The Knesset rejected a bill submitted by Yesh Atid, which would have prevented anyone under indictment from being asked to form a government. Fifty-seven Knesset members voted against the bill, while only 37 voted for it on Aug. 12. This can be attributed to the absence of the Blue and White party from the plenum at the time of the vote. Also conspicuous in their absence were Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked and Matan Kahane of Yamina.

The Blue and White party’s decision came as a surprise, given all of party leader Benny Gantz’s statements before the election about how he would never sit in a government with a prime minister under indictment. Equally surprising, however, was an announcement by Chairman of the Arab Joint List Knesset faction Ahmad Tibi, who said, “The members of the Joint List — all of them — would vote for the bill preventing a prime minister from serving if he is under indictment.” What caught everyone’s attention was the way he stressed “all of them.”

Ostensibly, there was nothing out of the ordinary about this statement. Nevertheless, it seemed as if the chairman of the Knesset faction was eager to make it, given tensions between the different parties that make up the Joint List. This began last month, when a bill banning homosexual conversion therapy passed its initial reading in the Knesset July 22, with the support of Knesset members from Hadash, one of the parties that make up the Joint List. Other members of the list were outraged, resulting in a crisis of sorts within the party. Particularly offended by the vote were the members of the Ra’am faction, which represents the Southern Branch of Israel’s Islamic Movement. Ra’am Chairman Mansour Abbas released a statement saying, “The continued existence of the Joint List depends on the behavior of its members in the near future.”

There is no doubt that the proposed conversion law generated a serious conflict within Arab society in Israel, as Danny Zaken wrote for Al-Monitor. It was a conflict that extended into the Joint List, since each side in the dispute wanted to appear attentive to its voters. A source close to the Joint List told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “It looks like Ra’am felt the pressure from their colleagues in the [more extreme] Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement over the proposed legislation, so they decided to flex some muscle in their dealings with [Joint List leader] Ayman Odeh.”