Akram Zuaiter (1909–1996) (Arabic: أكرم زعيتر ; also Romanized as Akram Zu'ayter, among other spellings) was a Palestinian activist, publicist, orator, diplomat, and educator who contributed to the Arab nationalist movement in Mandatory Palestine.[1] [2] [3]
He was born in Nablus and was the son of an Opposition politician.[4] He attended the American University of Beirut. He worked for the major Palestinian newspapers Mir'at al-Sharq and al-Hayat and also taught at al-Najah school.
He was a founding member of the Istiqlal Party and played an instrumental role in the development of nationalism in Palestine during the 1930s.[5] [6] He authored the text Ta'rikhuna ("Our History") in 1935. He also supported transnational Arab nationalist organizing in Syria and Iraq, coordinating with the League of Pan-Arab Action and Nadi al-Muthanna in each country respectively. In 1941 he participated in the revolt in Iraq led by Rashid Ali al-Kaylani. He also lectured at the Teachers' Training College in Baghdad.
Following the Nakba, Zuaiter served in the Jordanian government as ambassador to Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and Lebanon, followed by a year as Jordanian foreign minister (1966) and then in the Jordanian Upper House of Parliament and as chief of the Royal Court.
He published the text al-Qadiyya al-Filastiniyya ("The Palestine Cause") in 1956. In 1979, his papers were published as Watha'iq al-Haraka al-Wataniyya al-Filastiniyya 1918–1939 ("Documents on the Palestinian National Movement 1918–1939"), edited by Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout, and his diaries were published in 1980.[7]
Zuaiter espoused a nationalist philosophy of opposition to British administration of Palestine, taking a "hard line" that resulted in his arrest and detention by the British colonial government in 1931 and 1936. He was a staunch Arab nationalist and advocate of pan-Arabism.[8]