The Electoral Council of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash – Jabha) elected last Saturday evening, January 16, the Front’s first five candidates to run for the upcoming general elections for the 24th Knesset scheduled to take place on March 23. Saturday’s national convention was held for first time via Zoom application.

MKs Ofer Cassif (first from left) and Youssef Jabareen (first from right) during the electoral council of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash – Jabha) held last Saturday evening, January 16, 2020; in the center of the dais from left to right are the Chairperson of Hadash and former MK Dr. Afu Aghbaria, Secretary General of Hadash Mansour Dehamshe, and Member of the Hadash Secretariat Indiah Sagheir. (Footage: Hadash Facebook page)

In the previous general elections for the 23th Knesset that were held in March of 2020, Hadash ran as part of the Joint List which won a total of 15 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, five of whom were nominated by Hadash.

For the upcoming elections, the leader of Hadash, MK Ayman Odeh was reelected to continue his leadership of the Joint List. The other four candidates running in the first five places in Hadash’s list are current MKs Aida Touma-Suleiman, Ofer Cassif, Yousef Jabareen and Jaber Asaqla.

Hadash’s electoral platform calls for an end to Israel’s occupation of all Palestinian territories conquered in the June 1967 War as well as the Golan Heights taken from Syria, and for achieving a just, comprehensive, and stable peace between Israel and an independent Palestinian state to be created in those same occupied Palestinian territories. The platform also calls for the protection of workers’ rights; the development of advanced and egalitarian social services (health, education, housing, welfare, culture, and sports); and for full equality for the Arab-Palestinian national minority in Israel.

Among Hadash’s additional goals are the eradication of ethnic discrimination in all fields; the defense of the interests of residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods and development towns; the protection of democratic freedoms in Israeli society; full equality between the sexes in all fields; the protection of the environment and environmental justice; and the eradication of all nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons in Israel and throughout the Middle East.

Related: Hadash MK: In the Post-Trump Era, Israel Faces another Election