While the Joint List had hoped to gain 15 Knesset seats in the elections for Israel’s 20th Knesset, it still achieved a considerable success with the 13 seats it won – five of them being leading activists from Hadash: Ayman Odeh, (from Haifa); Aida Touma-Sliman (Akko), Dr. Dov Khenin (Tel-Aviv), Dr. Yousef Jabareen (Umm al-Fahem), and Dr. Abdallah Abu-Maaruf (Yarka).
Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List, said: “While the national right-wing camp and Netanyahu surprised many in the country and kept their reign we, the Joint List, are now the third largest faction in the Knesset and this is the first time that the forces of democracy and peace have reached this position since Israel’s founding. We also achieved another goal – the Yachad faction along with Eli Yishai and the racist Baruch Marzel remain outside the Knesset. Now our work will begin to make a real impact and bring about achievements for the Arab and all other exploited citizens of Israel.”
New MK Touma-Sliman expressed her own hopes: “I would like to deal with social issues in the next Knesset and the civil rights of the Arab population of Israel, along with women’s rights with which I have been occupied for more than 20 years and with which I intend to be occupied in the future.” Touma-Sliman added: “Specifically, I will focus on the employment of Arab women and legislation to protect women from violence. Of course the diplomatic issue cannot be ignored nor can additional aspects of political activity.”
Hadash campaign poster reads “It’s either us — or them.”
Referring to the election results, Touma-Sliman said: “The results we achieved both encourage and strengthen us. The Arab public gave us a broad vote of confidence, clearly demonstrating that it supports the approach of unity we adopted in our attempt to augment our power and defend ourselves against the waves of racism washing over Israel.”
Dr. Yousef Jabraan, another new MK from the Joint List, said that he will focus on issues which formed the basis of the election of the List’s candidates to the Knesset. “Education, housing, and violence are the main issues with which I want to deal. These are the issues which our voters clearly expressed concern about during the campaign,” he explained. “The advancement of Arab education, including higher education, will be my priority, including the allocation of resources and changing the curriculum to nurture the Arab-Palestinian identity, as well as restructuring the system so that it will be managed by Arab educators. Without a substantial reform of the education system, we cannot promote and advance the status of the Arab citizens in Israel.”
