Fayez Sayegh


Fayez Sayegh was a Palestinian-American academic and civil servant.

Early life

Fayez Abdullah Sayegh was born in 1922 in Kharaba, Mandatory Syria, where his father was a Presbyterian minister. As a child, Sayegh moved with his family to Tiberias and went to school in Safed. He received his bachelor's degree from the American University of Beirut in 1941 and his master's degree from the same university in 1945.

Career

Sayegh, along with his brothers who had joined earlier, joined the Syrian Social Nationalist Party in 1938. He was later expelled from the party after Antoun Saadeh returned to Lebanon in 1947, following his exile.
In 1949, he earned his Ph.D. in philosophy, with a minor in political science, from Georgetown University. After receiving his degree, Sayegh worked for the Lebanese Embassy in Washington DC. He also worked at the United Nations.
He taught at a number of universities, including Yale, Stanford, Macalaster College, as well as at his alma mater AUB and at the University of Oxford.
Sayegh found the Palestine Research Center in Beirut in 1965 and served as its Director-General. In that same year, the center published his historical study entitled Zionist Colonialism in Palestine.
He also made several appearances on American television as a commentator on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.