Amin al-Majaj

Who was Amin al-Majaj?

Dr Amin Saleh Majaj was a titular mayor of Jerusalem, formerly the neighborhoods of East Jerusalem which were occupied and annexed by Jordan during the years 1949-1967, and later occupied and annexed by Israel in the six-day war.

Al-Majaj held the position from 1994 to 1998 after Mayor Ruhi al-Khatib died on 5 July 1994. A year later Jordanian businessman Zaki Al-Ghul was selected as successor to this position that does not entail direct responsibility for municipal services. The position is not recognized by Israel. AMIN MAJAJ was a brilliant physician and a devoted public servant who enjoyed a wide circle of friends in Britain as well as in the Arab world. In the late Forties and Fiftiese he made detailed researches into malnutrition and its attendant diseases among children in the Palestinian refugee camps, and devised treatments for them.

Born in Ramallah in 1921 to a well known Christian family that belonged to the Anglican Episcopalian Church, Majaj was educated at St George's High School in Jerusalem, going on to the American University of Beirut in 1945 and to London University, where he studied medicine, specialising in child health.