El-Zoubi was born in 1913 in
Nazareth, where he attended high school. During the
British Mandate of Palestine, he was active in the
Haganah and later received the Fighter of the State Decoration. During the
1948 Palestine war, he convinced the
Zoubi family to throw their weight behind the Jewish side and not for
Fawzi al-Qawuqji's
Arab Liberation Army. In 1949, he was elected to the
Knesset as the leader of the
Democratic List of Nazareth which was a
bloc party of
Mapai. During this time he was a member of the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee. El-Zoubi was re-elected in
1973. In 1974, Progress and Development merged into
Alignment, before leaving it and forming the
United Arab List. He was re-elected for a final time on the United Arab List slate in
1977, before resigning his seat on 3 April 1979. He died in 1986.
Controversy According to Israeli historian Ori Stendel, el-Zoubi used his ties with the Israeli establishment to compensate for the decline of his political power within the
Zubia clan. Historian
Hillel Cohen wrote that el-Zoubi was "upgraded" by
Mapai in exchange for relinquishing national demands and legitimizing land confiscations.{{Cite web ==Publications==