Abdullah Abu Ma'aruf

Abdullah Abu Ma'aruf was born in 1956 in Yarka

Abu Ma'aruf was born on 30 December 1956 in the Druze village of Yarka in the Galilee. He was among the first conscientious objectors in the Druze community.

With a scholarship from the Israeli Communist Party, he studied medicine in Leningrad in the Soviet Union and gained Russian citizenship. He received a general license to practice medicine in Israel in 1988, specialized in urology and family medicine, and earned a PhD in Leningrad.

He works at Carmel Medical Center and for Clalit Health Services as a family doctor in Yarka and a urologist in Nahariya. He is active in Physicians for Human Rights, has been a leader of the Druze Initiative Committee, and has written for the newspaper Al-Ittihad.

He ran for Hadash in the elections for the 17th, 18th and 19th Knessets but was not elected. In 2015 he was placed 13th on the Joint List and entered the Knesset, giving up his Russian citizenship. He resigned on 9 August 2017 under a rotation agreement and was replaced by Said al-Harumi of the United Arab List.

He is married to Julia and lives in Yarka.