Israel Elections: Joint Arab List breaks up, leaving Mansour Abbas out

Ra'am decided to leave the Joint List last week after the other parties refused two ultimatums to vote together against LGBTQ issues, and to allow Abbas greater freedom to vote with the Right.

FEBRUARY 4, 2021 20:54

Updated: FEBRUARY 4, 2021 20:53

Members of the Joint List hold hands to celebrate the signing of their joint run, Feb. 4, 2021. (photo credit: COURTESY JOINT LIST) — Members of the Joint List hold hands to celebrate the signing of their joint run, Feb. 4, 2021.

(photo credit: COURTESY JOINT LIST)

The Hadash, Balad and Ta’al parties – all part of the Joint List in the last election – have agreed to run jointly in the upcoming election.

The agreement was signed overnight on Wednesday at the list’s headquarters in Shfaram, a party spokesperson reported on Thursday.

Ra’am (United Arab List), a conservative Muslim party made up of the southern branch of the Islamic Movement, decided last week to leave the Joint List after the other parties refused two ultimatums to vote together against LGBTQ issues, and to be able to have greater freedom to vote with the Right.

Ra’am’s decision to run alone could prove costly, as recent polls have them hovering at the electoral threshold.

Party leader Mansour Abbas has advocated pursuing alliances with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and parties on the right in an effort to better serve his Arab constituency, but cooperation with Netanyahu is not seen as realistic within the Arab community.

A recent survey found that almost two-thirds of Israeli Arabs believe that Netanyahu’s efforts to forge ties with the Arab sector are either “not so sincere” (15.4%) or “not sincere at all” (50.3%), while a significantly smaller amount found him to be either “very sincere” (5.2%) or “moderately sincere” (10.5%).

Moreover, the same survey found that 55.6% of Israeli Arabs think that Arab leaders should not consider cooperating with Netanyahu, despite his recent efforts to forge ties with them.

The survey also found that the Joint List’s performance over the past two years is rated poorly among Israeli Arabs, especially among young voters. This is evidenced by the drastic drop in mandates the list has seen in polls since the last election.

While 44% of Israeli Arabs over the age of 65 gave the Joint List a good or excellent score, only 13% of those aged 18-24 did.

Balad former chairman MK Mtanes Shehadeh said that Abbas was responsible for the Joint List’s disbandment because he “chose to continue with his own project while looking away from the collective interest of the Arab sector... Netanyahu was not the one who dismantled the Joint List, though he pushed for it. Abbas chose to leave the Joint List,” Shehadeh told Ynet on Thursday.

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He estimated that “in the end, Netanyahu will receive 10,000-20,000 Arab votes.”