Wadie Haddad
Many prominent Arab nationalists were Christians, like the Syrian intellectual Constantin Zureiq, Ba'athism proponent Michel Aflaq and Jurji Zaydan, who was reputed to be the first Arab nationalist. Khalil al-Sakakini, a prominent Palestinian Jerusalemite, was Arab Orthodox; as was George Antonius, Lebanese author of "The Arab Awakening." The first Syrian nationalists were also Christian. Antoun Saadeh was the founder behind the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and Butrus al-Bustani is considered to be the first Syrian nationalist. Sa'adeh rejected Pan-Arabism and argued instead for the creation of a "United Syrian Nation" or "Natural Syria". Influential Palestinian Christians such as Tawfik Toubi, Daud Turki, Emile Touma and Emile Habibi became leaders of the Israeli and Palestinian communist party. George Habash, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was a Christian; as was Wadie Haddad, the leader of the PFLP's armed wing. Jordanian Christian Nayif Hawatmeh is the founder and General Secretary of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Kamal Nasser and Hanan Ashrawi were members of PLO Executive Committee.