Name Issawi Frej | Role Politician | |
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Date of birth (1963-12-14) 14 December 1963 (age 52) Knessets Israeli legislative election, 2013, Israeli legislative election, 2015 Profiles | ||
Place of birth Kafr Qasim, Israel | ||
Issawi Frej (Arabic: عيسوي فريج, Hebrew: עיסאווי פריג'; born 14 December 1963) is an Israeli Arab politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Meretz.
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Biography
Issawi Frej was born in Kafr Qasim. His grandfather was killed in the Kafr Qasim massacre, Frej is the eldest of twelve children. In 1982 he began studying accounting and economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and later worked as an accountant. Whilst at university he joined the joint Jewish-Arab "Campus" group, and subsequently joined the Ratz party, which later merged into Meretz. He served on the secretariat of Peace Now and was involved in the Geneva Accord.
Frej is married with seven children.
Political career
Frej first ran for the Knesset in 2003, and was placed sixteenth on the Meretz list for the elections that year. However, the party won only six seats. For the 2006 elections he was placed seventh, but Meretz won only five seats. In the 2009 elections he was placed ninth, but again failed to win a seat as Meretz was reduced to three MKs. However, after being placed fifth on the party's list for the 2013 elections, he entered the Knesset after the party won six seats. Frej was re-elected in the 2015 elections after being placed third on the Meretz list.