Israeli Arab parties to contest Sept polls unitedly

JERUSALEM

Israel’s Arab parties have pledged to contest upcoming elections to the 120-member Knesset (parliament) unitedly, to increase their representation.

After hectic negotiations, the heads of four Arab parties decided to prepare a joint list of candidates for the September elections. The parties, who contested last April polls in two blocks, performed badly. Now they have decided to prepare a joint list, instead of two separate lists, to enable Arab voters to unite behind them.

In a joint statement issued on Thursday, four Arab parties -- the Arab Movement for Change, the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement and the National Democratic Assembly -- said fighting elections unitedly was the only choice for them.

Elections in Israel are based on nationwide proportional representation. According to the procedure, which is much different from the British Westminster system, the number of seats accorded to the political parties depends on the number of popular votes it receives. The electoral threshold is currently set at 3.25%. The citizens, therefore, vote for their preferred party and not for any individual candidates.

The four parties stressed the need to expedite the completion of the joint list to enable them to launch a strong electoral campaign in order to increase political representation of the Arabs in the Knesset.

"We are absolutely committed to running on the joint list and to begin formulating a political platform and a strategic and administrative plan," Israel’s Jerusalem Post quoted leaders, after a meeting of parties.

These four parties contested 2015 elections on a joint list, and succeeded to secure 13 seats but fared badly in last April elections, winning only 11 seats, as they contested in two blocks.

It was reported that Arab voters did not participate largely in the last Israeli polls, due to the lack of unity between the Arab parties.

According to official Israeli statistics, more than 1.5 million Arabs are living in Israel, accounting to 20% of Israel’s total population.

Israel is slated to hold snap elections on Sept. 17. The fresh elections were necessitated after Benjamin Netanyahu was unable to sew-up an alliance to secure requisite numbers, mandatory to form the government. He could not convince former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman, who heads the right-wing nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, to be part of the coalition.