SHEIKH JABER MAUDI

Sheikh Jaber Maudi with Robert Michelson (age 11)

             

Born	Nationality	Ethnicity	Fields	Institutions
Yirka, Israel	Druze Tribe	Druze Arab	Israeli politics	Yirka Tribal Sheikh	and      Israeli Parliament

INTRODUCTION

Sheikh Jaber Muadi (Arabic جبر داهش معدي; Hebrew ג'בר מועדי) was born 1 April 1919 and died 19 May 2009 at the age of 90. He was a Druze Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for seven different parties between 1951 and 1981.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Yirka in British-controlled Palestine, Muadi was first elected to the Knesset in 1951 as a member of the Democratic List for Israeli Arabs. Although he lost his seat in the 1955 elections, he returned to the Knesset on 13 February 1956 as a replacement for [Seif el-Din el-Zubi]. He lost his seat again in the 1959 elections.

He returned to the Knesset again after being elected on the Cooperation and Brotherhood list in 1961. He retained his seat in the 1965 elections. The following year Cooperation and Brotherhood merged with [Progress and Development] to form Cooperation and Development. The two parties split again on 1 January 1967, and on 11 April, Muadi broke away to form his own single-member faction, the Druze Party, which he represented until the 1969 elections.

Sheikh Jaber Muadi of the Druze Tribe from Yirka 
  (Northern) Israel reviews some photographs with 
  Carroll E. Michelson and Evelyn J. Michelson at 
  the Near East International Fair in Tel Aviv, 
Israel (1962). Standing behind Carroll Michelson 
is Chaim Sternberg (Michelson's personal assistant). 
Uniformed personnel the Sheikh's body guards. 
 
 
 
 

In the elections he was returned to the Knesset on the Progress and Development list, and on 27 October 1971 was appointed Deputy Minister of Communications, becoming the second non-Jew to be part of an Israeli government.[1] He was re-elected in 1973. In February 1974 the party merged into the Alignment party, and on 6 May Muadi was re-appointed to his deputy ministerial post. On 24 March 1975 he became Deputy Minister of Agriculture. On 8 June 1976 Progress and Development left the Alignment, and the following year merged with the Arab List for Bedouins and Villagers to form the United Arab List, the seventh party Muadi had represented in the Knesset. Despite leaving the Alignment, he remained a deputy minister.

He lost his seat in the 1977 elections, but was due to re-enter the Kensset as part of a rotation deal with other party members. However, after Hamad Abu Rabia went back on a deal to resign his seat in order for Muadi to take it (a court had ruled the agreement was invalid),[2] he was shot dead by Muadi's sons. Despite threats of revenge, Muadi took his seat on 12 January 1981.[3] He lost his seat for the final time in the 1981 elections, in which the United Arab List failed to cross the electoral threshold.

He died in 2009 at the age of 90.

AN EXAMPLE OF A TYPICAL DIPLOMATIC ENCOUNTER

In 1962, Sheikh Jaber Muadi attended the Near East International Fair in Tel Aviv, Israel. While there he visited the U.S. Department of Agriculture Pavilion under the directorship of Carroll Michelson. He later invited the American contingent, including Michelson's wife Evelyn and son Robert to his village in Yirka (at the time, British-controlled Palestine). The village in Yirka is the home of his Druze tribe. Upon arrival, the elders of the village were on hand to greet the men (only) of the group. This was followed by some of the Druze men performing a traditional dance. Sheikh Jaber had a feast prepared and the group was entertained at a long banquet table where "olives, creamy white cheese, tomato-cucumber-and-mint-leaf salad, snippets of roast kidney, highly spiced hamburger morsels, meat-stuffed dumplings, and bounteous servings of fish, all accompanied by unleavened bread were offered. The main course was, a whole roast sheep covered from head to tail with almonds and riding on a mountain of saffron rice."[4] The serving platter was garnished with the eyeballs of sheep. The women in the group were later escorted to meet the Sheikh's wives who bore the Sheikh's seven sons and three daughters. As recounted by Evelyn Michelson, his wives wore traditional face veils.

DRUZE TRIBE

The Druze (Arabic درزي, derzī or durzī, plural دروز, durūz, Hebrew דרוזים druzim) are a religious community found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, whose traditional religion is said to have begun as an offshoot of [1], but is unique in its incorporation of Gnosticism, Neoplatonism and other philosophies, similar to other followers of Ismaili Shi'a Islam.[5]

Theologically, Druze consider themselves "an Islamic Unist, reformatory sect".[6][7] The Druze call themselves Ahl al- Tawhid "People of Unitarianism or Monotheism" or al-Muwaḥḥidūn "Unitarians, Monotheists."

The Druze in Israel live mainly in the north, notably in Carmel City, near Haifa. There are also Druze localities in the Golan Heights, such as Majdal Shams, which were captured in 1967 from Syria and annexed to Israel in 1981. It is in keeping with Druze religious practice to always serve the country in which they live.[8] So while the Druze population in Israel are Arabic speakers like their counterparts in Syria and Lebanon, they often consider themselves Israeli and unlike the Arab Muslims and Arab Christians in Israel they rarely identify themselves as Palestinians.[9] As early as 1939, the leadership of one Druze village formally allied itself with pre-Israeli militias, like the Haganah.[10]

The Druze are defined as a distinct ethnic group in the [Israeli Ministry of Interior's] census registration. While the Israeli education system is basically divided into Hebrew and Arabic speaking schools, the Druze have autonomy within the Arabic speaking branch.[11]

The Druze of British Mandate of Palestine showed little interest in Arab nationalism that was on the rise in the 20th century, and did not take part in the early Arab-Jewish skirmishes of the era either. By 1948, many young Druze volunteered for the Israeli army and actively fought on their side. Unlike their Christian and Muslim counterparts, no Druze villages were destroyed in the 1948 war and no Druze left their settlements permanently.[12]

ARCHIVAL PHOTOS

Carroll Michelson meets with Druze Elders before a banquet of Lamb in the village of Yirka.

REFERENCES

1. Stern, Y., "Christian Arabs / Second in a series - Israel's Christian Arabs don't want to fight to fit in", Haaretz, 03-23-2005, accessdate=04-11-2010
2. Ministers of the Minorities Knesset website
3. Anxiety attack Haaretz International, 1 April 2005
4. Druse Sheik Takes Seat In the Israeli Parliament New York Times, 21 January 1981
5. Friendly, Alfred, "At the Dinner Table of a Druze Sheikh- mixing Whisky and Arak", Washington Post, 1963.
6. Druse Sheik Takes Seat In the Israeli Parliament New York Times, 21 January 1981
7. Swayd, S., "The Druzes: An Annotated Bibliography", ISES Publications, Kirkland, WA, USA, 1998, isbn 0966293207
8. Israwi, N., "Al-Maðhab at-Tawḥīdī ad-Durzī", Brazil, pages=66
9. Stern, Y., "Christian Arabs / Second in a series - Israel's Christian Arabs don't want to fight to fit in", Haaretz, 03-23-2005, accessdate=04-11-2010
10. Amara, M., and Schnell, I., Identity Repertoires among Arabs in Israel, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 30, 2004
11. Jiryis, S., "The Arabs in Israel", The Institute for Palestine Studies, 1969, second impression, page=145; A separate Israeli Druze identity was encouraged by the Israeli government which formally recognized the Druze religious community as independent of the Muslim religious community in Israeli law as early as 1957.
12. Jiryis, S., "The Arabs in Israel", The Institute for Palestine Studies, 1969, second impression, page 145
13. Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (requires password to access)