Born in Amarra, Iraq, in 1913, Shalom Darwīsh attended the Rahil Shahmoun School after his family moved to Baghdad. He continued his studies at night while serving as secretary of the Jewish community, and graduated from the Baghdad College of Law in 1938, at which point he left his position as secretary to practice law. An Iraqi nationalist, Darwīsh was elected to parliament as a member of the National Democratic Party, but he resigned along with others in protest of electoral corruption and improprieties. Accused of being a Zionist, he fled overland in 1950 to Iran and from there to Israel.

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