyyun political party, which supported Hajj Amin al-Husseini and the Supreme Muslim Council. In April 1936, at the start of the general strike that evolved into an armed uprising, al-Husseini and his allies formed the Arab Higher Committee (AHC) and threw their weight behind the strike. One of the more outspoken members of the AHC, Ya‘qub al-Ghusayn, was Nusseibeh’s future father-in-law. Nusseibeh is said to have helped al-Ghusayn in some of his anti-colonial nationalist activities.6
A little over a year later, in the fall of 1937, British forces dissolved the AHC and exiled many of its members, including al-Ghusayn, to the Seychelles.7 The rest either escaped or went into exile in neighboring countries. Nusseibeh managed to avert exile, and by the end of the revolt in 1939, he was one of the few members of the nationalist elite remaining in Jerusalem.
In 1942, Nusseibeh married Nuzha al-Ghusayn and the young couple started a family—two girls and four boys, including Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh and Sari Nusseibeh, who serve in important academic and diplomatic roles to this day.8
In 1945, Nusseibeh was chosen to head the London branch of the Arab Bureau, an initiative proposed by Musa Alami at the preparatory meetings for the formation of the Arab League, held in 1944 in Alexandria (see Musa Alami). The Arab Bureau offices established in major Western cities would serve as media centers presenting the Arab Palestinian case to international public opinion. Nusseibeh held this position for a year.
He returned to Palestine in 1946 to practice law, during which time he was known for defending Palestinians from prosecution in British military courts for their participation in the 1936 revolt.9
Political Shifts Following 1948
Violence erupted across Palestine following the announcement of the UN Partition Plan in November 1947. The AHC, which had regrouped in November 1945, formed the National Committee in Jerusalem in January 1948, tasked with coordinating and managing local nationalist operations in Jerusalem amid growing violence and political instability. Nusseibeh was elected secretary general of the committee, which took over an administrative role in the city in the final months of British governance (which officially ended on May 15, 1948), including “issuing identity cards and gun licenses, regulating commerce, and preventing profiteering” and supervising “the distribution of bread, kerosene, and other vital commodities.”10
In this critical and challenging role, Nusseibeh was a central figure of governance and defense of Palestinians in Jerusalem in the early months of 1948. In April and May, Nusseibeh “made strenuous efforts . . . to prevent Palestinians from moving out of Jerusalem in the face of attacks by Zionist forces.”11 During a battle with Zionist forces in Jerusalem, Nusseibeh was seriously wounded, losing his leg as a result.12
Backgrounder
The West Side Story, Part 2: The Darkening Horizon: Jerusalem’s New City under the British Mandate
In the face of rising Jewish immigration, Jewish self-separation, and the looming end of the British Mandate, Jerusalem began to implode, placing the New City in peril.
While recovering, Nusseibeh began writing a memoir of the events that led to the fall of Palestine, and specifically Jerusalem, in early 1948. He titled it Pattern of Disaster: Personal Notes on the Fall of Palestine, and in it, he reflected on what he considered the causes for the loss of Palestine, including mistakes made during the 1936 revolution, disorganized AHC leadership, powerful foreign influence, and regional geopolitics, among other realities. Written in Arabic in the immediate aftermath of the Nakba, the memoir is considered one of the few detailed Palestinian accounts of the dramatic events of 1947 and 1948.13
Anwar Nusseibeh (center, looking at camera) with his friends while recovering from his injury, Lebanon, July 1948
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245905
In addition to highlighting British and Zionist colonial schemes, the candid memoir offered “an account of the significant [Arab] failures that contributed to the loss of Palestine,” with particular focus on the decisive battles that led to the loss of Jerusalem.14 Though he pointed out Arab failures to support Palestinian troops with arms in battles like that for the village of al-Qastal, he also highlighted the unprecedented Zionist violence.
Regarding the massacre at Deir Yasin, Nusseibeh explained that the Palestinians of the village had no reason to expect Zionist brutality:
Deir Yasin is a small Arab village, which lies roughly between Ein Karem and Jerusalem. It is surrounded by Jewish areas and its villagers had served in Jewish households and provided the Jews with cheap but good dairy products. When the troubles broke out, therefore, they did not feel impelled to take the same precautions against their trusted neighbors as other villages had done. They continued to live in amity with them.15
Zionist forces thus found the villagers still there when they seized Deir Yasin on April 9, 1948, massacring scores in the process.
