Hassan Jabareen, the director of Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel – credited the Israeli right wing for stimulating the historic agreement of Arab parties to run on a united list.
“The struggle for this joint list started with the right wing, which made Arabs run under one list,” Jabareen said at a press conference in Jerusalem on Thursday, as he addressed the election and the Arab sector.
“This is the first time that they are going to run in one list. It is good news and historic,” he said.
Jabareen told The Jerusalem Post that he is optimistic regarding the election and predicts that Arab turnout will increase.
Asked about the Arab campaign efforts to get out the vote, he responded that there is strong support among the Arab public for the Arab alliance, and the parties are working on a plan now to mobilize the sector.
The United Arab List, Ta’al, Hadash and Balad struck a deal last month to run as a united bloc. The decision to raise the electoral threshold to 3.25 percent of the vote and pressure from the Arab public have forced the parties to band together.
Jabareen basked in the Arab achievement, noting the ideological diversity among the Arab parties that united, which include Arab nationalist, communist and Islamist ideologies.
A principle that unites all the Arab parties is the fight against racism, he said.
Jabareen ruled out the possibility of the Arab bloc joining the coalition that forms a government after the election, since it would be a Zionist one.
The Adalah director also discussed the importance of mobilizing Arab voters, adding that he is optimistic the Arab alliance will get more than the 12 seats predicted in various polls.
Interestingly, Jabareen noted that the head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, Sheikh Raed Salah, decided not to support a boycott of the election as his movement has in the past.
The more hard-line northern branch of the Islamic Movement, unlike the southern branch, opposes participating in Israel’s national elections.
The southern branch is represented by the United Arab List party and its head, Masud Gnaim.