Published: 14 October 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
But when you are anti-Zionist and view Israeli political institutions as inherently racist, as does Sami Abu Shehadeh of the hard-line Arab Balad party, it is far more complicated than that.
"I'm a Palestinian, it's not that comfortable to be in the Knesset," says Abu Shehadeh, one of 13 candidates to gain seats as part of an alliance of four Arab parties known as the Joint List.
"We live in a state that occupies our people and runs racist policies towards us and you can see discrimination in everything you check. You can't be part of parliament without thinking about this all the time," he told Plus 61JMedia in an interview on Sunday. "So we go to the Knesset in a complicated situation. This parliament is responsible for all the things we are struggling against."
As Arab voter turnout surged higher than expected, the Joint List tallied three more seats than it had in April elections, .making it Israel's third largest political grouping and the leading opposition party if a national unity government is formed between Benny Gantz's centrist Blue and White, which gained 33 seats and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right wing Likud, which scored 32.
Abu Shehadeh holds a doctorate from Tel Aviv University on the history of his native Jaffa as a cultural centre before the 1948 Nakba, which Palestinians view as the catastrophe of their displacement during Israel's War of Independence. His grandfathers stayed in Jaffa but were traumatised by the disaster.
His is a fresh face alongside better known Arab politicians like Ahmed Tibi and Ayman Odeh. But he seems poised to make his own mark. To be sure, he will become a favourite of foreign journalists and diplomats because he is keenly intelligent and eloquent in flawless English.
The state built a racist separation and this racism is also in the police so they care less when the victim is a non-Jew.
Domestically, this former Tel Aviv-Jaffa city councillor, despite espousing an ideology that seeks to dismantle Israel as a Jewish state, is also a pragmatist who supports alliances with Zionist parties to score gains for his constituents.
However, he joined Balad colleagues in refusing to recommend to President Reuven Rivlin that the centrist party led by Gantz form the government, insisting the former chief of staff is not really preferable to the Arab-baiting Netanyahu. "Why should Balad recommend Gantz to Rivlin?" he asks.
"He's promised to destroy Gaza and annex part of the West Bank. He wants to Judaize Jerusalem and is not against the nationality law" which defines Israel as belonging to Jews only and demoted Arabic from its status as an official language. In fact, Gantz has voiced concern about the law's impact on Druze citizens. "No one sees any important difference between them," Abu Shehadeh says.
Abu Shehadeh envisions the Joint List in the opposition. The arithmetic to make it a de facto prop to a centre-left coalition simply isn't there, he says.
Moreover, he adds: "People don't see us as legitimate players in this racist political arena," he says. "This is why all this discussion about us being part of any coalition is irrelevant. It's a racist system that discriminates against us and plans against us."
We can do a lot of work inside the small committees. I'm talking about legislation. Our main work is to bring out the voice of those who elected us, the Palestinian minority, and project our voice abroad.
Despite this, he predicts the Joint List will have impact. "We can do a lot of work inside the small committees. I'm talking about legislation, being part of a lobby. Our main work is to bring out the voice of those who elected us, the Palestinian minority, and project our voice abroad."
The top priority issue is to prod the police to fight organised crime and violence. Arab politicians and thousands who took to the streets last week in protest charge that the police are doing little to stop spiralling murders in Arab communities. Authorities, for their part, say they are devoting more resources to combat the problem.
Abu Shehadeh says it is an issue of racism. "In the Jewish population, there is deterrence. Perpetrators know they will pay a high price. The same police don't do the same work in Arab society. The state built a racist separation and this racism is also in the police so they care less when the victim is a non-Jew."
I can't say everything in Israel is negative. Then I wouldn't continue living here and bringing up children here.
He also has his sights set on using his influence to help people with disabilities, something he expects to do in alliance with Jewish legislators who have worked on the issue. Developing tourism will be another priority for Abu Shehadeh.
Asked to sum up what Balad wants, Abu Shehadeh outlined a vision anathema to the overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews: "We want a historic compromise to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by means of a two-state solution, one the Palestinian state and the other is a democratic state of all its citizens. This state should be built on equality, justice and human rights.
“This regime called Jewish democracy is an oxymoron. By definition the state can't be Jewish and democratic at the same time. A Jewish state by definition prefers part of the population over the rest of the population, the Jewish over the indigenous Palestinian minority. Such a state cannot bring equality among citizens."
But Abu Shehadeh also sees positive aspects to today's Israel. "With all its problems, this society has been able to build very impressive academic institutions and can afford giving a lot of services to citizens including health services and some rights regarding welfare issues," he says.
"I can't say everything in Israel is negative. Then I wouldn't continue living here and bringing up children here," Abu Shehadeh said.
READ MORE
Hundreds of Israeli Arabs protest police inaction in northern community, blocking roads (Haaretz)
Demonstrators bearing signs that read 'apartheid police' gathered to protest against the police's failure to curb violence in the community after a local was murdered Saturday
Erdan commits 600 policemen to fight Arab crime; Joint List wants strategic plan (Times of Israel)
In meeting on violence in the community, minister says authorities will devote resources to focus on organized crime; Arab leaders seek ‘wide-ranging’ moves to eradicate killings
Photo: Demonstrators march in Wadi Ara protesting violence in the Arab Israeli community, on Sunday, October 13 (Joint List)
