Notable Palestinians — Regionally Recognized

Browse notable Palestinians matching Regionally Recognized. Discover individuals who shaped Palestinian history across literature, science, politics, arts, and sport.

Notable Palestinians — Regionally Recognized

Fadwa Tuqan (1917–2003) — Fadwa Tuqan, often called "the Poet of Palestine," was among the most important Arab women poets of…
Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (1920–1994) — Jabra Ibrahim Jabra was a Palestinian novelist, poet, critic, painter, and translator, one of the mo…
Abdul Hameed Shoman (1888–1974) — Abdul Hameed Shoman was born around 1888 in the village of Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem, into a m…
Emile Habibi (1922–1996) — Emile Habibi was a Palestinian novelist and politician who remained inside the borders of the new st…
Ismail Shammout (1930–2006) — Ismail Shammout (1930-2006), born in Lydda, is widely considered the founding father of contemporary…
Samih al-Qasim (1939–2014) — Samih al-Qasim was one of the foremost poets of Palestinian resistance, a writer whose stature withi…
Sliman Mansour (1947–present) — Sliman Mansour (born 1947 in Birzeit) is one of the most renowned and influential modern Palestinian…
Issa El-Issa (1878–1950) — Issa Daoud El-Issa (1878-1950) was a Palestinian journalist, poet, and editor widely regarded as one…
Ibrahim Tuqan (1905–1941) — Ibrahim Tuqan was a pioneering Palestinian nationalist poet of the late Ottoman and British Mandate…
Mourid Barghouti (1944–2021) — Mourid Barghouti was a Palestinian poet and memoirist whose work gave one of the most refined litera…
Tawfiq Canaan (1882–1964) — Tawfiq Canaan was a pioneering Palestinian physician, medical researcher, and ethnographer whose car…
May Ziadeh (1886–1941) — May Ziadeh (born Marie Elias Ziadeh, 11 February 1886, Nazareth) was a poet, essayist, translator, o…
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam (1882–1935) — Izz ad-Din al-Qassam was a Muslim preacher, religious teacher and social reformer whose name became…
Ibrahim Abu-Lughod (1929–2001) — Ibrahim Abu-Lughod was born in Jaffa in 1929 into a family that ran a metal foundry, and as a youth…
Mohammad Bakri (1953–2025) — Mohammad Bakri is one of the most accomplished and politically significant Palestinian actors and fi…
Abd al-Qader al-Husseini (1907–1948) — Abd al-Qader al-Husseini was born in 1907 into the eminent Husseini family of Jerusalem, one of the…
Aref al-Aref (1892–1973) — Aref al-Aref was a Palestinian journalist, historian, administrator and civic leader whose long care…
Nabil Anani (1943–present) — Nabil Anani (born 1943 in Latroun) is one of the key founders of the contemporary Palestinian art mo…
Sabih al-Masri (1937–present) — Sabih Taher Darwish al-Masri was born in 1937 in Nablus, then in Mandatory Palestine, and is a cousi…
Abdul Majeed Shoman (1912–2005) — Abdul Majeed Shoman was born in 1912 in Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem, the eldest son of Abdul Ham…
Najib Nassar (1865–1948) — Najib Nassar (1865-1948) was a pioneering Palestinian journalist, editor, and political thinker, bes…
Rashid Masharawi (1962–present) — Rashid Masharawi is one of the most important Palestinian filmmakers working from within the occupie…
Hisham Sharabi (1927–2005) — Hisham Bashir Sharabi was born in Jaffa in 1927 and educated at the American University of Beirut, w…
Mai Masri (1959–present) — Mai Masri is one of the foremost Palestinian documentary filmmakers and a pioneer in chronicling the…
Nur Masalha (1957–present) — Nur Masalha is a Palestinian historian and academic born in the Galilee, a Palestinian citizen of Is…
Mazin Qumsiyeh (1957–present) — Mazin Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian geneticist, zoologist, and conservation biologist who built an inter…
Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad) (1935–1988) — Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir, universally known by his nom de guerre Abu Jihad, was a co-founder of Fatah…
Mona Saudi (1945–2022) — Mona Saudi was a leading Arab sculptor of Palestinian heritage whose serene, monumental works in sto…
Khalil al-Sakakini (1878–1953) — Khalil al-Sakakini was born in Jerusalem in 1878 into a Palestinian Christian Orthodox family in the…
