Summary
The Syrian-born boilermaker, fervent Muslim and Arab nationalist, who was a founder of the Palestine Arab Workers Society in 1925 and worked behind the scenes for many years as one of the most important leaders of the young Palestinian Arab labor movement (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 1564-1570).
Details
- Haymur originally came from what had become, after the First World War, the separate French-ruled state of Syria, and had previously been employed on the Hijaz Railway; he was a boilermaker by trade, with a thin face and a wispy beard, who continued to dress in the style of his native region — a long overcoat over pants and a cloak decorated in the shami (“Syrian”) style — and was a man of few words who preferred to avoid the limelight (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 1566; Chapter 3 note 62).
- With his brother ‘Id Salim Haymur and Sa’id Qawwas he had been involved for some years in the mutual aid (benevolent) society for Arab railway workers, refraining from any association with Jews; toward the beginning of 1925 that group, building on the benevolent society and on resentment about Hebrew Labour, sought an independent, purely Arab railway workers’ organisation, organising the end-of-February 1925 meeting of some 200 Haifa railwaymen that elected a committee to represent their interests (lines 1562-1568).
- He was in the Palestine Arab Workers Society’s leadership as one of those drawn from the old mutual aid society group, as against the leaders drawn from the former joint-union negotiators (line 1570).
Related pages
Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, Palestine Arab Workers Society, Sa’id Qawwas, Palestine Railways, Haifa