Balad’s 1 MK announces that he’ll back no one to serve as next prime minister

The Palestinian nationalist Balad party says it will not recommend any candidate be tapped with forming the next government.

“All the candidates deny the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and support continuing the occupation, expanding settlements, Judaizing Jerusalem and targeting Al-Aqsa Mosque and all holy sites,” the party’s politburo says in a statement.

Balad, which is part of the Arab Joint List, has only one parliamentarian in the upcoming Knesset: party chief Sami Abou Shehadeh. As early as February, Abou Shehadeh had publicly insisted that he would not consider recommending Yair Lapid for prime minister, who was already seen as the politician likely to get the most mandates after ruling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The party calls on the rest of the Joint List to refrain from recommending anyone to President Reuven Rivlin.