Yousef Beidas (1912–1968) — Yousef Beidas was a Palestinian banker who built Intra Bank into the largest financial institution i…
Salman Abu Sitta (1937–present) — Salman Abu Sitta was born in 1937 in the Beersheba district of southern Palestine, on land that bore…
Hind al-Husseini (1916–1994) — Hind al-Husseini was a Palestinian educator and humanitarian whose response to one of the darkest mo…
Haidar Abdel-Shafi (1919–2007) — Haidar Abdel-Shafi was a physician, founding figure of Palestinian civil and political life in Gaza,…
Zahi Khouri (1938–present) — Zahi W. Khouri was born in 1938 into a Palestinian Christian family in Jaffa, then in Mandatory Pale…
Vera Tamari (1945–present) — Vera Tamari (born 1945 in Jerusalem) is a pioneering Palestinian ceramicist, installation artist, ar…
Ekrima Sa'id Sabri (1939–present) — Ekrima Sa'id Sabri is a Palestinian Islamic scholar and cleric who served as Grand Mufti of Jerusale…
Faisal Husseini (1940–2001) — Faisal Abd al-Qadir al-Husseini was the foremost Palestinian leader of East Jerusalem and a pivotal…
Khalil Raad (1854–1957) — Khalil Raad (1854–1957) was a pioneering photographer widely regarded as the first Arab photographer…
Samih Toukan (1969–present) — Samih Toukan was born on February 27, 1969, into a Palestinian family originally from Nablus that ha…
Fayez Sayegh (1922–1980) — Fayez Sayegh was a Palestinian scholar, political theorist, and diplomat who became one of the most…
Salim Tamari (1945–present) — Salim Tamari is a Palestinian sociologist and one of the foremost social historians of late Ottoman…
Muhammad Izzat Darwaza (1888–1984) — Muhammad Izzat Darwaza was born in 1888 into a middle-class Sunni Muslim merchant family in Nablus,…
Musa Kazim al-Husseini (1853–1934) — Musa Kazim Pasha al-Husseini was the venerable elder statesman of the early Palestinian national mov…
Joseph Massad (1963–present) — Joseph Andoni Massad is a Palestinian scholar born in Amman, Jordan, in 1963. He completed his under…
Tamam Al-Akhal (1935–2024) — Tamam Al-Akhal (born 1935 in Jaffa) is one of the first formally trained Palestinian women artists a…
Mohammed Barakat (1984–2024) — Mohammed Barakat, known throughout Gaza as the "Legend of Khan Younis," was one of the most prolific…
Mahmoud Abu Zuluf — Mahmoud Abu Zuluf (also transliterated Abu-Zalaf) was one of the towering figures of the modern Pale…
Tawfiq Sayigh (1923–1971) — Tawfiq Sayigh was a Palestinian poet, translator, and editor regarded as one of the most original an…
Kamal Aljafari (1972–present) — Kamal Aljafari is a Palestinian filmmaker and artist whose experimental, archive-driven cinema has r…
Fatima Bernawi (1939–2021) — Fatima Bernawi was born in 1939 in Jerusalem's African Quarter — the historic neighbourhood beside A…
Wasif Jawhariyyeh (1897–1972) — Wasif Jawhariyyeh, born in Jerusalem in 1897, was a Palestinian oud player, composer, poet, and the…
Najwa Najjar (1973–present) — Najwa Najjar is a Palestinian filmmaker whose feature dramas and documentaries have become fixtures…
Raed Salah (1958–present) — Sheikh Raed Salah is a Palestinian Islamic leader and the most prominent figure of the Islamic Movem…
Sameh Zoabi (1975–present) — Sameh Zoabi is a Palestinian filmmaker celebrated for bringing satire and comedy to the depiction of…
Khalil Beidas (1874–1949) — Khalil Beidas was a Palestinian scholar, educator, translator, and novelist often credited as a fath…
Maha Haj (1970–present) — Maha Haj is a Palestinian filmmaker and screenwriter whose understated, finely observed dramas have…
Dalal Abu Amneh (1983–present) — Dalal Abu Amneh, born in 1983 in Nazareth, is a Palestinian singer, producer, and neuroscientist who…
Zulaykha al-Shihabi (1903–1992) — Zulaykha al-Shihabi (1903-1992) was a pioneer of the Palestinian women's movement and one of the for…
Najati Sidqi (1905–1979) — Muhammad Najati Sidqi (1905-1979) was a Palestinian journalist, literary critic, translator, and act…
Ahmad Samih al-Khalidi (1896–1951) — Ahmad Samih al-Khalidi was born in 1896 in Jerusalem into the prominent al-Khalidi family, one of th…
Yousef Khasho (1927–1996) — Yousef Khasho, born in Jerusalem in 1927, was the most ambitious symphonic composer of the Palestini…
Tawfik Abu Wael (1976–present) — Tawfik Abu Wael is a Palestinian filmmaker known for austere, intense dramas that probe family, repr…
