Salah-Hassan Hanifes [SEP] date of death
Salah-Hassan Hanifes
Salah-Hassan Hanifes (, ; born 1 March 1913, died 16 March 2002) was a Druze Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Progress and Work between 1951 and 1959.
Biography.
Born in Shefa-'Amr during the Ottoman era, Hanifes studied at a local primary school, before attending a Druze religious centre in Lebanon. During the 1930s he made contacts with the Haganah, and helped enlist Druze during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In 1949 he was appointed
, the party won only one seat, taken by its leader, Salah-Hassan Hanifes. Because of its association with Mapai, the party joined the governing coalition in all four governments of the second Knesset.
In the 1955 elections, the party won two seats. Saleh Suleiman took the second seat, and the party was again part of the coalition.
In 1959, a falling-out between Hanifes and Mapai led to Hanifes setting up a new party, the Independent Faction for Israeli Arabs, to fight the