Mowafaq Tarif

Mowafaq Tarif was born in 1963 in Julis

Tarif was born in 1963 in Julis, a Druze village in the Western Galilee. His family has led the Druze community in the region since 1753. He is the grandson of Amin Tarif, who headed the Druze community in Israel for 65 years.

He studied at the Higher School for Druze Religious Studies in Khalwat al-Bayada, Lebanon. He also graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Ono Academic College. In 2010 the University of Haifa gave him an honorary doctorate.

Amin Tarif named him as his successor in a 1985 will, and he took the post in 1993 after his grandfather died. He chairs the Druze Religious Council and serves as a qadi in the Druze religious court of appeals. In September 2016 he was chosen as president of that court.

In 2004 he signed a call for non-Jews in Israel to keep the Noahide Laws. In April 2018 he lit a torch at the ceremony for Israel's 70th anniversary. In 2025 he met U.S. officials to seek protection for the Druze in Syria, called for intervention after the massacres of Syrian Druze, and received the Presidential Medal of Honour. He lives in the family home in Julis.