Husayn al-Khalidi

Hussein Fakhri Khalidi (, , 17 January 1895 – 6 February 1962) was a Palestinian politician and physician. He served as mayor of Jerusalem from 1935 to 1937, minister of health of Palestine in 1948, minister of foreign affairs of Jordan from 1953 to 1954 and again in 1956 and was the 13th Prime Minister of Jordan in 1957.

Early life Khalidi served as a doctor in the Ottoman Army during World War I, and was injured three times. He subsequently served for over a decade as a member of Jerusalem's Health Department and as an Inspector of Jerusalem's Water Department.

Political career In September 1934, Kalidi sought election as both as Mayor of Jerusalem and for Raghib al-Nashashibi's seat on the City Council. He won the latter, and was subsequently appointed to the former on 21 January 1935, days after an appeal of the election results by Nashashibi was rejected by the Jerusalem District Court. Daniel Auster and Yacoub Farradj became Deputy Mayors.

On 23 June 1935 Khalidi founded the Reform Party and was subsequently the party's representative to the Arab Higher Committee. thumb al-Khalidi, seated in front, together with the four other deportees in Seychelles, 1938.

On 1 October 1937, amid the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, the British Mandate administration outlawed the AHC and several Arab political parties and arrested a number of Arab political leaders. The Reform Party was dissolved and Khalidi was one of the leaders arrested. He was removed as mayor of Jerusalem and deported to the Seychelles, together with four other Arab nationalist political leaders.

Khalidi returned to Mandatory Palestine in November 1942 and joined the reformed Arab Higher Committee in 1945, becoming its secretary in 1946. He was a member of the short-lived All-Palestine Government established under Egypt's patronage in Gaza in September 1948. He published a book of his memoirs in the same year, while exiled in Beirut. He prospered under Jordanian rule, he was custodian and supervisor of the Haram al-Sharif in 1951, became a cabinet minister (for Foreign Affairs) and briefly prime minister in 1957. In 1958, he wrote a book in English entitled Arab Exodus, though it has never been published. He was the brother of Ismail Khalidi and the uncle of Rashid Khalidi and Raja Khalidi.