Haaretz reporter Gideon Levy says he turned down offer to join Arab nationalist list

Left-wing Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy revealed Saturday that he had turned down a suggestion to affix the Arab nationalist Balad faction forward of the November Knesset election.

Levy, who manufacturers Israel’s therapy of the Palestinians as apartheid, was requested about studies of a suggestion from the majority-Arab Joint Record subfaction whereas showing on a Channel 13 panel.

He confirmed that a suggestion had been made and initially mentioned he was “contemplating” it. However when pressed, Levy clarified that nothing got here of it and that “I’m a journalist and I’ll stay a journalist.”

If elected to the Knesset, Levy would have been Balad’s first-ever Jewish MK. Nevertheless, the Joint Record’s most hardline subfaction solely has one consultant — its chairman Sami Abou Shahadeh — within the present parliament and it’s not clear whether or not the occasion would’ve carried out effectively sufficient for Levy to have the ability to enter the Knesset.

The provide represents an obvious effort by Balad to usher in new faces as a lot of the Joint Record is poised to look the identical if it’s three events — Hadash, Ta’al and Balad — run collectively once more.

Abou Shahadeh was rumored to have led an unsuccessful effort to exchange Joint Record chairman Ayman Odeh with former Hadash MK Yousef Jabareen. Final week’s Hadash primaries noticed Odeh, Aida Touma-Sliman and Ofer Cassif every retain their respective one, two and three spots on the listing whereas Ta’al chairman Ahmad Tibi and his deputy Osama Saadi are anticipated to maintain their positions as effectively. With Abu Shahada once more tapped as Balad chairman, the primary six spots of the Joint Record are prone to stay the identical after the following election.

Joint Record MKs (from L) , Aida Touma-Suleiman, Ayman Oudeh, Ahmad Tibi, Sami Abou Shahadeh, and Ofer Cassif go to the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on Could 10, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

The occasion is hoping to construct on final election’s six-seat efficiency although, which might imply that one other Balad MK would seemingly be capable to enter Knesset.

On Friday, Channel 12 reported that Palestinian Authority Normal Intelligence chief Majed Faraj met twice prior to now week with Joint Record leaders in an effort to persuade them to rejoin forces with the Islamist Ra’am occasion, which cut up away forward of the final election and went on to enter the coalition by itself.

With out citing a supply, the community mentioned Faraj expressed the PA’s concern over the potential for decrease Arab Israeli turnout within the upcoming November election, which may result in former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu returning to energy with a hardline, right-wing authorities.

Arab Israeli turnout was highest when all 4 main Arab events ran collectively, with the Joint Record profitable 15 seats within the 2020 election. Ra’am cut up away from the occasion forward of the following election as a way to focus largely on home affairs. It managed to obtain 4 seats and joined the federal government in a historic transfer. The three Joint Record subfactions acquired simply six seats and remained collectively within the opposition.

Satisfied {that a} reassembled Joint Record would enhance voter turnout, Faraj urged the Arab Israeli lawmakers to place apart their variations with Ra’am and even instructed that the PA may assist mediate between them, Channel 12 reported. The lawmakers instructed Faraj in response that such an effort was unlikely to succeed resulting from Ra’am’s willpower to run independently.

The community then quoted an unnamed senior Palestinian official who confirmed that Faraj met with the Joint Record leaders however mentioned it was a part of the PA’s routine engagement with Israeli lawmakers and flatly denied that the subject of dialogue was interference within the upcoming election.

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