Aref al-Dajani
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Aref Basha al-Dajani is a Palestinian politician. He was born in Jerusalem in 1856 and became mayor of Jerusalem during World War I. In 1918, he became a representative to the Administrative Committee of the Muslim-Christian Association (MCA). Dajani became president of the MCA in Jerusalem and later the MCA's overall president. Under his presidency he initiated the First Palestinian National Congress in Jerusalem (1919), demanding an independent Palestinian government in federation with Syria and rejecting Zionist political claims.
Dajani was later elected vice president of the congress' Executive Committee and became a leader of the movement "Palestine for the Palestinians", which emerged in 1919 and he was a member of the Arab Executive until 1922; Together with Raghib al-Nashashibi, in the early 1920s he led the opposition before splitting in 1926.
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| Preceded by military governor |
Mayor of Jerusalem 1917–1918 |
Succeeded by Musa al-Husayni |