Musa Budeiri, Palestinian professor at Al-Quds University, assessed the value of Nusseibeh’s memoir:
While the author points out the failures of the existing Palestinian leadership, its weaknesses, internal conflicts, and its unpreparedness for the task ahead, he documents the activities undertaken at the local level by ordinary Palestinians in their quest to defend their city, despite a lack of resources and an absence of political leadership. He presents us with a “history from below” that is devoid of the official histories of battles and campaigns that record the activities of “those in high positions and the powerful.” The heroes of Nusseibeh’s memoirs are unknown figures, both Jerusalemites and volunteers from neighboring villages who took it upon themselves to defend the Arab suburbs of Jerusalem and succeeded in preventing the Jews from taking over the entire city during the crucial period from December 1947 to May 1948.16
The devastating political events of 1948 and the amputation of his leg did not stop Nusseibeh from assuming leadership roles. In September 1948, the Arab League established the short-lived All-Palestine Government in Gaza, which had come under Egyptian control after the war. Though the new government was nominally led by Hajj Amin al-Husseini from exile, Ahmed Hilmi Abd al-Baqi was chosen as prime minister and his cabinet consisted of Palestinian political elites, most of whom were relatives or followers of al-Husseini. Nusseibeh was elected secretary of the cabinet in October.
A valiant attempt at governance, the All-Palestine Government simply could not effect significant change on the ground. In addition to the decimation and fragmentation of Palestinian society and the unmatched strength of Zionist forces, regional factors played a role. For example, on October 1, 1948, the All-Palestine Government issued a declaration of independence for the whole of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital; it also revived the military forces of Abd al-Qader al-Husseini, Jaysh al-Jihad al-Muqaddas, to liberate Palestine. The revival of the army posed a threat to King Abdullah I of Transjordan, and so, on October 3, he ordered it disbanded with the help of the British-funded and -trained Arab Legion.17
Israel’s sweeping victories in the fall of 1948 and King Abdullah I’s pushback left Palestinian leadership in Gaza largely ineffectual. The new king wished to acquire the West Bank, and any attempts at Palestinian independence were seen as an obstacle to achieving this goal. Then, in early 1949, the State of Israel signed armistice agreements with its neighbors, including Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, establishing Israel’s de facto border (the Green Line) until 1967. And in April 1950, following nearly two years of Jordanian military occupation, Jordan formally annexed the West Bank, including Arab Jerusalem. This move served as a death knell to the political ambitions of the All-Palestine Government, which was not party to any of the negotiations or agreements made between Israel and surrounding Arab states. Seeing little hope in pursuing al-Husseini’s liberationist agenda from Gaza, many Palestinian political elites acquiesced, including Nusseibeh.
Upon the annexation of the West Bank in April 1950, Nusseibeh was elected to the Jordanian parliament as a representative of Jerusalem in the first elections held after the “unification of the west and east banks of the Jordan.”18 He was elected to this position again in September 1951, and in March 1953, he was appointed to the Jordanian senate. In November 1954, he resigned his seat in the senate when he was elected to the lower house of parliament.
Throughout the 1950s, Nusseibeh thus managed to preserve his political clout and prominence in Jerusalem under Jordanian rule. He served in several ministerial positions while in parliament and the senate: in 1952 as minister of defense and development, in 1954 as minister of defense and education, and again in 1954 as minister of defense.19 Throughout these posts, he was also critical in unifying the legal systems on both sides of the river.20
Anwar Nusseibeh (center, in fez) visits a military base in Jordan while serving as defense minister, early 1950s.
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245885
Anwar Nusseibeh walking with a cane ahead of a group of Jordanian military men while serving as Jordan’s minister of defense in 1953
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245651
In 1956, while serving as Jordan’s minister of defense, Nusseibeh helped establish the Arab Constitutional Party in Amman. Set against the backdrop of the rise of popular socialist and pan-Arab movements across the region, the Arab Constitutional Party was committed to collective Arab liberation and sovereignty. In its official handbook outlining its mission, the party devoted a clause to Palestine, whose “tragedy is unique.” The clause continued: “Zionism and its offspring, Israel, must be fought with all effective means because of its danger to the Arabs, and we must strive to recover this usurped part” of Arab lands.21
One year later, King Hussein dissolved all political parties in Jordan.
Anwar Nusseibeh (center right, in a tan suit and glasses) during a visit to a girls’ school in Bethlehem, July 1954
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245798
Anwar Nusseibeh shakes hands with King Hussein of Jordan, 1950s.
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245660
Anwar Nusseibeh walks behind new King Hussein of Jordan, early 1950s.
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245841
Anwar Nusseibeh (center) walks with Jordanian military forces while serving as defense minister, 1950s.
