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Barakeh: Arab-Israelis A Faceless Entity

Knesset member Mohammad Barakeh, leader of the bi-national party Hadash, explains to Mazal Mualem why the most social justice-oriented party in Israel did not benefit from the fruits of Israel’s social-protest movement, and points an accusing finger at the government and the media for ignoring Israel's Arab citizens.
A woman walks past campaign posters for the Arab-led Hadash party in the Israeli-Arab city of Umm al-Fahm December 26, 2012. Disillusioned, disappointed and divided, Israeli Arab voters will traipse to the polls next week in ever dwindling numbers, aware that none of their community will have any say in how the country is run. Picture taken December 26, 2012. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS) - RTR3CHRM
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Hadash was around long before social justice issues became trendy. The most social-justice oriented party in Israel has been dealing with these issues for decades, but in the recent elections, when the nation finally demanded social justice, the Jewish-Arab party did not succeed in reaping the fruits of the protest. Something went wrong; the elections left Hadash with only four mandates, exactly as in the outgoing Knesset.

The main reason for the failure of the bi-national party is the fact that it was not able to attract the youths who took an active part in the [social-justice] protest. Those youths identified with the protest movement but not with Hadash, which remained an ultra-nationalistic Arab party to them.

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