The Joint List released a campaign message on Tuesday evening, March 3, named “On Behalf of the People,” which was disseminated in the Arabic- and Hebrew-language media and social networks. Raja Zaatry, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Israel and the spokesperson for the Joint List’s media campaign, said that the video in Arabic aimed at represent all sectors of Arab-Palestinian society in Israel. The video includes Arabs from Jaffa, Acre, Haifa, Nazareth, Umm el-Fahem, and the Negev, he said.

Ayman Odeh (Hadash), the head of the Joint List at Haaretz’ conference on elections and democracy in Israel, February 2015. (Photo: Haaretz)

The main message of the Joint List is the motto: “The People’s Will” which seeks to convey that “we have an opportunity to be more powerful and stand up for our rights and get 15 Knesset seats,” Zaatry said. In addition, the Joint List wants to show that it wants to deal with governmental and public racism and “will not give up our rights in our homeland,” he said. “We are concentrating on raising Arab turnout from 56 percent in the last election to 70 to 75 percent, which would also help prevent the racist Lieberman[’s party] from passing the electoral threshold.”

Reut Mor, spokesperson for the Joint List and Hadash in Hebrew, announced that a Hebrew-language video was also released. The Joint List focused on two messages in its Hebrew ad. The first is a political one – a vote for the Joint List is a safe one, because the list is committed to not serving in a government headed by Netanyahu. The second is strategic – there are other people like you, who are outraged about racism, discrimination, and exploitation in Israel’s capitalist society.