Tawfik Toubi | |
|---|---|
توفيق طوبي | |
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| Faction represented in theKnesset | |
| 1949–1965 | Maki |
| 1965–1977 | Rakah |
| 1977–1990 | Hadash |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 11 May 1922 Haifa,Mandatory Palestine |
| Died | 12 March 2011(2011-03-12) (aged 88) Haifa,Israel |
Tawfik Toubi (Arabic:توفيق طوبي,Hebrew:תופיק טובי; 11 May 1922 – 12 March 2011) was aMandatory Palestine-bornIsraeli Arabcommunist politician. He was the last survivingmember of the first Knesset. Tawfik Toubi was married to Olga Touma and one of his sons, Elias Toubi, studied medicine in Leningrad. He is also the second longest-serving Knesset member of all time, over 41 years of office, all consecutive.[1]
Toubi was born inHaifa to anArab Orthodox family in 1922, he is the son of Elias and Alice (born Khoury).[2] and was educated at theMount Zion School inJerusalem. He joined thePalestine Communist Party in 1941 and later was one of the founders of theLeague for National Liberation, which originally opposedpartition of Palestine but later came to accept it, after theSoviet Union indicated that it would support partition. He was elected to theKnesset inIsrael's first elections in 1949 as a member ofMaki. He was re-elected in 1951, 1955, 1959 and 1961. In 1965 he was involved in a breakaway from Maki to formRakah, and was voted back into the Knesset on the new party's list later in the same year. In 1976, he was elected deputy secretary general of the newHadash party, an alliance of Rakah and several other smaller left-wing and Israeli Arab parties. He served as Hadash's secretary-general from 1989 to 1993,[3] 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 byTamar Gozansky. Toubi was also publisher and editor of Arab language Communist paperAl Ittihad.[4] He retired from the Knesset in 1990, after a 41-year tenure, and died on 12 March 2011, at age 88.[5]
Toubi is remembered as one of the two MKs (the other beingMeir Vilner) who exposed theKafr Qasim massacre, and is seen by the Israeli left as a fighter againstracism.[6] He is regarded as father of the 'state of all its citizens' formula, which he brought up when the Knesset debated theBasic Law in 1985. It now appears in theMeretz platform, and is supported by the left, thepost-Zionists and all the Arab MKs.[7] He is seen less favorably by the Israeli right, although he is remembered as more of a respected adversary than a militantanti-Zionist (such asAzmi Bishara).[8]
In 1949, Israeli poetNathan 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.[9]
Toubi raised the issue of theright of return forPalestinian refugees on at least two occasions in the Knesset. After the1948 Arab-Israeli War, he demanded that the inhabitants ofal-Birwa be allowed to return to their homes, a request refused byDavid Ben-Gurion.[10] After the1967 war, he requested fromMoshe Dayan that the inhabitants ofYalo be allowed to return to their homes, but it too was denied.[11]In 2012, the discourses and articles of Tawfik Toubi were published in Israel by his wife Olga and his son Elias. Tawfik Toubi is accepted, honored and rewarded by the Israeli establishment.[12]
In 2011, Knesset SpeakerReuven Rivlin said:
Toubi was a valued and impressive parliamentarian that left his mark on the Israeli parliament. He was a member of a confronting movement but nevertheless insisted on respecting the rules of the game and knew how to apply them to himself in practice.
[13]
| Ribbon bar | Country | Honour |
|---|---|---|
 | Soviet Union | Order of Friendship of Peoples |
