Warns against the rise of fascism and Ben Gvir. MK Ayman Odeh at a protest in Nazareth around the local hospital (photo: Dobrot Hadash-Ta’al)
The impression emerging from social networks is that the joint list of Hadash-Ta’al is in the most difficult situation among the three Arab lists running in the current elections, the others being Ra’am and Balad. While Ra’am is running a quiet but effective campaign, and Balad is gaining renewed sympathy, also because it succeeded in instilling in a broad public the feeling that it was betrayed by its partners in the joint list, the campaign of Hadash and Ta’al seems to be faltering.
After I joined the house circle of Hadash-Ta’al and the teams of the list that distributed flyers in the streets of Nazareth, the resulting picture is more complex. A lot of criticism of the party and, in general, of the Arab politicians, was heard from Arab citizens on the street and in the home circle, a lot of distrust in the ability to improve the situation of the Arab population, but the activists, led by the chairman of the list MK Ayman Odeh, were received in an overall positive way. “The situation is not easy, but not as gloomy as you see on social networks,” says a party activist who testified that he has been handing out party flyers for thirty years.
At the moment, Hadash-Ta’al stands in the polls for four mandates, like Ra’am, while Balad is far from the blocking percentage and receives between 1.2 percent in the latest poll in “Maariv” and 2.4 percent in the Channel 12 poll two weeks ago. But all these lists are threatened by the low participation rate. According to a survey by the Statnett Institute, published on the Broadcasting Corporation’s “Mechan” channel, the expected turnout in the Arab public currently stands at 39.2 percent, a drop of almost five percent from its rate in the March 2021 elections, which in itself was very low. If this is indeed the turnout, all the lists representing the Palestinian public – Ra’am, Hadash-Ta’al and Balad – face the danger of not passing the blockade.
were received with much respect
During the tour he conducted in Nazareth at the beginning of last week, MK Odeh was received with a lot of respect. Both on the street and in the circles of the House, a large part of the questions concerned the dissatisfaction with the dissolution of the joint list. In his answer, Odeh mentioned how Binyamin Netanyahu managed – according to him – to penetrate the joint list and convince Raam dismantle it before the previous elections. Regarding Balad’s separate run, Odeh claimed that it was Balad that withdrew at the last minute from the agreement with Hadash, and mentioned that earlier in Balad they were talking about a “new national stream”.
But at the center of Odeh’s discourse was the fear of the “rise of fascism” and that a person like Itamar Ben Gabir would be the Minister of Internal Security. Odeh mentioned the statement of the police commissioner, Kobi Shabtai, according to which “in the next round, social media should be banned.” When Shabtai is talking about “the next round”, Odeh said, it seems as if the next round is inevitable. “If this happens, and Gabir, the main instigator, will be minister of internal security, who will the leadership of the Arab society talk to?” Odeh asked. The way to prevent this, Odeh said, is to go out and vote.
We gave you a chance and what did you do? Ayman Odeh (on the right) in Beit Circle in Nazareth (Photo: Bechar Zoevi)
According to Odeh, if the “fascist right” fails to form a government, this will present the center-left bloc with a dilemma: whether to “respect the Arabs and fulfill their conditions” – a fight against violence, the repeal of the Nationality Law, the renewal of negotiations with the Palestinians – “or will the crisis continue And deepen and there will be sixth elections.”
The words of Odeh and the Hadash-Ta’al activists did not convince everyone. After taking a flyer from Hadash-Ta’al operators who divided it in Nazareth, Ali Darousha said that he and his family would not vote because of their dissatisfaction with the dissolution of the joint venture. “When you reached 15 mandates, it was thanks to the enthusiasm of the people, and now you yourselves dismantled it (the joint list, 27). What are you waiting for from the people?” he said. “Netanyahu went home, and an alternative government came and was worse than him in everything. Why should we vote? The situation is bad, and it will remain as it is.”
