A leading Knesset member of the predominantly Arab Joint List has described press reports of a $3.8 billion budget to improve Arab communities in Israel as exaggerated. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Knesset member Aida Touma-Sliman commented, “Our estimate is that it amounts to nearly 10 billion shekels [$2.5 billion].”

Touma-Sliman further said of the funds earmarked for fixing dilapidated Arab communities, “This is a third of what we had suggested based on a five-year plan that we worked out with our experts that estimated there is a need for 32 billion shekels [$8.15 billion].” She was quick to add that the provision of funds aimed at improving the Arab communities will not water down demands for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

“Ending the occupation is a basic condition for our people to gain equality. As long as the government is looking at our people as enemies, and as long as there is occupation and settlements, the priority will always go to the defense budget and to settlements. For us, the battle for equality and ending the occupation are inseparable,” asserted Touma-Sliman.

It has not escaped Touma-Sliman's attention that the third-largest party in the Israeli Knesset and the second-largest opposition faction has only been allowed to lead one committee — the Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality — which she heads as the only Palestinian committee chair. She told Al-Monitor that historically, the second-largest opposition faction is given the chair of the comptroller committee, but this was not the case this time. “The comptroller committee reviews the work of the army and is allowed to formally request and question the prime minister. A ruthless campaign prevented us from having that committee.”