The reduced Joint Arab List and Ra’am are two of many parties vying for citizens’ votes in the election for the 26th Knesset, to be held on October 27.
The current Joint List, composed of Yousef Jabareen’s Hadash, Ahmad Tibi’s Ta’al, and Sami Abu Shehadeh’s Balad, was re-established in a reduced format recently after months of negotiations over whether and how the four main Arab parties would run. Polling has generally shown that the Arab parties would earn more seats in a joint run together.
Despite the four parties initially agreeing to work toward a complete Arab Joint List earlier this year, Ra’am chairperson Mansour Abbas has held off on joining the Arab alliance, hoping his party could be invited to the next coalition independently.
Although the reduced Joint List has left the door open for Ra'am to join it, there has been no indication that Mansour will do so ahead of next week's deadline to submit final party lists.
In an unprecedented move, Ra'am recently added former police official and MK Yoav Segalovitz to its list, after Segalovitz announced his departure from the Zionist, centerist Yesh Atid party.
Segalovitz will be the first Jewish candidate for the Islamist-conservative political party and is expected to receive the second slot on its slate.
The addition of a Jewish candidate to the Arab party’s list has been widely seen as a way for Ra’am to be viewed as a more viable coalition partner.
Abbas has appeared to pursue a more pragmatic approach to Israeli politics and coalition-building than the other major Arab parties, a strategy that could potentially make him a kingmaker if neither major Jewish political bloc can reach 61 seats on its own.
In the 25th Knesset, Ra’am and the Hadash-Ta'al alliance each held five seats. Currently, Ra’am is polling at about five seats, while the reduced Joint List is looking at approximately eight.
Additionally, Ra'am is the only Arab party that has ever joined a coalition, during the Bennett-Lapid government in 2021. Although Ra’am seeks to be part of the coalition again, most opposition parties in the bloc seeking to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have rejected the possibility of forming a government with any of the Arab parties.
The three parties making up the Joint List are not ideologically identical.
Broadly speaking, Hadash can be defined as socialist-communist, Ta'al as occupying a position between Hadash and Balad, and Balad as the most explicitly Arab-nationalist of the three.
Hadash
Hadash, the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, is the successor to Israel's Arab-Jewish Communist Party and has historically emphasized Jewish-Arab partnership. The party traditionally reserves a slot for a Jewish candidate, currently MK Ofer Cassif, who is one of the party’s most outspoken voices and has publicly denounced Israel’s war in Gaza and has voiced support for South Africa's ICJ genocide case against Israel.
Ta'al
Ta'al, founded by Ahmad Tibi, occupies a more pragmatic position and is described as a party concerned with balancing participation in Israeli political institutions with protecting the Palestinian cause.
Balad
Balad is the most explicitly Arab-nationalist of the three reduced Joint List parties. Its longtime political demand has been for Israel to become a "state of all its citizens", rather than a state defined as Jewish. Current Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh said the concept was intended to cancel what he described as Jewish supremacy in legislation and the state's political structure.
Ra'am
Ra'am is rooted in the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement and has taken the most institutionally integrationist approach of the four Arab parties. Rather than rejecting participation in Israeli political institutions, Abbas has argued that Arab citizens can use political participation and coalition negotiations to improve their communities.
Ra'am's primary political philosophy is more focused on practical integration and extracting benefits from government participation. Abbas has previously argued that Arab political participation should be used to address crime, housing, economic development and other problems facing Arab society.
The Joint List has not committed to a particular Jewish-led coalition. Jabareen previously told The Jerusalem Post that the party would seek progress toward a Palestinian state, equality for Arab citizens, action against organized crime and increased budgets for Arab society and local authorities.
Jabareen has also made clear that removing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from power was a central electoral objective.
He also told the Post that the reduced Joint List's future support for an alternative government would depend on negotiations over the party’s key demands.
Abbas has, meanwhile, historically refused to commit himself to either the political Left or the Right, saying he would not rule out potential coalition partners, making Ra'am potentially more flexible in coalition negotiations than the reduced Joint List.
The Arab faction has been vocal in its support of a two-state solution, end to Israeli-Palestinian conflict
All four of the Arab parties support the establishment of a Palestinian state. Balad has historically opposed the idea of maintaining Israel's current political structure as a Jewish state and has instead advocated a state based on equal citizenship.
Jabareen has stated that the Joint List would push for renewed negotiations with Palestinian leadership to advance the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Ra'am's Abbas has meanwhile pursued a more pragmatic political strategy, emphasizing Arab citizens' interests within Israel while also calling for Palestinian statehood and an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
What a vote for these parties is likely to produce
A vote for the Hadash-Ta'al-Balad Joint List is most likely to produce a larger Arab parliamentary bloc focused on Palestinian statehood, equality for Arab citizens, combating crime and increasing state resources for Arab communities.
A vote for Ra’am, by contrast, appears to be a vote for potentially integrating an Arab party into Israel’s next government.
The result is that neither Arab electoral option necessarily translates into a predetermined coalition. The Joint List is positioning itself as an opposition force seeking to replace the current government while using its seats to demand political concessions. Ra'am is leaving itself greater room to negotiate with potential coalition builders.
Keshet Neev contributed to this report.