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245823
In 1962, Nusseibeh was appointed governor of Jerusalem and guardian of the city’s holy sites, including keeping the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—a Nusseibeh family legacy that he fulfilled for three years. It was during his governorship of the city that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was officially established as a result of the first Palestinian National Council (PNC) meeting held in Jerusalem on May 28, 1964. The organization’s first chairman, Ahmad Shuqeiri, selected Nusseibeh to join the committee that would nominate the council members. In 1965, Nusseibeh resigned from the Jordanian senate, to which he had been reelected in 1963, and moved to London to serve as Jordan’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, a post he held until 1967.22
Anwar Nusseibeh, 1962
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245711
The Fall of Jerusalem and the Remainder of Nusseibeh’s Life
Nusseibeh returned to Jerusalem from London just before war broke out in early June 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Despite the war and occupation of East Jerusalem, Nusseibeh remained in the city.
Over the course of the next two decades, he assumed a range of leadership roles from Jerusalem. He joined the newly founded Higher Islamic Council, established by prominent Palestinians, including Abd al-Hamid al-Sayih, to assume the functions previously held by the Jordanian Ministry of Awqaf and the al-Aqsa Mosque Rehabilitation Committee in protecting the city’s holy sites and Islamic endowments.23
Nusseibeh (far left) in a press conference with Moshe Dayan (center, seated), June 1977
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245816
In the aftermath of Israel’s occupation of newly renamed East Jerusalem, however, Nusseibeh remained open to communication with the Israelis. This and other positions, including his closeness with the Jordanian government, set him apart from his counterparts in the PLO, and by 1970, he had parted ways with them. Indeed, Nusseibeh opposed the 1974 Arab League declaration of the PLO as “the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,” moving him further from the Palestinian nationalist movement. For Nusseibeh, Arab states’ recognition of the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinians would pave the way for their recognition of Israel. He insisted that pushing for 1967 UN Resolution 242—declaring the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” and calling for the “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict”—was the best way forward. His disagreements with the PLO and separation from the mainstream nationalist movement led many, especially in the West, to consider Nusseibeh “a leading Palestinian moderate,”24 though he never wavered in his opposition to Israel’s occupation.
Powering Jerusalem
In 1979, Nusseibeh assumed the role of chairman of the Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDECO) to prevent Israel from taking it over. According to Israeli authorities, the company was in debt and had “failed to provide adequate service either to Arab users or to approximately 15,000 Jewish homes in East Jerusalem.”25 In February 1981, the Israeli Supreme Court blocked a government bid to take over the company’s franchise “on the occupied West Bank, but it approved the takeover in East Jerusalem.” Both the government and the company “expressed satisfaction with the ruling in what had become a struggle over one of the few existing symbols of Palestinian authority in the area.”26
Israeli forces storm the East Jerusalem Electricity Company in East Jerusalem, early 1980s.
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245665
Anwar Nusseibeh cuts the ribbon at the opening of the Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDECO) in Jerusalem, early 1980s.
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245663
Nuzha Nusseibeh, Anwar’s wife, in her home in Sheikh Jarrah during an event organized to welcome Anwar back from hajj, 1984
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245635
Anwar Nusseibeh arrives to his home in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, after going on hajj to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 1984. He is greeted by family and friends for a celebration.
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245648
Regarding the court’s decision, Nusseibeh said: “I’m very pleased . . . I hope ultimately total justice will prevail. It is one company, one concession. The generators are in Jerusalem, and it would be impossible to supply the subscribers in the West Bank with electricity” if the company were to be divided.27 While a small and partial victory, Nusseibeh nonetheless managed to defend Palestinian energy sovereignty, though he would be dismayed to learn that in the 21st century, Israel continues to cut electricity to Palestinian communities in Jerusalem and elsewhere across the West Bank, citing the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) unpaid bills as the reason.
Funeral procession for Anwar Nusseibeh in al-Aqsa Mosque, 1986
Credit:
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Item 245702
Nusseibeh died of cancer in Jerusalem on November 22, 1986.28 He was laid to rest at the gates of al-Haram al-Sharif, and his funeral was attended by thousands.
Today, Anwar Nusseibeh is remembered for his long political career under British, Jordanian, and Israeli rule. A son of Jerusalem, his unwavering advocacy for Palestinian sovereignty helped shape the political landscape of the city for decades.
Sources
“Anwar Nusseibeh.” Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question. Accessed October 14, 2025.
“Anwar Nusseibeh Collection.” St. Anthony’s College. Accessed October 14, 2025.
