* Was a close friend of the late Palestinian terrorist Abu Abbas
* Director of the Nazareth-based Arab Association for Human Rights
Muhammad Zeidan is an Israeli Arab politician and Director of the Nazareth-based Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA), an organization whose literature alleges that Arabs in Israel are “routine[ly]” victimized by racially motivated attacks and all manner of discrimination. Zeidan first joined the HRA staff in 1991.
Zeidan proudly claims to have been a personal companion and confidant of the longtime Palestinian terrorist Abu Abbas, who was apprehended by U.S. troops in Baghdad in April 2003. When Abbas later died of natural causes in March 2004 while awaiting prosecution, Zeidan suggested that his friend actually had been the victim of an “assassination.” Moreover, he openly expressed his hope that U.S. President George W. Bush would also be assassinated. “Abu Al-Abbas was dearer to me than my home and my wife,” said Zeidan. “I spent the most beautiful days of my struggle for Palestine with him, and from him I learned about resistance and patience.”
Zeidan received a BA degree in geography from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He also enrolled in Columbia University’s Human Rights Advocates Program. He later interned at Amnesty International’s General Secretariat Middle East Research Department in London, and at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights’s United Nations Program in New York. In addition, Zeidan received a certificate in NGO administration and strategy from Haifa University in Israel.