Adel Zuwaiter

Born in Nablus in 1897 to a well-known family of the city, Adel Zuwaiter completed both his elementary and high school educations in Beirut. He received his first degree in the Arts from the Sultan College in Constantinople. He was appointed as a reserve officer in the Ottoman Army in 1916, and soon after he defected with the Arab Revolt by joining the forces of the Arab Army led by Prince Faisal Bin Hussein. Because of this, he received a death sentence in absentia from the Turks in 1917.

Afaf Arafat

Born in Nablus in 1925, Afaf Arafat was educated at the Al-Fatimiya and Al-‘A’ishiya Schools. She then attended the Teacher's Institute in Jerusalem from 1938 to 1943 and later worked as a teacher in Jerusalem. She then enrolled at the Bath Academy in Britain and studied painting, photography and ceramics until graduating in 1957. 
Arafat returned to Palestine and worked as a teacher of Fine Arts at the Teacher's Institute in Ramallah from 1957-64. She continued her studies and received a Master's in Art from Tennessee University (USA) in 1966. She then became an inspector for Art Education for the Jordanian Ministry of Education. From 1966-1979, she was a member of a committee that prepared art education guides for teachers. 

Akram Zuaiter

Born in Nablus in 1909 and the brother of Adel Zuaiter, Akram Zuaiter completed his studies at An-Najah College before enrolling at the Jerusalem School of Law, where he graduated with a Law Certificate. He worked as a teacher in Nablus and Acre from 1926-29, but resigned when he got increasingly involved in the Palestinian national movement. He was head of the Editing Department of the Jerusalem-based Mirat Ash-Sharq (Mirror of the East) newspaper, owned by Boulos Shehadeh, in 1929-30. He was arrested in 1931 by the British authorities for his criticism of British pro-Zionist politics and was prevented from leaving Nablus for one year. 

Fadwa Tuqan

Born in Nablus on the 1st of March, 1917, Fadwa Tuqan was not given the opportunity to pursue her education and focused instead on self-study with the assistance of her brother, Ibrahim Tuqan. Fadwa.  Due to the untimely death of her brother and the prevailing social and political constraints, she was determined to master her writing.  She first used traditional forms, then evolved to more free verse. Her poetry reflects different angles of Palestinian life, portraying personal sentiments. Early collections include “My Brother Ibrahim” (1946) and “Alone With The Days” (1952).  Her poetry  became more nationalistic after 1967. 

Ibrahim Tukan 

Ibrahim Tukan was born in Nablus in 1905.  After elementary schooling there, the future poet attended the al-Mutran School in Jerusalem then received his diploma of Higher Literature Studies from the American University in Beirut in 1934.  Ibrahim Tukan pursued a career as a teacher of Arab literature at the Al-Najah National School in Nablus as well as at the American University in Beirut.  From 1936 to 1941 he broadcast classics of Arab literature for the Palestine Radio Station.  Ibrahim Tukan died in the French Hospital in Jerusalem in 1941 at the age of 36.

Kans'an, Hamdi Taher

 Industrial entrepreneur and community leader; board member and Secretary-General of Nablus Chamber of Commerce (1950-65); member, Municipal Council (1951-69); Mayor of Nablus (1963-69). His distinguished leadership in the early phase of the occupation was decisive in reversing the exodus of rural population from frontier villages of the Jenin, Tulkarm and Qalqiliah triangle, and in maintaining solidarity among West Bank mayors; his forthright style of dealing with the occupation authorities set an example which strengthened the mayor's resolve to stand up to the excesses of the occupation and express resistance to the various violations of Palestinian civil and human rights.

Sahar Khalifa

Sahar Khalifa is considered the foremost Palestinian novelist, widely acclaimed for being the first feminist Palestinian writer, and for her "sensitive, economical and lucid" style. She is the most translated Palestinian author after Mahmoud Darwish. Her fame extends beyond Palestinian and Arab borders, as her translations in many languages attest. 
Sahar Khalifa was born in 1941 in the city of Nablus. She was married in 1959 after her high school graduation. She lives between Amman, Jordan; and Nablus. She began writing shortly after the 1967 Israeli invasion of Gaza and the West Bank, and published her first novel in 1974. 

NABULSI, Hashem Nimr 

 A prominent businessman specialized in importing grain and other commodities to Egypt where he resided after 1948. He moved in the seventies of the last century to Lebanon where be established a successful business including export, import, finance and banking. Died in Beirut in 1997

Wael Zuaiter

Wael Zuaiter lived in Nablus, in the house which is now the Project Hope office. Naila, Wael's sister, is our landlady living in the top floor apartment. Adel Zuaiter, Wael's father, designed this three-storeyed house himself.
Wael Zuaiter was born on the 2nd January 1934. The house then was a place of sanctuary and serenity outside the growing tensions outside. Family and friends recall Wael was intelligent as a child and had a gentle nature.
He was only 13 years old, slightly built and rather shy, when he joined with his school mates in a mass demonstration against the United Nations vote to partition Palestine. Then in 1948 there was the war. The wave of violence and bloodshed swept across Palestine. Like all the schools in Palestine, lessons were suspended indefinitely.