Summary
Druze leader of the Ma’di family of Yarka, a party to the Druze cooperation agreement with Israel, whose help in keeping villagers in their homes in 1948 made him an electoral asset of the ruling party’s Arab slates in the 1950s (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.274, 281).
Details
- The Ma’di family of Yarka was a party to the mountain Druze leadership’s agreement with Israel, and Shaykh Jabr Ma’di was on good terms with Haim Orbach of the Haganah intelligence service; they tried to convince Galilee residents to surrender and not fight, in return for ensuring their security and safeguarding their property (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.312, Preface note 7; the family’s role is also recorded at PDF p.84, 87).
- In the 1951 elections Jabr Ma’di stood on Sayf al-Din al-Zu’bi’s slate; the Ma’di clan in general, and Jabr in particular, were instrumental in attracting Arab votes from the villages of al-Shaghur and other places to that slate, because of the help he had given the inhabitants to stay in their villages in 1948, and al-Zu’bi’s list won three seats (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.274).
- He was one of the two Druze MKs elected in 1951, alongside Salih Khunayfis (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.271-272).
- In the 1955 elections Ma’di did not make it into the Knesset on the Democratic list and his relationship with al-Zu’bi deteriorated; al-Zu’bi was pressured to give up his seat in Ma’di’s favour in March 1956, while Mas’ad Qassis refused to step down (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.281).
Related pages
Nakba and Survival, Druze, Sayf al-Din al-Zu’bi, Mas’ad Qassis, Haim Orbach