Seif el-Din el-Zubi

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Seif el-Din el-Zubi
Date of birth 1913
Place of birth Nazareth, Ottoman Empire
Date of death 26 June 1986
Knesset(s) 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th
Party United Arab List
Former parties Democratic List of Nazareth
Democratic List for Israeli Arabs
Progress and Development
Cooperation and Brotherhood
Alignment

Seif el-Din el-Zubi (Arabic: سيف الدين الزعبي‎, Hebrew: סיף א-דין א-זועבי‎, born 1913, died 26 June 1986) was an Israeli-Arab politician.

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[edit] Biography

El-Zubi was born in 1913 in Nazareth, where he went to high school. During the British Mandate of Palestine, he was active in the Haganah, and later received the Fighter of the State Decoration. From 1959 to 1974 he was the mayor of Nazareth.

In 1949 he was elected to the first Knesset for the Democratic List of Nazareth. In 1951 he was elected to the second Knesset for Democratic List for Israeli Arabs, for which he was reelected to the third Knesset as well. In 1965 he was elected to the sixth Knesset for Progress and Development, which later merged into Cooperation and Brotherhood and then broke off again. In 1969 he was again elected for Progress and Development. In the eighth Knesset, Progress and Development merged into the Alignment and eventually joined the United Arab List. He was elected to the ninth Knesset for the United Arab List, but retired in 1979.

In the first, sixth and seventh Knessets he was a member of the Internal Affairs Committee; In the second and third he was a member of the House Committee; and in the eighth he was a member of the Economic Affairs Committee. In the seventh he was also the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset.

He died in 1986.

[edit] Controversy

According to Israeli historian Ori Stendel, el-Zubi had used his ties with the Israeli establishment to compensate for the decline of his political power within the Zubia clan.[1] Historian Hillel Cohen argued that he was "upgraded" by Mapai in exchange for relinquishing national demands and legitimizing land confiscations.[2] Yitzhak Laor described his conduct as tantamount to taking political bribery.[3]

[edit] Publications

  • Autobiography: ”Eyewitness” (1987)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Stendel, Ori (1996). The Arabs in Israel. Sussex Academic Press, p. 85. ISBN 1898723230. 
  2. ^ Cohen, Hillel. Good Arabs (excerpt). Text 2006. Retrieved on 2008-06-07. (Hebrew)
  3. ^ Laor, Yitzhak. "Under the steamroller", Haaretz, 2007-02-15. Retrieved on 2008-06-08. 

[edit] External links

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