Naseer H. Aruri Papers

Naseer H. Aruri (Arabic: نصير عاروري‎‎, 7 January 1934 – 10 February 2015) was an internationally recognized scholar-activist and expert on Middle East politics, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and human rights. He was born in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine in 1934. Aruri immigrated to the United States in 1954 in order to pursue a college education. He received his B.A. in History from AIC and his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Aruri served as Professor of Political Science at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth for 33 years,from 1965-1998, retiring as Chancellor Professor. Naseer Aruri was elected to three consecutive terms as a member of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International, USA (1984-1990). He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the New York-based Human Rights Watch/Middle East, 1990-1992. Aruri was a Founding Member of the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR), Cairo and Geneva in 1982 and a member of the editorial board of Third World Quarterly (London). He was a key participant in the drafting of the Arab Covenant of Human Rights under the auspices of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Justice, in Siracusa, Italy in December 1986. He was a member of the Independent Palestinian Commission for the Protection of Citizens Rights (Ramallah) since its inception in January 1994, and a member of the Advisory Board of Directors of the International Institute for Criminal Investigations in The Hague. Aruri spoke at the United Nations on several occasions and delivered the keynote address on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights at the invitation of the United Nations Staff Union – U.N. Headquarters, New York, on December 9, 1988. He testified as an “expert witness” in US Federal and Canadian Courts in cases dealing with political asylum and deportation. Naseer Aruri was a former member of the Palestinian National Council, the parliament-in-exile of the Palestinian people and served on the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He was a founding member and twice served as President of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG). He was also a founding member and former Chair of the Board of Directors of the Trans-Arab Research Institute and a member of the Board of Directors of the Jerusalem Fund and its Palestine Center Committee. Naseer Aruri presented at hundreds of universities and scholarly conferences and frequently appeared as a guest on television news programs throughout the world, including PBS News Hour, CNN Crossfire, CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight (Money line), ABC News, C-SPAN, and Al Jazeera, and on radio for NPR, Pacifica Radio, the BBC, Radio Monte Carlo, the Voice of America and Alternative Radio. Naseer Aruri published widely in newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals. He is the author/editor of numerous books, chiefly on the subject of American foreign policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Aruri’s many publications include The Palestinian Resistance to Israeli Occupation (AAUG Press 1970), Enemy of the Sun: Poems of Palestinian Resistance, with Edmund Ghareeb (Drum and Spear Press 1970), and more. His book Dishonest Broker: the U.S. Role in Israel and Palestine (South End Press 2003) has also been translated into Arabic, Spanish and Italian. He is the co-author (with the late Professor Samih Farsoun) of Palestine and the Palestinians: A Social and Political History. Second Edition, Westview Press (2006). Aruri remained hopeful that one day his birthplace will be composed of a single state, where Palestinians (Muslim and Christian), and Israeli Jews can live together based upon equality, liberty and dignity for all its citizens. Aruri and his wife Joyce (Thomas) married in 1961. They have four children and thirteen grandchildren. Aruri died in 2015 at the age of 81.