Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
United Arab List (Ra'am)
The United Arab List, an Islamist party, has its roots in a nationalist predecessor that was taken
over. In 1988 the Arab Democratic Party (ADP) became the fi rst solely Israeli Arab party in the
Knesset when Abd al-Wahab Darawshe, a Labor MK, left his party to protest its stance on the
First Intifada. The party went through a series of alliances, from which it gained from a high of
four to a low of one seat in the Knesset.
In 1996 the southern faction of the Islamic Movement in Israel, a group that promotes
Islam among Israeli Arabs, gained control of the United Arab List upon merging with it. For-
mally, to meet the legal requirements for a party to run in an Israeli election, the United Arab
List advocates the existence of two states, Israel and Palestine, but Islamists in fact desire to
turn Israel into an Islamist Palestine under shari'a law. Since the merger, the party has won
between two and four seats in the Knesset.
The Islamist Movement's northern faction split away from the Islamic Movement because
it opposed the 1996 merger with the United Arab List. It boycotts electoral politics in Israel
altogether, regarding participation as a recognition of the State of Israel. The Islamists all view
Israel as an illegitimate country but claim to use only democratic means as they work to replace
it by an Islamist state.
The leader of the northern faction, Ra'id Salah, is the son of a retired Israeli police offi cer,
has two brothers still on the force, and draws a government pension as a former mayor of
Umm al-Fahm. Northern faction members have occasionally been involved in terrorist at-
tacks. Both the northern and the southern factions maintain social welfare and educational
groups to mobilize support and promote Islamic piety and traditional social behavior.
Balad (National Democratic Alliance)
Balad is based on an old Arab nationalist group but did not become a party until 1996, un-
der Azmi Bishara's leadership. Formally, the party platform calls for making Israel into “a
state of all its citizens” and recognizing Israeli Arabs as a national minority. It calls for two
states (Israel and Palestine) and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Although the
party leaders' preference is for Israel to be transformed into a Palestinian Arab state and de-
spite the fact that its close ties with Syria were clearly expressed, the Supreme Court over-
turned a CEC ruling in 2003 and 2009 that the party should be not be allowed to run in Israeli
elections.
Accused of having close ties with Hizballah and other anti-Israel terrorist forces, Bishara
fl ed Israel and openly came out as a backer of these groups in 2007. The party has won between
two and three seats in the Knesset since 1999.
Center Parties
Center parties have never done well in Israel for two reasons, at least before the establishment
of Kadima. First, voters had strong party loyalties to Labor and Likud, while supporters of
interest-group parties proved loyal to their single-issue approach (religious or secular, left- or
right-wing, or immigrants' issue) and were even more hostile to the political center. Second,
