Sabri Jiryis ( ar, صبري جريس, , he, סברי ג'ריס; born in 1938), also known as Sabri Jaris, Sabri Geries or Sabri Jirais, is a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

Arab Israeli The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...

writer and lawyer, a graduate of the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

law faculty, and prominent Palestinian activist. In 1966, the first edition of his book ''The Arabs in Israel'' was published in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Biography

Jiryis was born in 1938. in the

Palestinian Christian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

town of

Fassuta Fassouta ( ar, فسوطة, he, פַסּוּטָה ) is a local council on the northwestern slopes of Mount Meron in the Northern District of Israel, south of the Lebanese border. In it had a population of , nearly all of whom are Melkite Chri ...

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...

(now in northern

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Arrest in Israel

He was given an "Administrative House Arrest" on 25 April 1969. The order was given by the Chief of the Northern Command,

David Elazar David "Dado" Elazar ( he, דוד אלעזר; 27 August 1925 – 15 April 1976) was the ninth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), serving in that capacity from 1972 to 1974. He was forced to resign in the aftermath of the Yom Kippu ...

and based on Emergency Regulations. According to this order Sabri Jiryis was to: *not live outside the city limits of

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

, *not change home within Haifa without police permission, *not leave the city of Haifa without police permission, *report to the police every day at 15.45, *stay in his home from one hour before sunset until dawn. 20 February 1970 he was jailed on another Administrative regulation. In March 1970, Jiryis was one of the initiators of a hunger strike by Palestinian administrative detainees, which attracted wide support, including demonstrations in Israel and across the world. He was allowed to leave

later in 1970, and moved to

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, Lebanon, where he became director of the Palestine Research Centre.

PLO activism

About 1975,

Yasser Arafat Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...

sent Sabri Jiryis together with

Issam Sartawi Issam Sartawi ( ar, عصام السرطاوي; 1935 – April 10, 1983) was a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He was assassinated on April 10, 1983. Medical background Issam Sartawi attended university in Baghdad, gra ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

to open an office to represent the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...

(PLO). These two held a series of meetings, among others with people prominent in American Jewish groups in New York and Washington. Rabbi Max Ticktin and

Arthur Waskow Arthur Ocean Waskow (born Arthur I. Waskow; 1933) is an American author, political activist, and rabbi associated with the Jewish Renewal movement. Education and early career Waskow was born in Baltimore, Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland. He receiv ...

(both members of "Breira") were among five American Jews at the Washington meeting. According to some sources, Jiryis and Sartawi were within a few hours of holding a press conference to announce the establishment of their new office. However,

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...

, then the Secretary of State, working in coordination with

Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...

, then the Israeli Prime Minister, sent the FBI to the Capitol Hilton Hotel to deport Jiryis and Sartawi. About the same time, Israeli doves General

Mattityahu Peled Mattityahu "Matti" Peled ( he, מתתיהו "מתי" פלד, born Mattityahu Ifland on 20 July 1923, died 10 March 1995) was a well-known Israeli public figure who was at various periods of his life a professional military man who reached the ran ...

Uri Avnery Uri Avnery ( he, אורי אבנרי, also transliterated Uri Avneri; 10 September 1923 – 20 August 2018) was an Israeli writer, politician, and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. A member of the Irgun as a teenager, Avnery sat for two ...

and Arie Eliav had been meeting for months in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, France, with Jiryis and Sartawi. In 1977, Jiryis, as a member of the

Palestinian National Council The Palestinian National Council (PNC) ( ar, المجلس الوطني الفلسطيني, "'Almajlis Alwataniu Alfilastiniu"') is the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and elects the PLO Executive Committee, which ...

, wrote:

''The Palestinians may, in certain circumstances, be ready to seek a settlement in the area to which Israel is a party. But they are not prepared to conclude an agreement recognizing the legitimacy of Zionism; no Palestinian Arab can ever accept as legitimate, a doctrine that he should be excluded from most parts of his homeland, because he is a Muslim Arab or a Christian Arab, while anyone of the Jewish faith from anywhere in the world is entitled to settle there. Realism may require recognition of the existence of a Jewish state in Palestine and that this fact be taken into account in seeking a settlement. But this can never mean approving the expansionist and exclusivist tendencies of Zionism.'' The Journal of Palestine Studies, 1977.

During the

1982 Lebanon War The 1982 Lebanon War, dubbed Operation Peace for Galilee ( he, מבצע שלום הגליל, or מבצע של"ג ''Mivtsa Shlom HaGalil'' or ''Mivtsa Sheleg'') by the Israeli government, later known in Israel as the Lebanon War or the First L ...

, the

Palestine Research Centre The Palestine Research Center (PRC) was an institute established in Beirut in 1965 to gather, conserve and analyse books and materials relating to Palestine, its culture and modern history, and to the political struggles of the Palestinian people. ...

