Husayn Fakhri al-Khalidi (1895–1966) was born in Jerusalem. He worked as medical doctor for the Department of Public Health in Aleppo

Aleppo

Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...

. Khalidi was elected mayor of Jerusalem from 1934-1937. On 23 June 1935 he founded the Reform Party

Reform Party (Palestine)

The Reform Party was established by Husayin al-Khalidi in Palestine on 23 June 1935....

 and joined the Arab Higher Committee

Arab Higher Committee

The Arab Higher Committee was the central political organ of the Arab community of Mandate Palestine. It was established on 25 April 1936, on the initiative of Hajj Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and comprised the leaders of Palestinian Arab clans under the mufti's...

 as its representative.

In 1937, during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Khalidi was one of the Arab officials arrested by the government. His appointment as Mayor of Jerusalem was invalidated and he was exiled to the Seychelles Islands. He was released in 1938. He took part in the London Conference at St. James's Palace

St. James's Palace

St. James's Palace is one of London's oldest palaces. It is situated in Pall Mall, just north of St. James's Park. Although no sovereign has resided there for almost two centuries, it has remained the official residence of the Sovereign and the most senior royal palace in the UK...

 in February 1939 and was among those rejecting the British Government's White Paper proposal

White Paper of 1939

The White Paper of 1939, also known as the MacDonald White Paper after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary who presided over it, was a policy paper issued by the British government under Neville Chamberlain in which the idea of partitioning the Mandate for Palestine, as recommended in...

. He returned to Palestine in 1943 and joined the renewed Arab Higher Committee in 1945, becoming its Secretary in 1946. Khalidi was a member of the short-lived All-Palestine Government

All-Palestine Government

The All-Palestine Government was established by the Arab League on 22 September 1948, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Shortly thereafter, an Arab-Palestinian Congress named King Abdullah I of Transjordan, "King of Arab Palestine"...

 established under Egypt's patronage in Gaza in September 1948. He prospered under Jordanian

Transjordan

The Emirate of Transjordan was a former Ottoman territory in the Southern Levant that was part of the British Mandate of Palestine...

 rule, becoming a Cabinet Minister (for Foreign Affairs) and briefly Prime Minister

Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...

 in 1957. He died on 26 December 1966.

He was the brother of Ismail Khalidi

Ismail Khalidi

Ismail Ragib Khalidi was a senior political affairs officer for the United Nations Department of Political Affairs.Khalidi was born in Jerusalem, Palestine, on November 13, 1916. He was the brother of Husayin al-Khalidi, father of Rashid Khalidi and the grandfather of the American playwright,...

 and the uncle of Rashid Khalidi

Rashid Khalidi

Rashid Ismail Khalidi , born 1948, a Palestinian-American historian of the Middle East, is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, and director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.-Family, education and...

and Raja Khalidi.