Arab-Israeli parliament members and other candidates join their hands after it was announced that a joint political slate of all the Arab parties will be running in the upcoming elections, during a news conference in Nazareth yesterday.

Agencies/Jerusalem

Four political parties that mostly represent Israel’s Arab minority have decided to run together in elections on March 17, creating a potential counter-weight to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing allies.
Opinion polls suggest the united Arab list could secure 11 seats in the 120-seat parliament, around the same level as they hold individually but with their political influence increased.
The joint slate, finalised on Thursday, was in part a bid for electoral survival since the government has backed legislation raising the threshold for getting into parliament, leaving two of the four parties on the brink of extinction.
The four - Raam (United Arab List), Taal (Arab Movement for Renewal), Balad (National Democratic Assembly) and Arab-Jewish party Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) - cover a range of ideology from Islamist to secular to ex-Communist.
Despite that, Raam lawmaker Masud Ganaim said the list was united in its support for Palestinian statehood and concern about Netanyahu’s efforts to enshrine Jewish statehood in law.
“The Arab community in Israel wants us all to join forces, so we can have more influence and challenge the Netanyahu government’s racist and Judaising policies,” he said.
Pre-election polls put Netanyahu’s Likud party neck-and-neck with the centre-left alliance of Labour leader Isaac Herzog and former justice minister Tzipi Livni. Who gets to form the next government could come down to who garners more partners.
Ganaim said his four-party list may back Herzog and Livni.
“It is being considered,” he said. “We think the political map will shift toward the centre-left, and in such a situation we will have an important role. We would tilt the balance.”
Arabs, mostly Muslim, make up 20% of Israel’s population. Ganaim said some 55% of them take part in national elections, with more than 80% of votes going to Arab parties while a minority back mainstream “Zionist” parties.
Balad leader Jamal Zahalka deemed the four-party list a rebuke to ultra-nationalist Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has sought to sideline Arab politicians he deems disloyal to the state.
“Those who didn’t want Arab parties to have 10 seats in parliament will see them get 15,” Zahalka told Israel radio.
Lieberman’s Israel Beitenu (Israel is Our Home) party, hit by corruption probes and high-profile resignations, is seen taking around 6 parliamentary seats - down from its current 12.
Netanyahu could still find a potent future ally in Economy Minister Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party, which is predicted to win some 15 seats.
Observers see the united Arab list’s formation as a response to a March 2014 law that raised the threshold of minimum votes needed for any representation at the Knesset.
“This list came in response to Arab public demand in Israel (for a united front) and after the Knesset raised the threshold for representation,” political researcher Dr Asi Atrash said.
During previous elections, the threshold was 2% of votes but MPs passed a law raising it to 3.25% in a move slammed by the opposition as an attempt to force Arab parties out of the Knesset.
A survey carried out by Atrash and published on Thursday found that the joint list could boost Arab Israeli voter turnout to as much as 66%, compared to a turnout of 56 percent in the 2013 elections.
Israel’s 1.3mn Arab citizens are the descendants of 160,000 Palestinians who remained on their land when the state of Israel was established in 1948.