The chair of the Balad faction, Knesset member Sami Abu Shehadeh, posted a video on his Facebook page Aug. 20, saying that the time had come to reconsider the faction’s membership in the Arab Joint List, which was composed of four factions until the last elections — Balad, Ra’am, Hadash and Ta’al. Then, Ra’am decided to run independently.

In light of the current state of affairs in the Joint List, with growing internal disputes, Abu Shehadeh concluded that the time had come for introspection, followed by a lively discussion as to why the Arab sector stopped voting at the same rates as it did in the past.

Abu Shehadeh underscored this, by noting that the number of Arab voters going to the polls has declined considerably over the past few years, so that in the last election it was less than 50%. As he put it, “We made a lot of mistakes, which led to a decline in the status of the Joint List.” Given this situation, and as an effort to pull itself out of the crisis, he conjured that the Arab sector needs a third option and a new political movement, with a platform that is clear to the Arab public.

This was one of the conclusions reached by Balad after examining the party’s standing against the results of the last election. Another conclusion was that the Joint List must not join the other parties in submitting recommendations to the president about which of the leaders of the two big blocs is best suited to serve as prime minister. Furthermore, Abu Shehadeh said that the parties that make up the Joint List should not put undue weight on the question of whether opposition head Benjamin Netanyahu should serve as the next prime minister. It should not be so decisive that it is the ultimate reason for their decision. In other words, Balad and the other factions should not agree to support a center-left coalition, just for the sake of sidelining Netanyahu.