Israel: Palestinian-led parties agree to run as Joint List in November election

Three Palestinian-led parties competing in the 1 November Knesset election have reached an agreement on reuniting as the Joint List. Hadash, Balad and Ta’al, the three main Arab parties reached an agreement following long negotiations yesterday. It took them until the early hours of yesterday morning when Balad announced that it would accept the proposed division of seats in parliament that was agreed upon by the other two members of the alliance.

Sources close to the parties told Haaretz that negotiations had been conducted throughout the day, including a three-way meeting between party leaders on Monday that ended without agreement. The breakthrough reportedly came on Tuesday afternoon at a meeting between representatives of Ta’al and Hadash. Ta’al is said to have agreed to drop its demand for two places in the top six and would, instead, accept the second and eighth spot.

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According to Haaretz, the main issue that remains to be resolved before the alliance is finalised revolves around the slate’s platform, most specifically the issue of whether to recommend any candidate to form the government once the coalition negotiations get underway. The three parties did, however, agree on the terms under which the joint slate would support a prime ministerial candidate.

A pledge to engage in negotiations with the PLO in order to end the occupation and establish a Palestinian state is said to be a primary condition. Changing policies that discriminate against Israel’s over two million Palestinian citizens and annulling any laws that facilitate such discrimination, such as the Nation State Law, are the other conditions.

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