Who was Faisal Husseini?
Faisal Husseini was the PLO representative in Jerusalem and a Palestinian Authority (PA) minister, born in Baghdad in 1940. For centuries, the Husseinis have been landowners, mayors and Islamic leaders. His grandfather, Musa Qassem Hussein, led Palestinian opposition to the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. His uncle Haj Amin was the notorious Grand Mufti of Jerusalem whose agitations against British mandatory rule and Jewish immigration sparked the Arab riots of 1936-1939. His father died in the war that ended in Israel’s founding in 1948. He met Yasser Arafat (his distant cousin) in Egypt and joined his Fatah and the PLO during the early years. At that time, Israel did not control the disputed Judea-Samaria-Gaza territories, and not a single Jewish settlement existed in those areas; the “Palestine” that Husseini and the PLO were seeking to “liberate” was pre-1967 Israel. Husseini served with PLO forces in Syria, where he was an explosives expert and later boasted that he person
