M. S. Daoudi

Mohammed Shihad Dajani Daoudi (; born March 19, 1946) is a Palestinian professor and peace activist. Dajani gained international recognition for his work in helping to raise awareness concerning the Holocaust through a variety of media. Dajani has also been active in forming relationships with Jewish and Christian religious leaders and peace activists to spread the Wasatia message of understanding, tolerance, coexistence and brotherhood. Dajani is tackling the ideological roots of extremism. In 2014, he became the center of a controversy when he led a group of students from Al-Quds University to Auschwitz.

Early life Dajani was born to one of Jerusalem's historic Arab families. The honorific "Daoudi" was added to the family name in 1529 when Suleiman the Magnificent designated an ancestor keeper of the Tomb of King David on Mount Zion. His family fled to Egypt when Israel declared its independence in 1948, but returned to the Old City of Jerusalem the following year (then under Jordanian rule). The trip to Auschwitz was part of a joint project with the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, whose purpose was to teach Palestinian and Israeli students about the "suffering that has helped shape the historical consciousness of the other side". (For their part, the Israeli students visited the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem. Dajani was vilified as a "traitor" and "collaborator" by some Palestinians. Al-Quds University issued a statement saying Dajani and the students were acting in a "personal capacity",

In January 2015, Dajani's car was set on fire and destroyed in front of his home. Dajani told The Times of Israel that the attack saddened him more than it frightened him.

In September 2016, Dajani told Haaretz he was moving back to Jerusalem and that he was "hoping and thinking about organizing" another trip to Auschwitz, but he didn't want the details published.