NAZARETH (The Thursday Times) — The leader of the Arab party Balad has accused Israel’s main political camps of “racism” for refusing to govern with Arab parties, after a record Arab vote left them holding the balance of power in the next Knesset.
“This is racism,” Sami Abu Shehadeh told Al Jazeera. “We are a legitimate elected leadership of the national minority. The vast majority of our people decided that we are their leadership.”
Arab parties are on course for a record 19 seats. With about 85% of votes counted, the Central Elections Committee has Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc on at least 53 seats and the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot on 48, both short of the 61 needed to govern. Eisenkot and his allies have signalled that they want a Zionist government and will not form one with the Arab parties, while Netanyahu’s Likud on Wednesday claimed the election had been “stolen” by them.
Barred from the ballot
Abu Shehadeh, whose Balad is one of the three parties in the Joint List, was not himself on the ballot. The elections committee voted to disqualify him in September, accepting petitions arguing that he supported armed struggle and denied Israel’s Jewish and democratic character. He withdrew in early October after a majority of the Supreme Court panel signalled it would uphold the ban. He rejects the grounds and said the court had shown that Israel has “two different judicial systems, one for the Jews and one for the Arabs”.
He said the community’s first promise to voters had been to stop “this gang of criminals” returning to power, naming Netanyahu and the far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir. “We are very proud of the Arab Palestinian minority in Israel that went in this very high percentage of voting,” he said. “So our first promise, we can keep it from now.”
‘Political wizardry’
Danny Ayalon, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, told Al Jazeera that the Arab parties would have “significant clout” after turnout came in “really unprecedented numbers”. Eisenkot’s bloc could, on paper, pass the 61-seat mark with the two Arab lists, he said, but that would take “political wizardry”. Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen has said his alliance’s “hands are extended” to oust Netanyahu.
Abu Shehadeh said Palestinian citizens, about a fifth of Israel’s population, wanted “a different political alternative, one which is based on the values of freedom, justice and equality for both people who are living between the river and the sea”.
Read more: how exit polls left Arab parties holding the key.
