First published in Haaretz By Avner Cohen

(..) For the first time since perhaps the death of Jewish-Arab communism of the 1950s, a new Israeli left has been born here, a left that carries hope and a new kind of vision.

This new left has a name and a voice and, to be precise, it’s the voice of an Arab woman. Her name is Asma Aghbarieh-Zahalka and she is the leader of the Da’am Workers’ Party. Da’am (Arabic for “solidarity”) is unique both for its joint Jewish-Arab slate of candidates and for a platform that isn’t sectarian or ethnically specific but integrates and embraces many diverse communities. These dual characteristics are something the old Israeli left lost ages ago.