Theodosios (Atallah Hanna) (1965–present) — Archbishop Theodosios, widely known as Atallah Hanna, is a Palestinian Greek Orthodox clergyman who…
Nicola Saig (1863–1942) — Nicola Saig (1863-1942) was a Jerusalem-born painter and iconographer widely regarded as one of the…
Suha Arraf (1968–present) — Suha Arraf is a Palestinian screenwriter, director, and journalist whose scripts helped define a lan…
Mustafa al-Kurd (1945–2024) — Mustafa al-Kurd, born in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem in 1945, was one of the foremost voices…
Darin J. Sallam (1987–present) — Darin J. Sallam is a filmmaker of Palestinian heritage whose debut feature brought the human experie…
Saeb Jendeya (1975–present) — Saeb Jendeya is a former Palestinian footballer and coach who became one of the defining figures of…
Raymonda Tawil (1940–2024) — Raymonda Tawil (1940-2024) was a Palestinian journalist, poet, and activist whose fearless commentar…
Nabiha Nasir (1891–1951) — Nabiha Nasir was born in 1891 in the small town of Birzeit, north of Jerusalem, then part of Ottoman…
Imad Barghouthi (1962–present) — Imad Ahmad Barghouthi is a Palestinian astrophysicist specializing in theoretical space plasma physi…
Abed Abdi (1942–present) — Abed Abdi is a pioneering Palestinian artist and one of the most important figures among Palestinian…
Ishaq Musa al-Husayni (1904–1990) — Ishaq Musa al-Husayni was born in Jerusalem on 25 December 1904 into the prominent Husayni family, o…
Riah Abu El-Assal (1937–present) — Riah Hanna Abu El-Assal, born in Nazareth in 1937, is a Palestinian Anglican cleric who served as th…
Sam Bahour (1964–present) — Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American entrepreneur and business-development consultant based in Al-Bi…
Jawad Al Malhi (1969–present) — Jawad Al Malhi is a Palestinian painter, photographer and multimedia artist whose work is grounded i…
Said Murad (1958–present) — Said Murad, an oud player, composer, and arranger from Jerusalem, is the founder and driving creativ…
Hani Al-Masdar (1981–2024) — Hani Al-Masdar was a Palestinian footballer and coach who became the head coach of Palestine's Olymp…
Hatim Kanaaneh (1937–present) — Hatim Kanaaneh is a Palestinian physician and public health pioneer who devoted his career to buildi…
Raghib al-Nashashibi (1881–1951) — Raghib al-Nashashibi was born in 1881 in Jerusalem into one of the city's oldest and most powerful n…
Abdel Mohsen Qattan (1934–2014) — Abdel Mohsen Qattan was born in 1934 in Jaffa and grew up in a prosperous Palestinian merchant famil…
Abd al-Rahim Mahmud (1913–1948) — Abd al-Rahim Mahmud was born in 1913 in the small town of Anabta, east of Tulkarm in the Galilee-fac…
Sana Odeh — Sana Odeh is a Palestinian-American computer scientist and educator who has become one of the most i…
Amal Murkus (1968–present) — Amal Murkus, born in the Galilee village of Kafr Yasif in 1968, is among the most prominent Palestin…
Muhammad Ruhi al-Khalidi (1864–1913) — Muhammad Ruhi al-Khalidi was born in 1864 in the Bab al-Silsila (Chain Gate) quarter of the Old City…
Augustin Lama (1902–1988) — Augustin Lama, born in Ramla in 1902 during the late Ottoman period, is widely regarded as the grand…
Salvador Arnita (1914–1984) — Salvador Arnita, born in Jerusalem on 4 March 1914, was a pioneer of the classical-music renaissance…
Karimeh Abbud (1893–1940) — Karimeh Abbud was born on 18 November 1893 in Bethlehem, then part of the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem…
Hani Zurob (1976–present) — Hani Zurob is a Palestinian painter whose richly textured, emotionally charged work explores exile,…
Asad Azi (1955–present) — Asad Azi is a prominent Palestinian artist from the Druze community in Israel, recognized as one of…
Hani Alami — Hani Alami is a Jerusalem-born Palestinian telecommunications entrepreneur who has built some of the…
Yaser Hamed (1997–present) — Yaser Hamed is a Palestinian professional footballer born in Leioa, in Spain's Basque Country, in 19…
Mohammed Rashid (1995–present) — Mohammed Rashid is a Palestinian professional footballer born in Ramallah in 1995, a defensive midfi…
Givara Budeiri — Givara Budeiri is a veteran Palestinian broadcast journalist who has worked as a correspondent for A…
Tareq Maayah — Tareq Maayah is a Palestinian technology executive best known as the chief executive of EXALT Techno…
