UCLA hosted Zeidan Atashi, who spoke about Minorities in Israel: Perspective from the Druze Community.

Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Time: 4:00pm
Location: Bunche Hall 10383, 10th Floor, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095

Zeidan Atashi, an Israeli Druze Arab, was born in 1940. He completed his elementary education in his hometown of Ussifiya and secondary education in Nazareth.
Mr. Atashi served in the Israeli Armed Forces from 1961 - 1963.
From 1965 to 1968, Atashi studied Political Science and Arabic Studies and obtained a B.A. degree from the University of Haifa. He joined Israeli Television that same year as a senior reporter and commentator on Arab affairs. Concurrently, he studied for an M.A. degree in Political Science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and was an assistant professor at Haifa University.
In 1972, Mr. Atashi was appointed Consul and Head of Information Affairs at the Consulate General in New York, and he was appointed as a member of the Israeli delegation to the United Nations, becoming the first non-Jewish Israeli to hold a diplomatic post.
In 1977, Mr. Atashi was elected as a member of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) and played an important role in Israeli Jewish-Arabs relations. From 1982 to 1984 he acted frequently as liaison between the Lebanese and Golan Heights Druze and the Government of Israel, and talked on their behalf in Washington, London, and Geneva.
Mr. Atashi was elected to a second term with the Knesset in 1984. He held many meetings and conducted many joint activities with Palestinian leaders in the occupied territories and overseas.
From 1992 to 1996, he held the post of senior advisor to the Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs. He is a member of the Board of Governors of Haifa University. His book entitled Druze and Jews in Israel - A Shared Destiny? was published in London in 1995.