Arab parties

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with representatives of the Joint (Arab) List party to discuss enlarging the budgets for Arab towns in Israel, at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, on August 31, 2015. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

June 23, 2019, 7:46 pm

Likud MK says Netanyahu mulled forming coalition with Arab parties

Miki Zohar says PM ultimately rejected reaching out to Ra’am-Balad and Hadash-Ta’al, as he scrambled to cobble together government; parties deny claim

By Jacob Magid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu casts his vote during Israel's parliamentary elections in Jerusalem, on April 9, 2019. (Ariel Schalit / POOL / AFP)

April 9, 2019, 4:33 pm

Likud’s hidden cameras at polling stations are this election’s ‘Arabs in droves’

Arab Israelis have never been part of the government, and won’t be in the next one either, but as Netanyahu’s bogeymen they’ve again been drawn into an outsized role in elections

By Raphael Ahren

An Arab Israeli woman casts her ballot at a voting station during municipal elections, in Kafr Qasim, on October 30, 2018. Roy Alima/Flash90)

March 21, 2019, 11:39 am

Poll: 73% of Arab Israelis favor joining coalition; voter turnout on the rise

Despite Gantz’s comments ruling out alliance, survey suggests most Arab Israelis optimistic about prospect; community’s participation in elections has risen significantly from 2013

By TOI staff

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz at a town hall meeting in Beersheba, on March 11, 2019. (Saria Diamant/Blue and White)

March 11, 2019, 11:42 pm

Gantz: We’re willing to sit in government with ‘anyone Jewish and Zionist’

Blue and White leader appears to rule out future coalition with Arab parties; calls on Netanyahu to resign, as pre-trial hearing scheduled to be held before July

By Raoul Wootliff

Deputy Supreme Court President Justice Salim Joubran attends a ceremony for newly appointed judges at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, on July 20, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

February 26, 2019, 5:49 pm

Ex-justice: Netanyahu’s anti-Arab election rhetoric ‘deeply hurtful’

Salim Joubran says ‘unfortunate’ that PM used ‘the Arab issue’ to paint rival Benny Gantz as a weak, unpatriotic and leftist candidate

By Tamar Pileggi

Yair Lapid of the Blue and White party, in Tel Aviv on February 21, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

February 25, 2019, 2:03 pm

Lapid: Blue and White will seek coalition with post-Netanyahu Likud if it wins

Co-leader of centrist alliance with Benny Gantz recorded promising not to cooperate politically with Arab parties; Labor slams remarks

By Michael Bachner and Raoul Wootliff

Chairman of the Joint list party, Ayman Odeh, at the plenary session of the opening day of the winter session at the Knesset, October 15, 2018. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

February 23, 2019, 4:42 am

As Joint List splits, Israel’s Arab voters have more choices, less power

Political infighting fractures alliance ahead of elections, raising possibility minority will lose clout in Knesset

By Sam Sokol

Leader of the Joint (Arab) list, Ayman Odeh, seen during a vote on the bill that would allow MKs to suspend lawmakers from the Knesset, March 28, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

April 9, 2017, 9:10 pm

Mostly mum on chemical attack, Israel’s Arab MKs divided on Assad

Joint List leader Ayman Odeh says his ‘heart aches’ for infant victims of chemical attack, but stops of short condemning regime

By Raoul Wootliff

Image of Adal Amar, head of the communist faction in the Arab-Jewish Hadash party. (Credit: YouTube)

December 18, 2016, 12:16 pm

Arab-Israeli party official denies backing Assad

Head of Hadash’s communist faction says his praise for ‘unification of Aleppo’ doesn’t mean he supports Syrian president

By Dov Lieber

Syrian pro-regime fighters gesture as they drive past residents fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood, in Aleppo. December 13, 2016. (AFP/Stringer)

December 17, 2016, 10:59 pm

Arab party under fire for supporting Assad on Aleppo

Hadash chair issues clarification after head of its Communist faction calls regime actions in city ‘turning point in defeating imperialist assaults’

By TOI staff

Arab MK Hanin Zoabi at a hearing on her case at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, December 9, 2014 (photo credit: Hadas Parush/Flash90)

February 6, 2015, 1:58 am

Zionist Camp joins bid to ban Hanin Zoabi from running

Meretz defends controversial MK’s right to ‘push boundaries of free speech’; Herzog and Livni’s list also moves to disqualify far-rightist Baruch Marzel

By TOI staff

MK Masoud Ghanaim at his office in Sakhnin, January 26, 2015 (photo credit: AP/Dan Balilty)

February 1, 2015, 6:32 pm

‘No matter how left-wing,’ Arab parties won’t join coalition

Still, Masud Ganaim, No. 2 in the new joint Arab list, says he prefers Livni and Herzog over ‘racist’ Netanyahu government

By Elhanan Miller

January 29, 2015, 12:09 pm

Right-wing parties seek to bar MK Zoabi from elections

Controversial Arab lawmaker has faced sanctions over statements deemed supportive of Palestinian terrorism

By Judah Ari Gross

Arab-Israeli Knesset members and candidates announce a unity deal at a press conference on January 23, 2015 in the northern city of Nazareth (photo credit: AFP/AHMAD GHARABLI)

January 28, 2015, 1:27 am

As Arab MKs unite, a new political landscape emerges

Communists, Palestinian nationalists and religious Muslims band together for the first time, in hopes of rallying Israel’s largest minority and unseating Netanyahu

By Areej Hazboun and Daniel Estrin

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman speaks at a press conference in Tel Aviv on January 15, 2014. Photo credit: Ben Kelmer/Flash90)

January 24, 2015, 9:15 pm

Liberman’s party calls to disqualify new united Arab faction

Yisrael Beytenu to file petition with Central Elections Committee to bar joint list from running for Knesset

By TOI staff