(15.11.2022)
The Islamist Ra’am party stressed on Sunday that although it sits in the opposition, it will not necessarily vote in line with the bloc that opposes incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and will keep the channels of communications open with the next far-right and racist coalition, specifically when it comes to matters that concern Arab-Palestinian communities in Israel.
In the early stages of the campaign, when parties could still merge with others, Lapid begged Merav Michaeli, the leader of Labor, to join forces with Meretz. Even the James Webb telescope would fail to find ideological differences between the two parties. Michaeli, whatever her reasons may have truly been, shot down the idea. Now she could enter history books as the first Labor leader to remain beneath the threshold, and outside the Knesset.
Balad and several of its lawmakers have been disqualified by past elections panels, and have so far won every appeal to the High Court to be reinstated. The party is expected to make a similar appeal to return to November’s contest following Thursday’s disqualification.
Earlier on Thursday, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara released a letter to the committee stating that there was no basis for disqualifying either Balad or the Islamist Ra’am party. The panel ultimately cleared Ra’am’s path to the ballot box, dismissing petitions that alleged the party supported terrorist organizations.
(29.09.2022)
Despite appeals filed alleging that Ra‘am „supports terrorism,“ the vote to allow their running passed 14-0, with representatives from Likud, the Religious Zionist Party, Yesh Atid, and Labor not present.
Israel‘s Defense Minister Benny Gantz of the National Unity Party ruled on Thursday that all of his party representatives on the election committee will vote to disqualify Balad from running for parliament.
(04.04.2021)
Mansour Abbas, the leader of the Islamist conservatives, has emerged as a coalition kingmaker
It seems that the breakup of the Joint List persuaded Arab citizens to vote with their feet and stay home
United Arab List leader Mansour Abbas said Wednesday that he is not „obligated to any bloc or any candidate,“ after the Islamist party surpassed the electoral threshold, with almost 90 percent of the vote counted in Israel‘s unprecedented fourth election in under two years.
Election Overdose podcast, episode 12, five days to go: Did Bibi‘s handling of COVID-19 help or harm his electoral prospects ■ How the center-left opposition failed so miserably ■ Plus: Polls galore and last-minute surprises
„We‘re here to protest police violence and also to call on the police to act against criminal gangs in our communities. We don‘t have a violent message, we just want to live safely in our towns,“ Mahamid said.
Residents of nearby towns also joined the protests, as well as a number of Jewish Israelis and representatives from the Ra‘am and Meretz political parties.
Current Knesset seats in [brackets]
30 [36] Likud + Gesher (Netanyahu)
17 [16] Yesh Atid (Lapid)
13 [03] New Hope (Saar)
11 [03] Yamina (Bennett)
07 [11] The Joint List (Odeh)
07 [09] Shas (Deri)
07 [02] Labor (Michaeli)
06 [07] United Torah Judaism (Gafni)
05 [07] Yisrael Beitenu (Lieberman)
05 [02] Religious Zionist + Otzma + Noam (Smotrich)
04 [12] Blue & White/Israel Resilience (Gantz)
04 [04] Meretz (Horovitz)
04 [04] Ra’am (Abbas)
The Joint List, an alliance of four Arab parties that won a record 15 seats in elections held last year, finalized the break up overnight in which three will run together and the United Arab List, a party led by parliament member Mansour Abbas, will strike out on its own.
One of the main points of the division was Abbas‘ openness to working with Netanyahu or other Israeli leaders to address longstanding issues like crime and housing in Israel‘s Arab community, which makes up around 20% of its population.
Three of the four factions of Joint List – Hadash, Ta‘al and Balad – have signed an agreement for a united bid for Israel‘s March election, parting ways with the conservative United Arab List after a prolonged period of disagreements.
At this stage, it’s not yet clear whether Ta’al might even decide to run jointly with Hadash and Balad, which have agreed to run on a joint slate, or whether it would pursue a link-up with the United Arab List.
In recent months, however, he appears to have formed a quiet alliance with the Joint List’s MK Mansour Abbas, to the chagrin of Abbas’s colleagues.
On Thursday during an unprecedented visit to the Arab town of Tirah to encourage vaccination, Netanyahu said he did not rule out placing an Arab lawmaker on his right-wing list.
(24.12.2020)
(24.12.2020)
Netanyahu will flaunt COVID vaccines and peace, Kahol Lavan might fall into oblivion and the Joint List is facing a split as Israel gears up for its fourth election in two years.