Summary
Palestinian lawyer and national-movement leader (born 1908) who founded al-Najjada in Jaffa, represented the refugees at the 1949 Lausanne Conference, and returned to Nazareth with Israel’s consent after almost two years of exile; his book, published in Nazareth after his return, is one of the early Nakba works Manna reviews (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.51).
Details
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Al-Hawwari joined the opposition to the mufti and founded the al-Najjada (Helpers) movement in Jaffa, leading it until he left the movement during the early events of the war (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.51).
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Eliyahu Sasson told a meeting with Ben-Gurion that al-Hawwari kept Jaffa quiet until he was obliged to leave in December 1947, adding that “disturbances started” after his departure — evidence, in Manna’s presentation, of Jewish-side connections with some Jaffa leaders (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.54).
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His book is an elegant indictment of the mufti, the Arab countries and their leaders, raining accusations on the Jaysh al-Inqadh under Fauzi al-Qawuqji; it concludes the Palestinian people, particularly the refugees, paid a dear price, poses why the refugees left their homes and gives at least ten reasons, directing its arrows at several Arab parties (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.51-52).
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He does not neglect Israel’s role entirely: he mentions that following the first cease-fire the Israeli army carried out killings, plundered property and attacked residents of villages and cities including Lydda, Ramla, Bisan, Majdal, al-Tira, Ijzim, ‘Ayn Ghazal, Lubya, Saffuriyya and al-Mujaydil (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.52).
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In the Introduction, Manna lists al-Hawwari among the communist rivals allowed back after the early 1949 elections, with his extended family (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.26).
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As a lawyer in the 1950s al-Hawwari represented eight Sha’b villagers in the Supreme Court case in which five were recognised as inhabitants, and the Al-Jalama plaintiffs whose 1952–53 return order the kibbutz and army defeated by blowing up their houses (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.170, 190-191).
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Moshe Sasson’s letter to Sharett, as Manna reports it, names al-Hawwari as an Arab leader who expressed support for the Libya emigration idea and was willing personally to immigrate there; al-Hawwari also published a withering critique in al-Rabita of Shaykh Tahir al-Tabari’s letter supporting Arab migration (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.182).
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In May 1951 the residents of Iqrit and Kfar Bir’im chose al-Hawwari to represent their joint Supreme Court case for return; in Manna’s account the court did not come to the villagers’ aid (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.200).
Related pages
Nakba and Survival, Nazareth, Jaffa, Arab Liberation Army, Fauzi al-Qawuqji