Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Munib Rashid Munib Al-Masri is a Palestinian businessman, born in the city of Nablus in 1934 to a prominent social and economic family. He is the youngest son in his family of 8 brothers and two sisters. His father died before Munib was two years old, and his older brothers took care of him. He finished high school at the age of seventeen and sailed to the United States of America in 1952 to study at the University of Texas, obtaining a bachelor's degree in geology and a master's in international affairs and relations. During that period, Munib was associated with his American classmate, and they had their first child, Rabeeh, and then May, Mazen, Dina, Omar, and Laith.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Arab Bank, a member of the Board of Directors of the Palestinian Communications Group and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of PADICO Holding Group. He is the former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Al-Quds University. He also heads the Palestine Forum, in addition to owning several companies specialized in drilling artesian wells and oil wells in several Arab and international countries within American company "Phillips Petroleum". He assumed the portfolio of the Jordanian Ministry of Works in 1975 and also served as Minister of Public Works in Wasfi Al-Tal's government. He was nominated in 2008 to take over the presidency of the Palestinian government. The British newspaper The Independent named him the King of the West Bank, and he received an honorary doctorate from An-Najah National University in 2005.
He has large investments in Palestine and the Arab world, and is ranked 33rd in terms of wealth in the Arab world. Spread his investments in 20 countries.
Munib recounts a story that happened to him during his return to Jordan in 1956, when he only had 30 dollars at the time, and he had to pay the customs of the car he owned, which amounted to 300 dinars. "On that day, the Minister of Finance, Salah Toukan, intervened and allowed us to pass, and after six full months, I paid the customs duties," he says.
Palestine house
He owns a house on top of Mount Gerizim in Nablus, which he called Palestine House, and it was built in the old architectural style.
It contains furniture and paintings dating back to the Middle Ages. It owns a statue of Hercules from the sixteenth century in the middle of the hall of the house, passing through paintings by Picasso, Modigliani and others. This palace is located in the center of 400 acres, consisting of 3 floors, each area of 1,000 square meters, surrounded by gardens and a glass greenhouse. In addition to classic furniture, including the throne of Khedive Ismail, who ruled Egypt in the nineteenth century.
With the beginning of the construction work, which was supervised by his son, the engineer Rabih, the workers found historical monuments, including a Byzantine monastery dating back to the third and fourth centuries AD. Then the work stopped and they decided to raise the foundations of the house to ensure the preservation of the monuments and mosaics
his fortune
- By the end of 2007, a report published by the specialized economic magazine Arabian Business indicated that there were 44 Arab families, including 5 Palestinian families, including Munib Al-Masri, who ranked 33 in the world, who have a fortune of one billion dollars or more.
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Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
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