Ramzi Saleh (1980–present) — Ramzi Saleh is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers in Palestinian football history an…
Simon Yacoub (1989–present) — Simon Yacoub is a Palestinian judoka born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1989 to a Palestinian father and a…
Hussein Fakhri al-Khalidi (1895–1962) — Hussein Fakhri al-Khalidi was born on 17 January 1895 in Jerusalem into one of the city's oldest and…
Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi (1842–1906) — Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi was born in 1842 in Jerusalem into the al-Khalidi family, one of the city's ol…
Yusra Jawhariyyeh Arnita (1924–2000) — Yusra Jawhariyyeh Arnita, born in Jerusalem and the eldest daughter of the celebrated oud player and…
Khaled Hourani (1965–present) — Khaled Hourani is a Palestinian visual artist and cultural administrator born in 1965 in Hebron. He…
Roberto Bishara (1981–present) — Roberto Fabian Bishara Adauy is a Chilean-Palestinian former footballer who became one of the most b…
Asma Tubi (1905–1983) — Asma Rizq Tubi was born in 1905 in Nazareth, then part of Ottoman Palestine, into a cultured Christi…
Riyad al-Maliki (1953–present) — Riyad al-Maliki is a Palestinian politician and diplomat who has served as Minister of Foreign Affai…
Yousef Najajreh (1967–present) — Yousef Najajreh is a Palestinian medicinal chemist whose research on anticancer therapeutics has mad…
Jaka Ihbeisheh (1986–present) — Jaka Ihbeisheh is a retired footballer born in Slovenia to a Palestinian father, who chose to repres…
Khalil al-Hayya (1965–present) — Khalil al-Hayya is a senior leader of Hamas and a member of its political bureau, born in 1965 in Ga…
Anwar Nusseibeh (1913–1986) — Anwar Nusseibeh (1913–1986) was a Jerusalem statesman, jurist and Jordanian cabinet minister whose c…
Issa Boulos (1968–present) — Issa Boulos, born in Jerusalem in 1968 and raised in a musical family in Ramallah, is a Palestinian-…
Murad Ismail (1982–present) — Murad Ismail Said is a Palestinian footballer who played as a defensive midfielder and was a member…
Iyad Burnat (1975–present) — Iyad Burnat is a Palestinian nonviolent resistance organiser born in 1975 in the village of Bil'in i…
Oday Dabbagh (1998–present) — Oday Dabbagh is a contemporary Palestinian forward widely regarded as the most successful homegrown…
Mahmoud Wadi (1994–present) — Mahmoud Wadi is one of the most prolific strikers in the modern history of the Palestine national te…
Khalil Totah (1886–1955) — Khalil Abdallah Totah was born on 20 May 1886 in Ramallah, then part of Ottoman Palestine, the sixth…
Matiel Mogannam (1899–1992) — Matiel Mogannam (1899-1992) was a pioneering leader of the Palestinian Arab women's movement during…
Jean Zaru (1940–present) — Jean Zaru was born in 1940 in Ramallah to a family deeply rooted in the Palestinian Quaker community…
Sophie Halaby (1906–1998) — Sophie Halaby was born in Jerusalem around 1906 to a Palestinian-Christian father, Jiryes (George) N…
Khalil Halaby (1889–1964) — Khalil Halaby was born in Jerusalem in 1889, during the final decades of Ottoman rule, into the city…
Woroud Sawalha (1991–present) — Woroud Sawalha is a Palestinian middle-distance runner who became one of the most prominent female a…
Katy Nimr Antonius (1898–1984) — Katy Nimr Antonius was born around the turn of the twentieth century into one of the most cosmopolit…
Dima Bawab (1981–present) — Dima Bawab is a Palestinian-Jordanian operatic soprano and recording artist born on 2 September 1981…
Andoni Baramki (1894–1972) — Andoni Baramki (1894–1972) was one of the best-known Arab Palestinian architects of the British Mand…
Tayseer Barakat (1959–present) — Tayseer Barakat was born in 1959 in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, into a family origin…
Mayada Al-Sayad (1992–present) — Mayada Al-Sayad is a Palestinian long-distance runner who represented Palestine in marathon and dist…
Sadhij Nassar (1900–1970) — Sadhij Nassar was born around 1900 in Acre, then part of Ottoman Palestine, into a family of Baha'i…
Mona El-Farra (1954–present) — Mona El-Farra is a Palestinian physician and human rights activist born in 1954 in Khan Younis, Gaza…
Stephan Hanna Stephan (1894–1949) — Stephan Hanna Stephan was born in 1894 in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, during the late Ottoman period,…