List of Israeli Druze

This is a list of notable Israeli Druze.

The list is ordered by category of human endeavor. Persons with significant contributions in two fields are listed in both of the pertinent categories, to facilitate easy lookup.

Politicians and government officials

Majalli Wahabi member of the Knesset for Kadima, and briefly the acting President of Israel in 2007

Ayoob Kara member of the Knesset for Likud

Labib Hussein Abu Rokan – politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Cooperation and Brotherhood between 1959 and 1961.
Hamad Amar – politician and currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu.
Assad Assad – former officer, diplomat and politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 1992 and 1996.
Zeidan Atashi – former diplomat and politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Democratic Movement for Change and Shinui between 1977 and 1981, and again from 1984 until 1988.
Amal Nasser el-Din – author and former politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 1977 and 1988.
Salah-Hassan Hanifes – politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Progress and Work between 1951 and 1959.
Ayoob Kara – currently a member of the Knesset for Likud and Deputy Minister for Development of the Negev and Galilee.
Reda Mansour – poet, historian and Diplomat.
Jabr Muadi – politician who served as a member of the Knesset for seven different parties between 1951 and 1981.
Mohamed Nafa – politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Hadash from 1990 until 1992.
Said Nafa – member of the Knesset for the Arab party Balad.
Shachiv Shnaan – served as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party between 2008 and 2009.
Salah Tarif – member of the Knesset between 1992 and 2006. When appointed Minister without Portfolio by Ariel Sharon in 2001, he became Israel's first non-Jewish government minister.^[1]
Majalli Wahabi – politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Kadima. He briefly assumed the position of President due to President Moshe Katzav's leave of absence and Acting President Dalia Itzik's trip abroad in February 2007, making him the first non-Jew to act as Israel's head of state.
Kamal Mansour - Arab affairs adviser to the president of Israel. Mansour was awarded the Israel Prize for his "activities over the years and his extraordinary contribution to the intercultural and the inter-communal integration in Israel."
Fares Hamud Falah - the first Druze judge in Israel. Served as a VP of the Magistrate Court Judges in Acre.

Military

Assad Assad – former officer, diplomat and politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 1992 and 1996.
Imad Fares – former Brig. General in the Israeli Defense Force. He won acclaim as the commander of the Givati Brigade (infantry) from 2001–2003.
Majdi Halabi – disappeared on May 24, 2005, at age 19, while attempting to hitchhike from his hometown to his Ordnance Corps camp near Tirat Carmel.
Brigadier General Hasson Hasson - IDF officer whom currently serves as the military secretary to President Shimon Peres.^[2]
Yusef Mishleb – the first Israeli Druze to be promoted to the rank of colonel in the IDF. Served in part as commander of the Etzion Regional Brigade, commander of the Edom Division, as Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and as the commander of the Home Front Command.
Nabih Mar'i - former IDF colonel and deputy commander of the IDF's Gaza Division who was killed in 1996 by Palestinian rioters in Rafah.
Ismail Kabalan - the first Druze to become an IDF officer and the only individual to ever serve both as an officer in the IDF and as an officer in the Syrian Armed Forces.
Ghassan Alian - first non-Jewish commander of the Golani Brigade.

Academic figures

Toufik Mansour - Mathematician and professor at the Haifa University working in the field of combinatorics.^[3]^[4]^[5]
Kais Firro - historian, a full professor in the Department of Middle Eastern History at the Haifa University. Firro's areas of research are the Druze community, the society of the Middle East in the 19th century and the Alawites and Shiites in Syria and Lebanon.

Sports

Nazar Mahmud

Maaran Lala – footballer playing for Hapoel Tel Aviv.
Nazar Mahmud – figure skater.

Popular musicians

Mike Sharif – popular singer who sings in the Mizrahi style.

Models

Angelina Fares – beauty pageant contestant. She was a finalist in Miss Israel 2007.

Film, TV, and stage

Rafik Halabi - TV personality, newspaper editor and recipient of the Sokolov Award.
Anat Hadid – actress
Saleh Azzam - actor, poet and playwright.
Riad Ali - journalist whom currently works as a reporter on the Israeli
Adi Adwan- International film maker

Artists

Asad Azi - painter and poet
Hatem Ewida - International sculptor and painter

Writers

Samih al-Qasim

Amal Nasser el-Din – author and former politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 1977 and 1988.
Reda Mansour – poet, historian and Diplomat.
Salman Masalha – poet, writer, essayist and translator.
Samih al-Qasim – a well-known poet throughout Arab World.
Salman Natour - writer, journalist and playwright.
Asad Azi - painter and poet

Religious figures

Sheikh Amin Tarif, 1950.

Amin Tarif - the spiritual leader of the Druze in Israel from 1928 till his death in 1993.

Entrepreneurs

Jamila Hir - a producer of soap made with olive oil and herbs. Widely known as the first Israeli Druze woman to set up her own enterprise.

Miscellaneous

Azzam Azzam – convicted in Egypt in August 1997 of spying for Israel, and jailed for eight years. He maintained his innocence throughout the ordeal, and since, no credible evidence was presented at his trial, and no additional evidence was ever released.
Hasin Fares – former Commander of the Israeli Police. Served also as the head of the Logistic Support department of the Israeli Police and the commander of the Israel Border Police.