Background
Abourezk was born in Wood, South Dakota, the son of Lena (née Mickel), a homemaker, and Charles Abourezk, an owner of two general stores. He grew up near Wood and lived in South Dakota most of his life.
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Abourezk was born in Wood, South Dakota, the son of Lena (née Mickel), a homemaker, and Charles Abourezk, an owner of two general stores. He grew up near Wood and lived in South Dakota most of his life.
South Dakota School of Mines, University of South Dakota School of Law.
He represented South Dakota in the United States. Senate from 1973 until 1979. Between 1948 and 1952, Abourezk served in the United States Navy during the Korean War. After his military service, he received a degree in civil engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City in 1961 and a law degree from University of South Dakota School of Law in Vermillion in 1966.
He passed the bar, and began a legal practice in Rapid City.
Abourezk was elected as a Democrat to the House of Representatives, and served from 1971 to 1973. He then was elected to the United States. Senate, where he served until 1979.
As a senator, he criticized the Office of Public Safety (Office of Personnel Services), a United States. agency linked to the United States Agency for International Development and the Central Intelligence Agency that provided training to foreign police forces. He chaired the Policy Review Commission the entire time it existed, and then took the gavel as chair of the Indian Affairs Committee from its creation in 1977 to 1979, when he retired.
Abourezk was an early supporter of a National initiative and with fellow Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-Oregon) introduced an amendment allowing more direct democracy.
However, this initiative failed. In 1974, TIME magazine named Senator Abourezk one of the 200 Faces for the Future. In 1978, Abourezk chose not to run for re-election and was succeeded by Republican Larry Pressler, with whom he has had a long-running feud that has lasted until the present day.
Following his retirement in 1980, Abourezk founded the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a grassroots civil rights organization.
In 1989, he wrote Advise and Dissent: Memoirs of South Dakota and the United States. Senate () and he is the co-author—along with Hyman Bookbinder of Through Different Eyes: Two Leading Americans — a Jew and an Arab — Debate United States Policy in the Middle East ()
Abourezk now works as a lawyer and writer in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Criticism of United States. support for Israel
In a 2006 CounterPunch interview, Abourezk argued that America"s support of Israel endures because "the Congress is pretty much reliant on money from radical Zionists".
He also was instrumental in the creation of both the American Indian Policy Review Commission and the Select Committee on Indian Affairs.
Huffington Post writer James Zogby praised Abourezk as a "bold and coureagous former Senator" for protesting to the Federal Bureau of Investigation after the ABSCAM operation and calling all Arab-Americans to "reclaim the right to defend and define their heritage.".
Member of District of Columbia Court Appeals, 8th Circuit Court Appeals, United States Supreme Court, South Dakota & District of Columbia Bar Association, America, America Trial Lawyers Association.
Married Mary Houlton, 1952 (divorced). Married Margaret Bethea, 1982 (divorced). Married Sanaa Dieb, 1991.
Children: Charles, Nikki June, Paul, Alya.