The increasingly divided Joint Arab List - Jalal Bana

 

​ by Jalal Bana

Arab parties will need to work a lot harder this election campaign to make sure their constituents don't heed the promises of the Likud and Netanyahu.

Although the Joint Arab List is still operating as a united faction in the Knesset, it seems a bitter war is raging between two of its members: the Hadash party and the Ra'am party representing the Islamic Movement's Southern Branch. Polling institutes specializing in Arab society have been working around the clock for quite some time to provide both parties fighting to lead the list with the infrastructure necessary to prove who is more popular among Arab voters. This is all happening as polls predict Arabs will be less likely to vote in the upcoming election.

Every political party wants to embarrass its rivals. Hadash members have attacked the Islamic Movement and its representative MK Mansour Abbas for negotiating with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud in recent months. Indeed, Abbas and his party are paying a high price for the move. On the other hand, members of the Islamic Movement's Southern Front are reminding voters how Hadash's representatives voted in support of a law banning gay conversion therapy, accusing them of excessive support for the LGBT community, a phenomenon deemed unacceptable among more conservative members of Arab Israeli society,

In what may be an effort to demonstrate its popularity and pragmatism, or possibly even its openness to dialogue with the Likud, which has in fact earned the support of the Arab public, Ra'am announced it was open to figures that are not aligned with its political, ideological, or religious beliefs.  This is a new approach aimed largely at signaling to members of the Joint Arab List that should the Islamic Movement see fit, it is capable of running independently for Knesset. As with any other Arab party, however, Ra'am's chances of passing the electoral threshold are slim. Prior to the creation of the Joint Arab List faction, the largest Arab party failed to garner 130,000 votes in an independent run for the Knesset, and that was before the electoral threshold was raised to 3.25% in 2014.

The disconnect between the Islamic lawmakers and the rest of their Joint Arab List colleagues is also getting worse by the day.  This was made apparent at several recent events where Abbas and his fellow party members stood far away from the other members of the Joint Arab List, preferring not to speak even at a time when they were meant to at least give an appearance of solidarity.

It seems the war being waged between the parties that comprise the Joint Arab List is growing more intense, though it remains unlikely any member party will find the courage to run on its own. Nevertheless, the Arab parties will need to work a lot harder than they have in the past to earn the Arab vote when they are busy quarreling among themselves. They will also need to explain why Arab voters should not believe the campaign promises of the Right, and the Likud and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in particular, as it tries to earn the Arab sector's trust and its vote for the first time in decades.

 

Jalal Bana 

 Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/the-increasingly-divided-joint-arab-list/ 

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