“Anwar Nusseibeh, 74; Palestinian Moderate.” New York Times, November 24, 1986.
al-Budeiri, Musa. “Tawaqu‘at musbaqa: ma‘rakat al-Quds fi mudhakkarat Anwar Nusseibeh” [Anticipated expectations: The battle for Jerusalem in the memoir of Anwar Nusseibeh]. Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyya 12, no. 47 (Summer 2001): 2–3.
Caldwell, Johanna. “Inter-Arab Rivalry and the All-Palestine Government of 1948.” Jerusalem Quarterly, no. 62 (Spring 2015).
Claiborne, William. “Utility in East Jerusalem Faces Israeli Takeover.” Washington Post, December 31, 1979.
“Al-Ghussein, Yacoub Mohammed (1900–1947).” PASSIA. Accessed October 14, 2025.
“The Handbook of the Arab Constitutional Party, Amman, 1956.” Palestinian Museum Digital Archive. Accessed October 14, 2025.
“Jerusalem and the Hashemite Custodianship.” Department of Palestinian Affairs. Accessed October 14, 2025.
Nassar, Issam. “The Fall of Jerusalem in the Memoirs of Anwar Nusseibeh.” Jerusalem Quarterly, no. 101 (Spring 2025): 38–48.
“‘Pattern of Disaster,’ a Draft by Anwar Nusseibeh.” Palestinian Museum Digital Archive. Accessed October 14, 2025.
Shipler, David K. “Top Israeli Court Bars Takeover of an Arab Electricity Franchise.” New York Times, February 17, 1981.
Notes
1
“Anwar Nusseibeh,” Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question, accessed October 14, 2025.
2
“Anwar Nusseibeh Collection,” St. Anthony’s College, accessed October 14, 2025.
3
“Anwar Nusseibeh Collection.”
4
“Anwar Nusseibeh.” Other sources cite his graduation and return to Jerusalem as 1936. Given the length of a law degree at Cambridge and Nusseibeh’s string of appointments in Jerusalem before the 1936 Great Palestinian Revolt, it was likely 1934.
5
“Anwar Nusseibeh.”
6
“Al-Ghussein, Yacoub Mohammed (1900–1947),” PASSIA, accessed October 14, 2025.
7
“Al-Ghussein, Yacoub.”
8
Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh, born in 1946, is the cultural advisor to the president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the chancellor of UAE University. Sari Nusseibeh, born in 1949, is a professor of philosophy and former president of Al-Quds University (1995–2014).
9
“Anwar Nusseibeh.”
10
“Anwar Nusseibeh.”
11
“Anwar Nusseibeh.”
12
“Anwar Nusseibeh, 74; Palestinian Moderate,” New York Times, November 24, 1986.
13
“‘Pattern of Disaster,’ a Draft by Anwar Nusseibeh,” Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, accessed October 14, 2025.
14
Issam Nassar, “The Fall of Jerusalem in the Memoirs of Anwar Nusseibeh,” Jerusalem Quarterly, no. 101 (Spring 2025): 40.
15
Cited by Nassar, “The Fall of Jerusalem,” 46.
16
Musa al-Budeiri, “Tawaqu‘at musbaqa: ma‘rakat al-Quds fi mudhakkarat Anwar Nusseibeh” [Anticipated expectations: The battle for Jerusalem in the memoir of Anwar Nusseibeh], Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyya 12, no. 47 (Summer 2001): 2–3. Translated from Arabic by the Jerusalem Story Team.
17
For more on the All-Palestine Government and conflicting Arab interests, see Johanna Caldwell, “Inter-Arab Rivalry and the All-Palestine Government of 1948,” Jerusalem Quarterly, no. 62 (Spring 2015).
18
“Anwar Nusseibeh.”
19
al-Budeiri, “Tawaqu‘at musbaqa,” 1.
20
“Anwar Nusseibeh.”
21
“The Handbook of the Arab Constitutional Party, Amman, 1956,” Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, accessed October 14, 2025.
22
“Anwar Nusseibeh.”
23
For more about Hashemite custodianship of Jerusalem’s holy sites, including through the al-Aqsa Mosque Rehabilitation Committee, see “Jerusalem and the Hashemite Custodianship,” Department of Palestinian Affairs, accessed October 14, 2025.
24
“Anwar Nusseibeh, 74.”
25
William Claiborne, “Utility in East Jerusalem Faces Israeli Takeover,” Washington Post, December 31, 1979.
26
David K. Shipler, “Top Israeli Court Bars Takeover of an Arab Electricity Franchise,” New York Times, February 17, 1981.
27
Shipler, “Top Israeli Court Bars Takeover.”
28
“Anwar Nusseibeh, 74.”