Birth: NULL/NULL/1948 Death:NULL/NULL/2017
Born in Kufr Qassem in 1948; received elementary education in his village, then attended Al-Tireh Secondary School; was also educated at the Islamic Religious Institute in Nablus; worked as a teacher for about 10 years in Kufr Qassem Secondary School until his dismissal by Israeli authorities in 1979 for advocating Islamism; the same year, he organized an underground framework named Usrat Al-Jihad (The Families of Jihad) whose goal was to establish an Arab Islamic state in Palestine; was arrested along with other Usrat Al-Jihad members in March 1981 for their political activism; was released in 1983 and became founder and spiritual leader of the Islamic Movement inside the Green Line; soon developed its “pragmatic” Southern Branch, which integrated into political life, incl. running for office in local municipal elections in 1983; participated for the first time in Knesset elections in 1996 (the Northern Branch refers to the more radical Islamic line led by Sheikh Ra’ed Salah); resigned as head of the southern faction in July 1998 because of health reasons but continued to be the supreme spiritual guide; led the United Arab List in the 1999 elections and is represented in the Knesset with two out of the five seats won by the List; chairman of the Center for Intercultural and Religious Dialogue in Kufr Qassem.
