Balad leader blasts ‘racist’ exclusion of Arab parties in Israel

The leader of Israel’s Balad party has condemned the country’s main political leaders for refusing to form a coalition with Arab parties, even after a record showing in polls could make them kingmakers for the next parliament after no clear winner emerged.

Sami Abu Shehadeh told Al Jazeera that Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about a fifth of the population, are being treated as illegitimate partners despite their turnout.

“This is racism,” he said. “We are a legitimate elected leadership of the national minority. The vast majority of our people decided that we are their leadership.”

Arab parties are on course to win a record 19 seats, giving them potentially decisive leverage over the main political blocs. With 85 percent of the vote counted, Israel’s Central Elections Committee has Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc ahead with at least 53 seats, and the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot on 48.

Both are short of the 61 needed to govern. Netanyahu says Israelis chose a strong right-wing government, while Eisenkot says they voted for change.

Abu Shehadeh, who leads Balad, one of the Joint List’s three parties, was not a candidate. The elections committee voted to disqualify him, accepting petitions arguing that he supported armed struggle and denied Israel’s Jewish and democratic character.

Shehadeh withdrew in October after a majority of the Supreme Court panel appeared willing to approve the disqualification. He rejects the grounds and said the court had made clear that Israel has “two different judicial systems, one for the Jews and one for the Arabs”.

“We are very proud of the Arab Palestinian minority in Israel that went in this very high percentage of voting,” he told Al Jazeera. The community’s first promise to voters, he said, was to prevent “this gang of criminals” from returning to power, naming Netanyahu and far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir. “So our first promise, we can keep it from now .”

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said Netanyahu “has scared off everybody from talking to the Palestinian Israeli parties”, leaving him best placed to “call the shots”. She said that Eisenkot and his allies have indicated that they want a Zionist government and “do not want to form a government” with the Arab parties, leaving them few options.

Danny Ayalon, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, told Al Jazeera that Arab turnout came in “really unprecedented numbers” and that the parties “are going to have some significant clout”.

Mathematically, he said, Eisenkot’s bloc could join forces with the two Arab parties and pass the threshold, though it would take “political wizardry”. Yousef Jabareen, who leads the Joint List, has said his alliance’s “hands are extended” to oust Netanyahu.

Abu Shehadeh set out what Palestinian citizens want from the next government.

“We are against genocide and we are against apartheid. We want to promote a different political alternative, one which is based on the values of freedom, justice and equality for both people who are living between the river and the sea.”

Of Netanyahu, he said: “Our problem … is that he is a war criminal.”