Odeh: A Right Wing Government in Israel Can Be Prevented if the “Joint List” Wins 15 seats

Ramallah: The head of the “Joint List” and the Secretary General of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, Ayman Odeh said that if the “Joint List” wins 15 seats in the coming elections scheduled to take place in 17 days, it might help in preventing the formation of a right-wing government in Israel. Showing that this is possible if the turnout of Palestinian voters in Israel is relatively high.

Odeh also said, in a symposium organized by the “Business Club” in cooperation with the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies “MADAR”, that there are significant differences between the right-wing block lead by Netanyahu and the “Zionist block”, despite the many similarities. The main difference, according to Odeh, is the right-wing’s direct incitement against the Palestinian citizens of Israel, starting with the Prime Minister who considers them as a threat to the State, and his Minister of Foreign Affairs (Lieberman) who wants to deprive them from their citizenships, and re-draw the borders in a way that leaves the Palestinians in Israel outside of it, which represents an existential threat against the Palestinians.

Odeh added that the contribution of the Palestinians as an indigenous minority in combatting the encroachment of the rightwing is national and ethical responsibility. The unification of the Arab parties under one umbrella is the result of an accumulative process, Odeh said, a process that reflected a communal need to face the authorities and their plans to fragment the Palestinian society, which was strongly evident in the local elections and their results which reflected a strong setback towards tribalism at the expense of political and partisan agendas.

Odeh also added that the Arab parties have realized that what unites them at the strategic level is bigger than what separates them, and that its success has presented the Palestinians as a people and a national group, which forced the Israeli forces and the Israeli media to deal with them with unprecedented seriousness.

Odeh said that the “List” with all its components will focus on two strategic levels; on one hand, the fight for the issues that represent the national belonging such as Al-Nakba, displacement and combating the civil service, and the engagement in the political scene based on citizenship, presenting ideas to break out of the current inequality in standards of living, development master-plans of Arab villages and cities and other civil rights.

Odeh expressed his aspirations in being that the “List” would become the base of a true democratic block that would align with the oppressed, without affecting the national belonging, but rather complementing it. Odeh concluded by noting that the struggle for non-ideological civil issues in Israel is not easy.

The director of the “Israeli Scene” department, writer Antoine Shalhat presented an in-depth analysis of the recent updates of the Israeli electoral scene, and what the indicators of the electoral campaigns, especially on the political level connected to the relationship with the Palestinians.

Shalhat illustrated that the political issue is not amongst the high priorities of the parties in Israel. For example, Yair Lapid’s recently published program doesn’t address the political issue, while the Likud is focusing on security and trying to drag all others into the same vision.

Shalhat added that the “Zionist Union” is focusing its campaign on its ability to lobby international support to so called Israel’s security needs, defend the soldiers in front of the of the International Criminal Court, refurbish the relationships with the US in favor to it calls “Israel’s war on terror”, countering the Palestinian political offensive, and finally a conditional resumption of the political process.

The difference between the two blocks when it comes to the Palestinian issue is focused on Netanyahu’s management of the conflict, added Shalhat, and not on whether it should be resolved or not, as some prominent figures in the “Zionist Union” are amongst those who believe that there is no partner on the other side.

Shalhat expalined that all available indicators regarding the possible results are based on opinion polls, which do not reflect any possible shift in favor of the “center-left” parties, and that the shifts in potential numbers of seats is happening within the parties of each of the blocks and not from one block to the other.

Showing that there is a demographic shift in the coming elections, he explained that the most prominent of which, is the increase amongst the Haridim forces (more than 10% of the population), the increase of the orthodox Jews (35% of the population), while those who identify as secular are less than one third of the population, which explains part of the internal debate, as the elections approach, on the Jewish nature of the state.

Shalhat concluded that Israel, according to the anticipated shifts, is moving towards a less democratic and more theocratic system of governance.   nnnn