Mohammed Shihad Dajani Daoudi[1] (Arabic: محمد الدجاني الداودي; born March 19, 1946) is a Palestinian professor and peace activist.
Dajani has also been active in forming relationships with Jewish and Christian religious leaders and peace activists to spread the Wasatia message of understanding, tolerance, coexistence and brotherhood.
[2] The honorific "Daoudi" was added to the family name in 1529 when Suleiman the Magnificent designated an ancestor keeper of the Tomb of King David on Mount Zion.
[3] His family fled to Egypt when Israel declared its independence in 1948, but returned to the Old City of Jerusalem the following year (then under Jordanian rule).
[3] Although he received military training, he was put to work in the English-language public relations department of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
[3] Several years later, a second experience with Israeli health care affected Dajani; his mother became ill near Ben Gurion Airport.
[3] In 1999, he was invited to Turkey to lead a program for Israeli and Palestinian religious leaders, which he developed into a conflict-resolution model called "Big Dream, Small Hope".
[3] In 2007, with his brother, Munther Dajani Daoudi,[3] he co-founded Wasatia ("Moderation"), an organization that promotes the Islamic traditions of nonviolence and compromise.
[4]) After the Israeli newspaper Haaretz wrote about the trip, and the Hebrew article was mistranslated into Arabic,[5] Dajani was vilified as a "traitor" and "collaborator" by some Palestinians.
[10] In September 2016, Dajani told Haaretz he was moving back to Jerusalem and that he was "hoping and thinking about organizing" another trip to Auschwitz, but he didn't want the details published.