The “Joint List” has no plans to join any government, even one led by the chairman of the Zionist Union, Itzhak Herzog, said Raja Zaatry, spokesman for the Joint List and head of its media campaign, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post released on Monday evening, March 2. Zaatry told the Post that there was no chance that the Joint List will join a Labor-led government at this time, because it does not want to be part of bad decisions that such a government would predictably take. “We cannot be a part of a government that still administers a regime of military occupation against our people,” Zaatry said.
Partial results of poll conducted for the “Knesset TV Channel”: Both the Likud and the Zionist Union predicted to win 24 seats; the Joint List 13 seats; and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, 12 seats. (Photo: Arutz HaKnesset).
Zaatry added, however, “We can support such a government from the outside,” meaning that if the Joint List can help by supporting specific initiatives or by preventing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from forming a coalition after the March 17 election, it will do so. The Joint List calls on Herzog and Zionist Union No.2 candidate, Tzipi Livni, to declare that they will not take part in any national unity government with Netanyahu.
Asked whether the Joint List wasn’t being hypocritical by trying to appeal to Jewish voters while ruling out participation in any government, Zaatry responded that the list would negotiate with Herzog on various issues and make political demands. “But, I don’t think that within a week or two Israel would withdraw from the West Bank and remove settlers.”
The Joint List would support a peace process according to its political platform: “A just peace in the region based on the United Nations’ decisions: to end the occupation in all territories conquered in 1967, to dismantle all settlements and the racist separation fence, to release the political prisoners, to establish a sovereign, independent Palestinian state within the June 4, 1967, borders, with its capital in East Jerusalem, and to find a just solution for the problem of the Palestinian refugees which assures the right of return under UN Resolution 194.”
“Herzog and Livni do not really want us to be a part of their coalition, since we are treated as illegitimate by the “Israeli mainstream, which does not see us as part of the political system,” he said. Reut Mor, the Joint List and Hadash Hebrew-language spokesperson told the Post that the four-party alliance intends to run a positive campaign focused on the real issues, not gimmicks. The campaign is trying to draw support from Jews who voted for Hadash in the past and others on the political left who are attracted by the message of anti-racism and democracy.