“We gave you more than one chance and what did you do for us?” said Mohammad Selti, who participated in one of the home circles with Odeh. “Why do we have to go out and vote for you again and again? What about the results and achievements? Because we know that their absence from the Knesset will mean that the number of right-wing members inciting against us will increase, maybe we will vote. But it’s really not good that we vote for our representatives just to not let the right get stronger.”
“The dissatisfaction in the street is great, not only because of the dissolution of the parties,” said Maram Suleiman, who also participated in the home circle. “Pluralism is good sometimes.” The reason for the dissatisfaction, she claimed, is related to the fact that the parties “dealt with the issue of the distribution of mandates as if it were the main issue. There is despair in society because of crime, because of the fading horizon for a just peace and a solution to the Palestinian issue, because of the spread of the right and fascism on the Israeli street, and because of rising prices and other issues. Society Ours is suffering a lot, and what it is asking from its leadership is responsibility.”
The Hadash-Ta’al activists who distributed the flyers echoed the sentence Odeh said in an interview with Al-Nas Radio, “There are those who want influence without respect (referring to Ram, 27), and there are those who want respect without influence (referring to Bel” d), and there are of us who want influence, but out of national honor.” Not everyone was convinced, as mentioned, but the impression was that even if the enthusiasm is low, “the reception is very large and positive and does not reflect the numbers, which speak of the low turnout, nor even the objections and criticism on social networks,” said an activist who participated in distributing the flyers.
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“Both those who support us and those who oppose us respect the members of the Knesset and everyone who distributes leaflets,” said the engineer Sherif Zoevi, a former member of the Nazareth City Council and a member of Hadash. “This time we notice that the young members of the party are working more and more actively, and this reflects the fear To cross the blocking percentage, also because of what happened with Balad. In Nazareth, Hadash is much stronger than its competitors, but it can be said that Balad stands out more than Ra’am in the city.”
The incitement against the Arab MKs percolated
Later this week, Hadash-Ta’al activists began handing out leaflets that touched more on the civil struggles of the two parties in the Knesset: the struggle to reduce violence in Arab society, the struggles against the cost of living and for the status of Arab students, teachers and workers in general. The leaflets also reviewed the activity of the two parties against the oppression of the Palestinian citizens in the Negev, and the fact that they used the stage of the Knesset “to raise the voice of our Palestinian people against the occupation”.
The mood changed. Hadash-Ta’al activists handing out leaflets in Nazareth (photo: Hadash-Ta’al spokespersons)
“I’ve been handing out flyers and brochures for 30 years,” says Dr. Abed Kanaena, a lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University and a member of Hadash and the Communist Party. “I appreciate that the situation is not easy, but not as gloomy as you see on social networks. People’s enthusiasm is not the same as it was when the joint party received 15 mandates, but when we talk to people, we see that it is possible to convince them of the importance of voting.”
Dr. Kanaena says that one of the difficulties is that the statement that the Arab members of the Knesset do not act in favor of Arabic has taken root in the public. “It is a malicious term, the one who coined it was Gideon Ezra, the former deputy head of the Shin Bet, followed by Avi Dichter,” says Kanaena. “They started quoting him. They adopt the false concept as if a Knesset member should provide services like a local authority, even though providing these services is the role of the executive authority, that is, the government.”
Kana’ana says that when he worked at the “Sichok” association, they conducted a study on the work of the Arab members of the Knesset and found that more than 87 percent of their work focused on civil issues, and only 13 percent on questions related to the occupation and national questions. According to him, another reason for the loss of trust in the Arab MKs is the fact that after the establishment of the joint list, the parties were less active in the Arab street and therefore the relationship with the voters weakened.
Kanana said that gathering support from the heads of authorities affiliated with Hadash can be beneficial, but there is also a danger in it. . Therefore, it is necessary to work carefully and convey the message that national politics has nothing to do with internal political disputes in villages and cities.”
In the bottom line, Kanaena shows cautious optimism: “When we launched the campaign, the situation was worse, and we see that it is slowly improving.”