Sami Abu Shehadeh

Sami Abu Shehadeh (, ) is a Palestinian Israeli politician. He is the leader of Balad, and served as a member of the Knesset for the Joint List from 2019 to 2022.

Biography

Abu Shehadeh was born in Lod to a Muslim family and raised in Jaffa. He attended Terra Santa High School, a Catholic school located in Old Jaffa.

Abu Shehadeh studied for a master's degree in Middle Eastern history at Tel Aviv University, and wrote a doctorate on Jaffa as a cultural center during the British Mandate.

Political career Abu Shehadeh was a member of the Tel Aviv-Yafo City Council for a number of years until 2013, on behalf of the Jaffa faction. He served as the Director of the Yaffa Youth Movement.

In the elections for the 22nd Knesset, he was placed third on the Balad list following the retirement of Mazen Ghnaim, and after uniting with the other Arab parties, he was placed 13th on the Joint List. On 23 January 2021, he was elected as the party chairman of the Balad party in its primaries. In 2022 Israeli legislative election, he was placed first on the Balad political party list, however, he lost his seat due to the failure of the party to past the 3.25% election threshold.

Amid the bombing campaign against Gaza started in retaliation for the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel from Gaza in the Gaza war, Shehadeh accused US President Biden and other internationals leaders of giving "a green light for ethnic cleaning" to Israel. Writing in The New Arab, he added that: "Israel is not killing the Hamas leadership; they are not getting revenge out of Hamas. There is collective punishment for 2.2 million people."