Born in
Yarka, Israel, Abu Ma'aruf studied medicine in the
Soviet Union after receiving a scholarship from the
Israeli Communist Party, and gained
Russian citizenship. He specialised in urology and family medicine, and currently works at Carmel Medical Centre. He was amongst the first
conscientious objectors in the Druze community, and is an active member of
Physicians for Human Rights. He has also been written for the Communist Party's Arab language newspaper
Al-Ittihad. A member of
Hadash, prior to the
2015 elections he was placed thirteenth on the
Joint List list, an alliance of Hadash,
Balad, the
Islamic Movement, the
United Arab List and
Ta'al. He was elected to the Knesset as the alliance won 13 seats. After he was elected, he was required to give up his Russian citizenship. In 2017 he resigned from the Knesset as part of a rotation agreement and was replaced by
Said al-Harumi from the
United Arab List. ==References==