Ma'ale Iron has four elected members[4] and since 2013 the head of the council has been Mustafa Ighbarieh.

[1] The five villages of Ma'ale Iron did not have municipal status and instead were under the administration of mukhtars (village headmen) appointed by the Interior Ministry[5] until 1992 when the Interior Ministry established the Nahal Iron regional council.

The council also included Barta'a, Ein as-Sahala and Mu'awiya in addition to the five current villages of Ma'ale Iron.

Initially the council operated mainly in Bayada and Salem but in the rest of the villages the locals objected to the administrative arrangement and sought independent municipal status.

[6] In 2006 the Interior Ministry suspended Ma'ale Iron's budget for not reporting the wages of council workers.

[7] Because of the dispute, the Interior Ministry dissolved the council and appointed a new one, headed by Michael Iluz from the Shas party.

In 2009 a plea was sent to the High Court of Justice against the current council and to hold local elections.

The court instructed the interior minister to arrange elections but he decided to extend the council's term for another year.

In 2010 the council's members asked to move Ma'ale Iron's headquarters back to Afula due to alleged threats made against them, but the Interior Ministry refused.

The estimated damage in Ma'ale Iron, Umm al-Fahm and Basma was 44 million NIS.