Mufid Mari

Mufid Mari was born in 1959 in Hurfeish

Mari was born on 15 May 1959 and grew up in Hurfeish, a Druze town in northern Israel. His parents are Zarfat and Mahmoud. His older brother, Colonel Nabiya Mari, was killed in 1996 while serving as deputy commander of the Gaza Division.

He was the first Druze to join the IDF through a Nahal group. He held command and operations posts, led the Herev Battalion, and later commanded the Hermon and Oded brigades as a colonel. He graduated from the National Security College and earned a BA in Middle East history and an MA in national security and political science from the University of Haifa.

After leaving the army he was elected to the Hurfeish local council and became its head in 2016. A year later he was chosen to chair the heads of Druze and Circassian local authorities in Israel.

He ran ninth on the Blue and White list in 2021 and entered the Knesset on 15 June 2021, replacing Hili Tropper under the Norwegian Law. In the Knesset he set up a subcommittee for developing Druze and Circassian communities. He ran 19th on the National Unity list in 2022 and did not return to the Knesset.

In April 2023 he became chairman of Tel-Hai technological college in the Upper Galilee. In November 2024 he became the first Druze elected to the Jewish Agency Board of Governors.