The three Palestinian Arab parties have concluded their negotiations and reached an agreement among themselves to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections, the Israeli Knesset elections, with a single list, unless they can reach an agreement with the fourth party, the "United List" led by Mansour Abbas, to contest the elections within the "Joint List".
The three parties are: 1- The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality led by Yousef Jabareen, 2- The Arab Movement for Change led by Ahmed Tibi, 3- The National Democratic Assembly led by Sami Abu Shehadeh. Through this alliance, they can achieve guaranteed success for the three parties, after they contested the previous twenty-fifth elections held on November 1, 2022, with two separate lists, one for the Democratic Front with the Arab Movement for Change, which won five seats, while the National Democratic Assembly failed to cross the electoral threshold and lost its position in the Knesset, and its electoral votes were lost, losing four seats to the larger Likud party, according to Israeli election laws.
In the previous elections, the Democratic Front with the Arab Movement for Change received 193,000 votes and five seats, while the Assembly lost the votes it had received, which were 138,000 votes. If they had contested the elections with a unified list among the three parties, they would have obtained at least eight seats.
The third Palestinian Arab list that contested the previous Knesset elections is the "United List," which received 178,000 votes and five seats. Thus, the Palestinian Arab parties obtained only ten seats, whereas in the elections before that, when a unified list of the four parties was formed, they obtained 15 seats, which demonstrates the importance of alliance, unity, and joint work among the four parties. Moreover, there could be participation by expanding the size of the coalition and alliance to include the Arab Democratic Party led by former MP, lawyer Talab El-Sana, and some prominent national figures such as Ali Bashir, former mayor of Sakhnin, or Mazen Ghnayem, current mayor of Sakhnin and head of the Committee of Heads of Arab Local Councils, and other academic figures, or mayors, or public figures.
The three parties have finalized their position and decision, and what remains is to reach a coalition with the "United List" to be together in a joint list. There are disagreements between them, which they will most likely overcome, namely:
1- Forming the joint list and arranging names according to priorities, especially who will head the list. There is a proposal for rotating the position between Yousef Jabareen, head of the Democratic Front bloc, and Mansour Abbas, head of the "United List" bloc, for two years each.
2- That the alliance remains limited to the elections, and allows for freedom of choice in political dealings for each party after the elections, as the United List sees the necessity of allying with Zionist parties participating in the government, in order to achieve various gains for the living, financial, and employment conditions of the Palestinian Arab community in the administrations of Israeli civil institutions. This is an important direction, in addition to achieving practical gains for the Palestinian Arab community, the people of the '48 areas, the people of the Carmel, Galilee, Triangle, Negev, and mixed coastal cities, as it breaks the cycle of the Zionist understanding that the "state" is a "Jewish state," where Palestinians constitute about 20 percent of the population, thereby achieving the concept of partnership and gradually ending the reality and philosophy of a "Jewish state."
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Upcoming Knesset Elections