He was named and has been set up as a mayor in May 1972 by actual elected and winner Ibrahim Salim Abu-Hmud with 1181 votes, in the second place Ayyoub Musallam with 1007 votes and Elias Freij in third place with 998 votes, in 1976 he was elected. Israel then banned all further municipal elections and Freij remained in office until he stepped down on health grounds in May 1997. He was the only elected Palestinian mayor not deposed by the Israeli military authorities for pro-Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leanings. He was also the only non-PLO mayor to remain in office after the Palestinian National Authority was established. Despite his independence from the PLO, he was part of the PLO delegation to the Madrid Conference of 1991 and was a close confidant of Yassir Arafat.