The decision by Knesset members of the Joint List of predominantly Arab parties to boycott the funeral of former President Shimon Peres on Sept. 30 continues to stir deep emotions among Israel’s Arab citizens. Many see it as the latest in a string of moves by party members that is deepening the rupture between them and the country’s Jewish society.

In an unprecedented step, several heads of local Arab councils and municipalities decided to publicly oppose the Joint List’s legislators and say that their decision does not represent the views of Israel’s entire Arab population. During the seven-day Jewish mourning period, Mazen Ghnaim, the mayor of Sakhnin who also serves as the head of the local Arab councils, went to the Peres Center for Peace along with some 20 other colleagues from northern and southern Israel. They said they had come to express their condolences to the Peres family in the name of the Arab society they represent.

Despite conducting themselves cautiously and refraining from harsh criticism of the Knesset members, and especially its head Ayman Odeh, their statements essentially challenged the leadership of the alliance of Arab parties that forms the Joint List.

One of the Arab leaders who participated in the condolence visit told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the Joint List's “scandalous” decision, as he called it, had not only been received with disappointment and anger by many of Israel’s Arab citizens, it also portrayed them in an embarrassing light after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas displayed great courage by attending the funeral. “They adopted a holier than thou attitude and caused a deep rift between themselves and the public that elected them,” he said.