Monday, August 1st 2022
12:00 PM Eastern Time
Sami Abu Shehadeh was born in 1975 in Al-Mahatta neighborhood in Lydd city. He attended the Terra Santa School in Ramleh until 8th grade, and then moved to Jaffa to attend Terra Santa High School. Now he lives in Jaffa with his family. Abu Shehadeh studied History of the Middle East and Political Sciences at Tel Aviv University and specialized in researching the history of Jaffa as an Arab cultural center during the Mandate period. He started his political activity in the Jafra Student Movement at Tel Aviv University, and was of the leaders of the Arab Students Committee at Tel Aviv University and later on on the National Arab Students Union. From 2010 till 2013, Abu Shehadeh served as a member of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality Council on behalf of the Jaffa List. Since mid-1990’s Abu Shehadeh was an active member and on the board of several NGOs that worked with the Palestinian minority in Jaffa and within the Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel in general, such as: Darna – the Popular Committee for Housing and Land Rights in Jaffa, Mada Al-Karmel Research Center, The Arab Cultural Association, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. Abu Shehadeh established the Jaffa Youth Movement that has been working on impowering Arab-Palestinian youth in Jaffa, developing their national awareness and identity, and preparing high school students for academic careers. Abu Shehadeh was elected to the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, in September 2019 in the Joint List on behalf of The National-Democratic Assembly (Balad party). After the last elections in March 2021, Abu Shehadeh was elected as the Chairman of Balad Party and since December 2021 he is the Chairman of the Joint List Faction.
