Obituaries - July 6, 1994

Tawfik Zayyad; Arab-Israeli Mayor of Nazareth

Tawfik Zayyad, 65, the Arab-Israeli mayor of Nazareth and a well-known poet. A leftist legislator since 1974, Zayyad helped to lead Arab legislative backing for Israel’s agreement with the PLO on limited Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and Jericho. Parliament Speaker Shevah Weiss called Zayyad “a bridge between Arabs and Jews and a bridge to peace.” Zayyad was first elected to Israel’s Knesset in 1974 and had been mayor of Nazareth for the past 19 years. The politician was returning from Jericho where he had welcomed Yasser Arafat and invited him to visit Nazareth, the place where Jesus is believed to have spent his childhood. On Tuesday near Jerusalem in a head-on automobile collision.