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.
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.
Young Jewish and Arab activists complained that the party did not assign more Jews to realistic places on the list, except for Knesset member Dov Khenin (number 3), and did not give a woman a realistic spot. This mention of a woman in Hadash reminds us of former party member Tamar Gozansky, an exceptional socialistic legislator who was responsible for dozens of laws passed in the Knesset in the domains of human rights and the rights of employees, women and children.
Internal criticism was also expressed toward the party chairman, veteran Knesset member Mohammad Barakeh, for conducting a conservative campaign that focused mainly on the Arab community. But the Arab community did not turn out in large numbers to vote for Hadash or for other Arab parties either.
