Jabareen says Joint List ‘truly ready’ to help secure Knesset majority, repeatedly declines to call Hamas a terror group

Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen, whose party is widely seen as a potential kingmaker of the next ruling coalition, declines to call Hamas a terrorist organization and denies knowledge of Qatari election interference during an interview with Channel 12.

Initial contacts have been made with most of the change bloc leaders, he says.

Jabareen says the unprecedented surge in Arab voter turnout — which jumped from 38 percent in the 2022 elections to nearly 80% — came because “people saw an opportunity to overthrow [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, [Internal Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich and punish them,” punishing them for years of grievances.

“The Arab public saw the situation as a state of emergency, an almost existential election,” Jabareen stresses.

The Joint List is “truly ready” to help build a parliamentary majority in the coming weeks, according to Jabareen, who says informal contacts have begun with opposition parties, including Gadi Eisenkot, Yair Golan and members of Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad party, but not with Avigdor Lieberman. He describes these as early “initial contacts,” not formal talks.

Jabareen brushes off reports that Qatar attempted to interfere in the election as “spin” and “dangerous slander.”

“I don’t know of any interference by Qatar,” he says. “The only interference I know of is [US President Donald] Trump’s message supporting Netanyahu.”

While Jabareen says that his party repeatedly condemned the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, he repeatedly dodges questions about his refusal to call Hamas a terrorist organization. Asked several times for a straight answer, he replies, “My dear, I am not in an interrogation room.”

He adds that the Joint List was firm in its response to the October 7 invasion and massacre:  “We said we condemn the slaughter in the communities on the Gaza border.”

Regarding a speech by former Knesset member Osama Saadi in which he dedicated the Arab parties’ electoral gains to residents of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Jabareen questions his choice of words even as he praises Saadi for providing legal defense to Palestinian families.

On the topic of IDF service, Jabareen reaffirms that the Arab Israeli leaders oppose compulsory military or national service in its current form. The deeper problem, he insists, is the absence of genuine dialogue between the state and the Arab community leadership.