Sabri Jiryis

Sabri Jiryis was born in 1938 in Fassuta

Jiryis was born in 1938 in Fassuta to an Arab Christian family. He attended the Terra Santa school in Nazareth.

He studied law at the Hebrew University, where he was active in the Arab students committee. He was among the founders and leaders of the Al-Ard movement, which was later outlawed. After his studies he moved to Haifa and worked at a law firm.

In 1966 he published The Arabs in Israel, a study of the situation of Arab citizens that was translated into several languages. Between 1964 and 1970 he was held in administrative detention 7 times and placed under restrictions, including house arrest in Haifa in 1969. In 1970 he left Israel for Beirut.

In Lebanon he became active in the PLO and worked at its research center, which he headed from 1978. He was a member of the Palestinian National Council and advised Yasser Arafat on Israel. In February 1983 a car bomb hit the center and killed his wife, Hani Shahin.

He then lived in Tunis and Nicosia, where he continued to run the center. After the Oslo Accords he returned to live in Israel. In 2006 he represented his brother Jiryis Jiryis in court.