Tarif served as mayor of Julis and chaired the board of Druze and Circassian mayors. He was a member of the
Labor Party and ran on the
Alignment list for the
1988 Knesset elections. Although he failed to win a seat, he entered the Knesset on 3 February 1992 as a replacement for
Ezer Weizman. He retained his seat in the
June 1992 elections, and in November 1995 was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs in
Shimon Peres' government. He was re-elected in
1996, after which he was appointed Deputy
Speaker of the Knesset. Tarif was re-elected in
1999 (in which Labor ran under the
One Israel umbrella), and in 2001 was appointed a
Minister without Portfolio in
Ariel Sharon's
national unity government, making him the first non-Jew to hold a full ministerial position. He resigned in January 2002 in the wake of a decision to prosecute him on charges of bribery and breach of trust. He lost his seat in the
2003 elections when Labour won only 19 seats, but re-entered the Knesset in November 2005 as a replacement for
Amram Mitzna who left to take over as mayor of
Yeruham. In January 2006, he lost his appeal against conviction on bribery charges He failed to win a seat in the
2006 Israeli legislative election. == See also ==