An attempt to reunite Israel’s main Palestinian political parties ahead of October’s election is at risk of unravelling, with the head of the committee tasked with resolving their differences telling The New Arab that the parties have a responsibility to honour the agreement they signed.
Mohammed Ali Taha, head of the Reconciliation Committee that was brought in after the parties struggled to agree among themselves, urged Ta’al leader Ahmed Tibi to reconsider his rejection of the proposed joint electoral list.
“From a moral and social perspective, in the interests of our people, in order to fight violence and this oppressive government and replace it with a less harmful one, to increase voter turnout, and for the sake of unity, everyone who signed must, as a matter of principle, honour their signature and implement the decision of the Reconciliation Committee,” Taha told TNA.
The appeal came after Tibi rejected the proposed list on Sunday, throwing renewed uncertainty over an alliance that Palestinian political leaders had spent months trying to revive.
Ta’al, the Jewish-Palestinian leftist Hadash and the Palestinian nationalist Balad announced in May that they would contest the election together, reviving a political alliance that at its peak won 15 seats in the Israeli parliament.
But agreeing to reunite proved easier than deciding who would represent them.
After negotiations over the ordering of candidates reached an impasse, the three parties handed the task to the Reconciliation Committee, effectively asking an outside body to settle a dispute they had been unable to resolve themselves.
Now the committee’s proposed solution has itself become the source of the latest crisis.
Taha told TNA that the committee had weighed a series of politically sensitive considerations when drawing up the list, including the relative strength of the parties and representation for Palestinian communities in the Naqab desert, where Bedouin communities face displacement and home demolitions by Israeli authorities.
Tibi was given second place on the proposed list and the chairmanship of the parliamentary bloc, Taha said, despite Balad having a larger constituency.
Two members of the Reconciliation Committee have since resigned following the breakdown in negotiations.
Ta’al declined TNA’s request for comment, but has publicly described the committee’s proposal as “unfair, strange, and objectionable”.
‘It’s still not too late’
Hadash is also pressing Tibi to reverse course.
A Hadash spokesperson shared a statement with TNA from the party’s new leader, Yousef Jabareen, who warned against abandoning the alliance.
“It’s still not too late. We must not ignore the will of the public. We must not give up on the hope for real change: the hope for a strong, broad, and united joint list,” Jabareen said. “I am optimistic. I believe we can find a formula that will be acceptable to all three lists, and together reach 10 seats.”
For Jabareen, the stakes extend beyond the number of Palestinian representatives elected to the Knesset.
“This is the best way to ensure that the Netanyahu-Ben Gvir-Smotrich government does not return, and it is also the best way to build a shared future for all the citizens,” he added.
Balad, which also declined TNA’s request for comment, called on all three parties to meet on Monday to formally announce the joint list and approve a political programme and strategy for the election campaign.
Earlier, Balad issued a statement announcing its commitment to the Reconciliation Committee’s decision. It stressed that “the negotiations phase is now behind us, and the priority is to formally announce the list, immediately launch the political and electoral campaign, and form the working teams within the next two days.”
Balad said that “throughout the past month, it chose to refrain from media statements and public disputes over the details of the negotiations, based on its conviction that the priority at this stage is not to preoccupy our public with internal disagreements, but rather to prepare for one of the fiercest and most important electoral battles facing our Arab community in decades, amid the rise of fascism, racism and incitement, and given the scale of the political challenges facing our people.”
It called on “the leaders of the three parties and their teams to meet immediately… to formally announce the three-party list, establish the political, media, organisational and field teams, and approve the political programme and strategic campaign plan, based on the discussions and joint efforts carried out over the past year.”
The National Democratic Assembly, Balad, also stressed that “now is the time for action, and the success of the list will not be measured solely by completing its composition, but by its ability to restore hope and confidence among our public, increase voter turnout and Arab representation, and transform electoral unity into a political and grassroots force capable of confronting the expansion of fascism and the racist Zionist consensus against the Arab parties, bringing down the right-wing government and its project, and resisting attempts to impose military conscription.”
From 15 seats to fragmentation
The proposed list would place Jabareen first, followed by Tibi and Balad leader Sami Abu Shehadeh, according to Israeli media, citing a Hadash spokesperson.
Hadash’s Jafar Farah would take fourth place, followed by Balad’s Bakhar Awadeh and Hadash’s Ofer Cassif and Youssef Atauna.
Balad’s Maha Karkabi would be eighth, followed by an unspecified Ta’al candidate and Hadash’s Nihaya Washahi. Balad’s Hassan Nassasra, another unspecified Ta’al candidate and Hadash’s Ayas Natour would occupy the next three positions.
If the alliance secured the 10 seats Jabareen believes are within reach, Hadash would receive five, Balad three and Ta’al two, despite Tibi occupying the second position on the overall list.
That allocation is now at the centre of a dispute threatening a political reunion that its architects hoped would reverse years of fragmentation among Palestinian parties.
The Joint List was once one of the largest blocs in the Knesset.
Hadash, Ta’al, Balad and Ra’am ran together in 2020 and won 15 seats, demonstrating the electoral strength Palestinian parties could command when united.
But the alliance subsequently fractured.
Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am broke away and later joined the coalition government led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid in 2021. Balad then ran separately in the 2022 election.
The renewed effort by Hadash, Ta’al and Balad to run together in October had been intended to overcome those divisions at a moment when Palestinian political representation could again prove consequential to the formation of Israel’s next government.
It is also unfolding as Palestinian citizens of Israel face mounting pressure from the country’s government and as far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich wield significant influence over policies affecting Palestinian communities.
For the Reconciliation Committee, the dispute now comes down to whether the parties will accept the compromise they had asked it to produce.
Taha’s message to them was that the consequences of failing to do so extend beyond who occupies which place on an electoral list.