Joint List splits as elections near
Ra'am has left the Joint List, saying it can't do the work needed to effect decision-making in Israel while tied to lawmakers who refuse to engage in the political process.
Feuding between the parties that make up the Joint List had been going on for some time. It all ended when the Feb. 4 deadline arrived for the parties running for the 24th Knesset to submit their lists of candidates to the Central Election Committee. Suddenly, the Joint List was no more, at least in its previous constellation. It formally split up when the Ra’am faction, led by its chairman, Knesset member Mansour Abbas, submitted a separate list of candidates. Ra’am had decided to run on its own without the other parties that made up the Joint List.
Upon submitting his list, Abbas announced that Ra’am was setting off on a new path. “We are neither left nor right. We will work with everyone to advance the issues important to Arab society. We will work with anyone who works with us, in accordance with our values and the interests of the Arab public. As for whom we will recommend to serve as prime minister, we will leave that until after the election, once we have had a chance to examine every option.”
The head of the Joint List, Knesset member Ayman Odeh, submitted a list for the remaining three parties: Hadash, Ta’al and Balad, saying, “We continue to follow the path of equality through strength.” Knesset member Aida Touma-Suleiman (Hadash) explained, “The list that we are submitting today is the Joint List. Hadash is running in partnership with Ta’al and Balad. It is the same Joint List, even more closely united over its political principles and its approach to the struggle.” In an interview with Makan Radio that day, Knesset member Ahmad Tibi declared that he is “prepared to give up my second-place slot in favor of Ra’am in order to keep all the parties that make up the Joint List intact.”
This is not the first time that the Joint List has split apart. On the eve of the April 2019 election, Tibi announced that he was leaving the Arab political alliance because he felt that his own party, Ta’al, did not receive adequate representation within the list of candidates. It resulted in two Arab coalitions running separately: Hadash-Ta’al, which won six seats, and Ra’am-Balad, which won four.
