Faisal Husseini: His Legacy or Principle and Pragmatism Lives On

posted on: May 30, 2026

By: Hady Amr / Arab America Contributing Writer

May 31 marks 25 years since the passing of Palestinian leader Faisal Husseini at the early age of 61. There is no telling how Israel-Palestinian history would have evolved had he lived—but I can only assume it would have been better. Fewer deaths. Better lives. And possibly we’d even be closer to justice and peace.

I was privileged to have met him a decade earlier, during the period when he was co-leading the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid peace talks in 1990. He was a principled, pragmatic, and respected leader who believed in both Palestinian freedom and coexistence, not only for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Jerusalem but also across the entire Palestinian nation.

He was also a frequent interlocuter for international diplomats and played a pivotal role in establishing an official Palestinian presence in East Jerusalem in his family property, which they named ‘Orient House,’ where I was privileged to participate in a number of meetings with him, including as part of a delegation of Arab American elected officials who were there in 1996 to observe the first democratic Palestinian elections.

He is also one of the few Palestinians to have been buried at Al Aqsa mosque compound in decades, and where I was later able to pray over his grave. Just a few months after his passing, in August 2001, Israel shuttered Orient House, and the downward spiral in Israeli-Palestinian relations, with international acquiescence, accelerated. It is not only the Palestinian people who have suffered his loss, but the world and indeed justice itself have suffered as well. As I approach my own 60th birthday, I am inspired by the dignity, wisdom, principle, and perseverance with which he approached his own people’s struggle for freedom, equality, and coexistence.

He is survived not only by his children, but by a generation of principled, pragmatic Palestinians who yearn for freedom, peace, and equality. They are there if you look for them—in civil society, in community institutions, in business, and in governance. If only the world—and Israel—would embrace them for the true leaders they are.

To God do we belong, and to him we return.

Hady Amr previously served as U.S. Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs, and Deputy Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Follow him on @HadyAmr.

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