51
the ability of some Arab parties to enter the Knesset in doubt.
This change resulted in an important political process that
produced the establishment of the Joint List – a political
alliance that unites four very different Arab political parties
under one roof: Hadash – an Arab-Jewish list with a socialist
bent, which includes a series of Israeli leftist organizations;
Balad – an Arab party that advocates turning Israel into a
“state of all its citizens”; the United Arab List (Ra’am) – an
Islamic-oriented party whose members include officials of
the southern branch of the Islamic movement; and Ta’al –
the Arab Movement for Renewal – headed by Ahmed Tibi,
a party with a secular Palestinian nationalist orientation,
which works to modify the civil and legal status of Israel’s
Arab-Palestinian citizens and narrow the gaps between the
Jewish and Arab sectors by means of affirmative action
policies in all areas, in order to obtain full equality between
Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel. Many Arabs viewed the
raising of the minimum threshold for entry into the Knesset
as an attempt on the part of the Jewish majority to limit Arab
representation in the Knesset. Whether or not this was the
intention of those who devised the law, it resulted in a historic
agreement that established the Joint List, which incorporates
a wide range of ideologies. This required and continues
to require the political leaders of Arab society to find the
common denominator among the various Arab movements,
and to avoid schisms in Arab society and its leadership.
41
Electorally, the Joint list achieved a great success in the
2015 elections, winning 13 Knesset seats compared to a
total of 11 seats for Hadash, Balad and UAL in the previous
Knesset elections. Furthermore, voter participation among
Arab voters was also significantly higher (64%) relative to
the elections in 2013 (58%). According to Saleem Brake, the
Joint List was able to run for the Knesset in 2015 because
it highlighted the commonalities shared by its members. Its
top priority was the desire to serve the Arab population in
Israel and bring about changes in decision-making outside
the coalition too, although this option is not especially
conducive to bringing about fundamental change. Instead,
it makes it possible to surface and foreground the social and
economic challenges facing Arab society in Israel. Arab
representation in the Knesset is symbolic at best, which is
why it is so important to optimize the performance of Arab
MKs in monitoring and resolving the day-to-day problems
faced by the Arab population.
42
It would seem, then, that the focus on the domestic arena
is the pinnacle of achievement among the Arab-Palestinian
intellectuals and Arab political movements in Israel in the past
three decades. That is why the demand for equality between
Arab and Jewish populations in Israel is considered one of
the main goals at this time, and draws a broad consensus
within the Arab society as a whole, as well as among the
experts who will be discussed below. The relationship
41 Mustafa Kabha, “The national conciliation committee and its role
in the establishment of the Joint List: Personal testimony,” Mada
al-Carmel, 2015.
42 Saleem Brake, “The Joint List: Changes in representation and
effective efficiency,” Mada al-Carmel, 2015.
between the Israeli Palestinians and the Jewish majority and
the state has been one of the key aspects in the approach
of Palestinian Israeli theoreticians and politicians, especially
since the start of the peace process with the Palestinians and
the signing of the Oslo Accords (1993), which constituted
a turning point with respect to Arab-Palestinian citizens of
Israel in the national civil context.
In 1998, As’ad Ghanem called the Israeli government a
dictatorship of the majority. Later Ghanem and Yiftachel
wrote “Understanding Ethnocratic Regimes: The Politics of
Seizing Contested Territories,” In their article, they described
a proposal for a political-geographical theory of ethnocratic
regimes, defining such regimes as a distinct type that is
neither a democracy nor a tyranny.
43
A theoretical discussion
on the opportunities for cooperation between Arab and
Jewish academics highlights the conceptual richness and the
potential for practical cooperation between Arabs and Jews.
In another article, Ghanem and Mohanad Mustafa presented
a democratic model as a basis for a future change in the
relationship between the state and its Arab-Palestinian
citizens. In defending their argument, they emphasized
the complexity and unique nature of the case of the Arab-
Palestinian citizens of Israel as opposed to the Palestinians
in general. They argued that a process of democratization
can serve as a firm, profound and comprehensive basis
for the majority-minority relations in Israel. The proposal
is to be based on the desire of the parties to live together
within the framework of a consensual democracy and build
a relationship of trust and full cooperation between the
partners, as a way of life from the bottom up, all the way to
the government, including the elites, by means of education.
44
The authors offer a detailed discussion of theoretical options
for the future of the Arab-Palestinians in Israel. From among
all the approaches and options concerned with the status of
the Arab-Palestinians in Israel, they focused on the model
of the contrast between the native minority and the colonial
entity and its impact on their status. In their review, they relate
to in-depth studies carried out by Palestinians that support
the use of this theoretical framework, such as Edward Said,
Nakhleh and Zureik, Abu-Lughod and more. However, in
their conclusions, the authors do not themselves relate to
Palestinians in Israel in accordance with this approach, but
rather focus on the unique nature of their predicament and
characteristics, and the need to democratize Israel so that
its Arab-Palestinian citizens may enjoy a status equal to that
of its Jewish citizens.
The proposed models demonstrate that ways exist to improve
and maybe even make new starts between Israel and its
Arab-Palestinians citizens, the Palestinians in general and the
43 Oren Yiftachel and As’ad Ghanem, “Understanding Ethnocratic
Regimes: The Politics of Seizing Contested Territories,” Political
Geography 23 (2005): 647–76 (Hebrew version in State and Society
4 (2005): 761–88).
44 As’ad Ghanem and Mohanad Mustafa, The Palestinians in Israel:
The Politics of the Indigenous Minority in the Ethnic State, Ramallah:
Madar: The Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies, 2009.
