Waleed Taha

Taha was born on September 7, 1968, and resides in Kafr Kassem, also rendered Kafr Qasim. He is married and has three children.[2]

Before entering politics, Taha worked as a teacher and managed preschools, including a kindergarten network in Ramla.[3][2] He headed the Education and Culture Department in the Kafr Kassem municipality and holds a master's degree in security studies from Tel Aviv University.[3] He also headed the Islamic Movement branch in Kafr Kassem and served on its local Shura Council.[2]

Taha belongs to Ra'am, the United Arab List, which is associated with the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement.[1] He first entered the Knesset in 2019 as part of the Joint List electoral alliance and later became head of Ra'am's Knesset faction.[3][1]

In September 2021, Taha was selected to chair the Knesset Interior and Environmental Protection Committee, replacing Said al-Harumi, who had died the previous month. The committee approved his appointment by six votes to four.[4] Taha said he would manage the committee professionally and without bias, while rejecting criticism that he characterized as racist.[4]

In July 2021, Taha announced that Ra'am MKs would suspend their participation in committee discussions and plenary votes until further notice. Ra'am said the move followed the coalition's failure to advance party priorities, including land and housing issues.[9]

In June 2021, Taha said Ra'am would vote against extending the law restricting family reunification for Palestinians married to Israeli citizens. He called the legislation "racist and anti-democratic" and said it could not pass with Ra'am's support.[10] He opposed a compromise that other Ra'am lawmakers were reportedly willing to consider, making the vote a significant test for the new coalition.[10]

At Ra'am's general conference on August 22, 2026, the party selected its candidates for the coming Knesset election and placed Taha second on its list, after party chairman Mansour Abbas.[11] In an earlier election cycle, a slate reported on February 5, 2021, placed Taha third, after Abbas and Mazen Gnaim.[12]

One of Taha's most prominent legislative efforts was a proposal to amend the Planning and Building Law so that certain homes built without permits could connect to electricity, water, and telephone services.[5] On October 27, 2021, the Knesset approved the proposal in a preliminary reading by 63 votes to 29 and referred it to the Interior Committee.[5]

Taha attributed unpermitted construction in Arab communities to what he described as a deliberate failure by successive Israeli governments to plan those communities, arguing that natural population growth had forced residents to build without permits.[5] He also presented the legislation as a public-safety measure: "There are citizens who paid with their lives because of improvised connections to electricity. The law is intended to ensure that every person receives a basic right to connect to electricity."[6] Government minister Hamed Amar said tens of thousands of homes could be connected under the policy and expressed his belief that most stood on private land.[5]

The measure passed in its second and third readings as Amendment 136 to the Planning and Building Law.[6] It authorized the interior minister to issue an order permitting qualifying residential buildings to connect to electricity if construction had been completed by January 1, 2018, no later addition had been built, and a detailed plan permitting residential use had been submitted and reached a decision to deposit.[6] Property owners also had to advance licensing, provide an appropriate guarantee, and meet deadlines for obtaining a permit.[6] The third-reading vote was 61 in favor, none against, and three abstentions.[13]

The wider problem affected more than 130,000 Arab Israelis estimated to be living in homes unable to connect to the national grid.[14] However, a Sikkuy analysis cited in the report found that only about 1,050 Arab homes appeared to meet the law's specific criteria, illustrating the gap between the amendment's reach and the broader need.[14] The measure could also benefit some homes in ultra-Orthodox communities.[14]

The final readings were sharply contentious. Taha delivered a lengthy speech in Arabic, prompting protests from opposition lawmakers. He responded: "The fact that you do not know Arabic is your problem. Don't understand? Go learn the language."[13] Opposition lawmakers later left the plenum before the final vote.[13] Critics argued that the law could connect unpermitted buildings, including some facing demolition orders, while coalition members maintained that inadequate state planning had left Arab citizens without orderly alternatives.[6]

Taha has repeatedly opposed LGBTQ+ initiatives. In 2020, during a Kan radio interview, he criticized Joint List leader Ayman Odeh for supporting a bill to prohibit psychotherapists from performing conversion therapy, describing Odeh's support as contrary to the views of the society that elected him.[8] Taha said homosexuality was "almost nonexistent" in Arab society, characterized same-sex relations as unnatural, and argued that gay people should be able to undergo treatment intended to change their sexual orientation.[8] A separate account reported similar remarks from a 2019 radio interview.[15]

In February 2022, after Labor MK Ibtisam Mara'ana announced a proposed shelter for Arab LGBTQ+ youth, Taha responded the following day that such a refuge "will not arise and will not be."[7] He opposed a center sheltering people in same-sex relationships, disputed Mara'ana's account of the proposal, questioned her Arab identity, and urged her party to focus on what he described as more pressing problems in Arab society.[7][15]

When Taha was nominated to chair the Knesset Interior Committee in 2021, several opposition lawmakers accused him and Ra'am of supporting terrorism. Likud MK Shlomo Karhi additionally argued that a member of the Islamic Movement should not oversee a committee with authority over planning and construction.[1][4] Taha rejected the accusations, saying that his opponents objected to Arab citizens gaining a meaningful share of influence and resources.[4] Separately, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs reported that Taha did not disseminate Ra'am chairman Mansour Abbas's public condemnations following the terrorist attacks in Be'er Sheva, Hadera, and Bnei Brak in March 2022; the report provided no direct comment from Taha.[16]