Have Israeli-Arab parties sided with Hezbollah?

Hadash and Balad, two of three Arab parties making up the Joint List, issued separate statements slamming the March 3 decision by the Gulf Cooperation Council to include Hezbollah on the GCC's list of terrorist organizations. Whereas Balad’s statement also included criticism of Hezbollah and its involvement in the war in Syria, Hadash’s carefully worded statement could not be construed any other way than as support for the Shiite organization.

Published only in Arabic, Hadash’s statement condemned the GCC as well as Arab interior ministers, claiming they serve Israel’s interests and the ongoing occupation. The photo attached to the condemnation — Lebanese demonstrators waving a Hezbollah flag on the Lebanese border against the backdrop of Israeli communities in the north — gives rise to a strong sense that Hadash did issue a statement in support of Hezbollah.

That statement took many of the faction’s Knesset members by surprise, leaving them embarrassed and confused. According to them, they had no prior knowledge that the controversial statement would be published. Some of them told Al-Monitor that they understand in principle the desire to condemn the decision by the Gulf states, yet the timing of the statement was off and its wording resulted in an internal dispute. Despite the great embarrassment, none of them has taken issue with the content of the statement. “Go to the sponsors of the statement, the bureau members of the Communist Party of Israel, and specifically the party’s secretary-general,” said a Hadash lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We are a party that has a faction and not a faction that has a party,” Adal Amar, secretary-general of the Communist Party of Israel, told Al-Monitor. “There are things we publish because they are in keeping with our ideology as a communist party. And when it comes to such things, we do not involve Hadash Knesset members, who are a political faction.”