Joint List submits Knesset slate, vows to fight ‘racism and supremacy’

The predominantly Arab Hadash-Ta’al-Balad Joint List submits its slate of candidates for the upcoming election to the Central Elections Committee, declaring itself “the only alternative to racism and supremacy.”

Hadash chairman Yousef Jabareen heads the ticket, followed by longtime Ta’al leader MK Ahmad Tibi and Balad chairman Sami Abou Shahadeh. Hadash’s Faten Ghattas is placed fourth, followed by Balad’s Bakr Awawdeh and Hadash MK Ofer Cassif. Former Hadash MK Youssef Atauna places seventh.

Cassif is one of two Jewish candidates on the Joint List slate. The second, Orly Noy, who is the first Jewish member of Balad, is in a largely symbolic 15th place.

According to recent polling, the Joint List is projected to win seven seats in next month’s elections.

The slate underwent a change last week, with Hadash replacing Jafar Farah in fourth place with Ghattas, a longtime party activist and senior Israel Cancer Association official. The party removed Farah following an internal examination of sexual harassment allegations made against him by several women.

In a statement, the alliance says its return after Balad’s split from Hadash-Ta’al ahead of the 2022 election marks the beginning of political change “following four years of a Knesset that restricted democratic space and passed anti-democratic legislation targeting Arab society and the country’s democratic forces.”

It pledges to oppose “the destruction of Gaza, ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and the political persecution of the country’s Arab citizens.”

“Only the Joint List will fight for equality, peace and genuine partnership,” it says.

The alliance does not include the Islamist Ra’am party, which submitted a separate slate, or the fledgling Jewish-Arab Makom LeKulanu party, which withdrew from the race shortly before today’s deadline due to low polling figures.