's historical archives were seized by occupying Israeli forces, but were returned as part of the November 1983 prisoner exchange with the PLO. In February 1983, a saboteur's bomb destroyed the centre; among those killed was Jiryis's wife. Jiryis moved on to

Nicosia Nicosia ( ; el, Λευκωσία, Lefkosía ; tr, Lefkoşa ; hy, Նիկոսիա, romanized: ''Nikosia''; Cypriot Arabic: Nikusiya) is the largest city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaor ...

, Cyprus, in July 1983. In 1995, after the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993;

, he returned to Israel.

2005 arrest of his brother

On 7 January 2006, it became known that his brother, Jiryis Jiryis, age 57, a resident of the Christian village of

, had been arrested on 12 December 2005. The arrest was kept secret by the Israeli military censor until an

Acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

municipal court judge accepted

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...

's request to lift the ban on publication of the affair. The

Shin Bet The Israel Security Agency (ISA; he, שֵׁירוּת הַבִּיטָּחוֹן הַכְּלָלִי; ''Sherut ha-Bitaẖon haKlali''; "the General Security Service"; ar, جهاز الأمن العام), better known by the acronym Shabak ( he, ...

security service and the police alleged that Jiryis Jiryis had been recruited by Iranian intelligence during a stay in Cyprus. Sabri Jiryis, acting as his brothers attorney, claimed that the suspicions were baseless. Jiryis said the security services had been tracking his brother for nine months, and that during his interrogation, he was presented with a recording of a phone call during which his brother was heard rejecting the Iranian agents' offer of assistance. "'My brother is a very secular man, affiliated with the

PLO The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and s ...

's centrist stream, who believes in peace talks and a two-state solution for two nations,' he told ''Haaretz'', and added: "What they are trying to ascribe to him contradicts his political outlook." "During the detention, the police dropped the spy charges initially ascribed to him" Sabri Jiryis added further, and he believed the additional suspicions against his brother would be refuted "because the police have no evidence on the matter."

Bibliography

*Sabri Jiryis:
The Arabs in Israel
' 1969, pp. 1–32 *Sabri Jiryis: ''

The Arabs in Israel ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' 1st American edition 1976 (updated from the 1966 ed.) With a foreword by

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

. (First English edition; Beirut, Institute for Palestine Studies, 1968) :Note: for the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

translations of this book his name his given as Sabri Geries. *Sabri Jiryis: ''Democratic Freedoms in Israel.'' Beirut, 1972. (Institute for Palestine Studies, Monograph Series No. 30)

Bibliography, articles (partial)

*Jiryis, Sabri: ''Recent

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

Legislation and the Arabs in Israel'', in ''

Journal of Palestine Studies The ''Journal of Palestine Studies (JPS)'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1971. It is published by Taylor and Francis on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies, having previously been published by the University ...

'', 1, no. 1 (Aut. 1971): 53-67. *Jiryis, Sabri: ''The Legal Structure for the Expropriation and Absorption of Arab Lands in Israel'', in ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', 2, no. 4 (Sum. 1973): 82-104. *Jiryis, Sabri: ''No Peace in Israel'', interview in ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', 4, no. 4 (Sum. 1975): 26-40. *Jiryis, Sabri: ''On Political Settlement in the Middle East: The Palestinian Dimension'' in ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', 7, no. 1 (Aut. 1977): 3-25. *Jiryis, Sabri: ''Israeli Rejectionism'' in ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', 8, no. 1 (Aut. 1978): 61-84. *Jiryis, Sabri: ''The Arab World at the Crossroads: The Opposition to

Sadat Sadat ( ar, سادات) is a suffix, which is given to families believed to be descendants of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. In Iran, after the revolution, it is mandatory to mention "Seyed" or "Sadat" in the names of or whose descent from Muham ...

'', in ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', 7, no. 2 (Win. 1978): 26-61. *Jiryis, Sabri: ''The Arabs in Israel, 1973-79'', in ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', 8, no. 4 (Sum. 1979): 31-56. *Jiryis, Sabri: ''Secrets of State: An Analysis of the Diaries of

Moshe Sharett Moshe Sharett ( he, משה שרת, born Moshe Chertok (Hebrew: )‎ 15 October 1894 – 7 July 1965) was a Russian-born Israeli politician who served as Israel's second prime minister from 1954 to 1955. A member of Mapai, Sharett's term was b ...

'', in ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', 10, no. 1 (Aut. 1980): 35-57. *Jiryis, Sabri: ''Domination by the Law'', in ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', 11, no. 1 (Aut. 1981): 67-92. *Jiryis, Sabri: ''Forty Years since the Seizure of Palestine'', in ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', 18, no. 1 (Aut. 1988): 83-95.

References

External links

The PLO is his life's work
By Yair Ettinger in

17/11/2004
Christian-Arab activists face minefield of identity
By Yoav Stern and Jack Khoury in Haaretz, 25/03/2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Jiryis, Sabri 1938 births Israeli lawyers Living people Arab citizens of Israel Palestinian activists Palestinian political writers Israeli political writers