Office: | Mayor of Hura |
Term Start: | 2004 |
Term End: | 2018 |
Birthname: | Arabic: محمد النباري |
Birth Date: | 22 February 1970 |
Birth Place: | Hura, Israel |
Alma Mater: | Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev |
Children: | 6 |
Dr. Muhammad Al-Nabari (Arabic: محمد النباري, Hebrew: מחמד אלנבארי; born 22 February 1970) is a Bedouin, citizen of Israel, who served as the mayor of Hura, a Bedouin village in the south of Israel. He was elected in 2004, when he was only 34 years old. During his tenure, Al-Nabari successfully decreased the unemployment rate, improved the education system and developed four models to provide employment for the men and women of Hura. Al-Nabari received the Movement for Quality Government in Israel award, for local government for his achievements in Hura.[1] [2]
Muhammad Al-Nabari was born in Hura. At a young age he decided to move away from his home town, and to study in one of the best Arab schools in Israel back then, which was located in Baqa-Jatt. When Al-Nabari finished school he worked in fruit-picking for one year, then he enrolled in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to study Chemistry. He continued his studies and earned a master's degree in Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and then moved on to do his Ph.D. in the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is married and has six kids.
Al-Nabari did his Ph.D. in the subject of Organic chemistry under the guidance of Prof. Shmuel Bittner. His doctorate title was Synthesis of Natural Products, Quinones Enaminones.
Al-Nabari finished his academic period and went to work for a pharmaceutical company called ChemAgis (now Perrigo). During his time in the academia and at work Al-Nabari registered 12 patents, some of them for treatments of Alzheimer's disease and brain cancer.
Patents List:
Al-Nabari entered politics in 2004 when he was elected as the mayor of Hura. He received a lot of media coverage due to the radical changes and innovative initiatives he introduced to Hura. When he entered the office in 2004 the municipal tax collection rate was 2%; in 2015 it was 86%. The budget of the municipality in 2004 was 29 million shekels, but in 2015 it was already 132 million shekels. Al-Nabari also built a sewage purification institute, started a catering social business that employs single mothers,[3] [4] and opened a call center that employs young Bedouin students. He created a municipal business corporation; initiated a project called Wadi Attir together with Dr. Michael Ben-Eli, which is a unique sustainable agriculture enterprise; and started a high school for intellectually gifted children in Hura.[5] [6]
Al-Nabari is also the founder of the young Bedouin leadership program called Desert Stars. He serves in the management board of The Abraham Fund Initiatives and as a Trustee in the Sapir Academic College.