Background
Aref al-Dajani was born in Jerusalem in 1856.
Aref al-Dajani was born in Jerusalem in 1856.
The Jerusalem Congress convened on 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."
He envisaged Palestine as part of an independent Syrian state governed by Faisal of the Hashemite family. “It is impossible for us to make an understanding with them 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. Al-Dajani was branded a conspirator by E. Quigley, assistant director of Public Security during the British Mandate.
Together with Raghib al-Nashashibi, in the early 1920s he led the opposition before splitting in 1926.
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 was a member of the Arab Executive until 1922.
