Politicsג'בר מועדי

Jabr Muadi

Jabr Muadi was an Israeli Druze politician who served in the Knesset between 1951 and 1981 and was a deputy minister of communications and of agriculture.

1919 to 2009First Druze deputy ministerKnesset member for seven partiesDeputy Minister of Communications

Born: 1 April 1919, Yarka
Died: 20 June 2009, Yarka
Occupation: politician
Party: Democratic List for Israeli Arabs, Cooperation and Brotherhood, Cooperation and Development

Jabr Muadi was born in 1919 in Yarka

Jabr Muadi was born in the Druze village of Yirka in the Galilee in 1919. In 1943 the British sentenced him to 5 years in prison for killing a man from his village. He served his sentence in Acre prison and escaped in 1947.

He entered the Knesset in 1951 with the Democratic List for Israeli Arabs and sat on the Finance Committee. He lost his seat in 1955, returned in 1956 as a replacement, and lost it again in 1959. In 1961 he was elected for Cooperation and Brotherhood, and in 1967 he formed his own single-member Druze faction.

After the Six-Day War he called for an independent Druze state in the Golan Heights. Elected in 1969 for Progress and Development, he became Deputy Minister of Communications in 1971, the first Druze to serve as a deputy minister. In 1975 he became Deputy Minister of Agriculture.

He lost his seat in 1977 but was due to replace Hamad Abu Rabia under a rotation deal. Abu Rabia refused to resign and was killed by Muadi's sons in 1981, who were convicted of the murder. Muadi took the seat in January 1981, lost it in the 1981 elections, and died in 2009.