Tawfik Toubi

MKs


Date of birth = 11 May 1922
Place of birth = Haifa, Mandate Palestine
Year of Aliyah =
Date of death =
Place of death =
Knesset(s) = 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th,
7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th
Party = Hadash
Former parties = Maki, Rakah
Gov't roles =

Tawfik Toubi ( _ar. توقيق طوبي, _he. תופיק טובי, born 11 May 1922) is a retired Israeli Arab communist politician.

Biography

Toubi was born in Haifa to an Arab Orthodox family in 1922, and was educated at the Mount Zion School in Jerusalem. He joined the Palestine Communist Party in 1941 and later was one of the founders of the League for National Liberation, which originally opposed partition of Palestine but later came to accept it, after the Soviet Union indicated that it would support partition. He was elected to the Knesset in Israel's first elections in 1949 as a member of Maki. He was re-elected in 1951, 1955, 1959 and 1961. In 1965 he was involved in a breakaway from Maki to form Rakah, and was voted back into the Knesset on the new party's list later in the same year. In 1976, he was elected secretary general of the new Hadash party, an alliance of Rakah and several other smaller left-wing and Israeli Arab parties, and was elected to the Knesset on Hadash's list in 1977, 1981, 1984 and 1988, before resigning from the Knesset in July 1990 and being replaced by Tamar Gozansky. Toubi was also publisher and editor of Arab language Communist paper "Al Ittihad".Cite web
last = Daves
first = Bryan
title = Tawfiq Tubi: Information and Much More from Answers.com
work = Answers.com
accessdate = 2008-01-05
url = http://www.answers.com/topic/tawfiq-tubi] He retired from the Knesset in 1990, after a 41 year tenure.

Legacy

Toubi is remembered as the exposer (along with Meir Vilner) of the Kafr Qasim massacre, and is seen by the Israeli left as a fighter against racism.Cite news
last = Gozansky
first = Tamar
title = From massacre to Lieberman
work = Ynet
accessdate = 2008-01-05
date = 2006-10-30
url = http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3321341,00.html] He is regarded as father of the 'state of all its citizens' formula, which he brought up when the Knesset debated the Basic Law in 1985. It now appears in the Meretz-Yachad platform, and is supported by the left, the post-Zionists and all the Arab MKs.Cite news
last = Samet
first = Gideon
title = The battle for a 'state of all its citizens'
work = Haaretz
accessdate = 2008-01-05
url = http://news.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArtElection.jhtml?itemNo=249643&contrassID=28&subContrassID=3&sbSubContrassID=0] He is seen less favorably by the Israeli right, although he is remembered as more of a respected adversary than a militant anti-Zionist (such as Azmi Bishara).Cite news
last = Hoffman
first = Gil
title = The rise of 'Bish-Arabism'
work = Jerusalem Post
accessdate = 2008-01-05
date = 2007-04-12
url = http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1176152783641&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull]

In 1949, Israeli poet Nathan Alterman wrote:

"Who is Tawfik Tubi? A Knesset member,"
"a Communist, an Arab who sits"
"in that House by full right..."
"That's democracy, not always easy,"
"but if we don't understand this part,"
"we haven't gotten anything at all."Cite web
title = The Head Heeb: The Arab Representatives: First Knesset
accessdate = 2008-01-05
url = http://headheeb.blogmosis.com/archives/023085.html]

References

External links

* [http://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng/tubi_eng.htm Tawfik Toubi's biography] Knesset website en icon
* Cite web
title = Tawfiq Touby on The Kafr Qasem Massacre of 1956
accessdate = 2008-01-05
url = http://www.art.net/~samia/Fiftieth/witness/Tawfik%20Touby/Touby.html