Balad

Members of the Joint list are seen during celebrations in the headquarters of Joint List in the city of Nazareth, on the night of the Israeli general elections, March 17, 2015. (Akrm Drawshi/Activestills)

What can the Joint List teach us about building Palestinian political power?

Ten years after its formation, this experiment in Palestinian unity inside Israel — and its ultimate collapse — shows the need for carefully cultivated alliances.

By Rida Abu Rass May 23, 2025

MK Ayman Odeh attends a plenum session at the Knesset in Jerusalem, July 10, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Facing war and incitement, is there any hope left for Palestinians in the Knesset?

The Gaza war has revived a longstanding debate among Palestinian citizens of Israel about whether to participate in or boycott the parliament.

By Baker Zoubi June 6, 2024

Members of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel and Arab parliament members hold a press conference at a protest tent in front of the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem regarding violence in their community, November 3, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

‘The government’s goal is to leave Palestinians in Israel without leadership’

Despite criticisms of the body, Palestinian citizens view efforts to outlaw the High Follow-Up Committee as a dangerous attack on their political rights.

By Baker Zoubi August 10, 2023

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MK Ahmad Tibi reacts during a discussion and a vote on The vote on the "Flag Bill" in the Knesset, Jerusalem, June 1, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

The Israeli right is planning to ban Palestinian parties. Here’s how

If the Netanyahu government secures a forever majority, it will bolster the argument that an apartheid regime reigns between the river and the sea.

By Sawsan Zaher March 23, 2023

Yael Lerer. (Rabeea Eid)

The Israeli bringing the fight for justice in Israel-Palestine to France’s parliament

After years in the Israeli radical left, Yael Lerer wants to replace a Netanyahu ally as the representative of French citizens in the eastern Mediterranean.

By Deborah Leter March 21, 2023

Avrum Burg (left) and Faisal Azaiza (right), co-chairs of the new All its Citizens party, at the public launch event in Tel Aviv, December 16, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

Can a new Jewish-Arab party breathe life into the Israeli left?

'All its Citizens' wants to unite the left in Israel around the principle of complete equality for all. But can they even agree on what that looks like?

By Ben Reiff December 21, 2022

Members of the Joint List arrive for a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, as Rivlin begins consulting political leaders to decide who to task with trying to form a new government, September 22, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Joint List is dead. Who will lead the fight for Palestinian citizens?

The re-fragmentation of Palestinian parties in Israel exemplifies the lack of a political compass to guide their struggle, with the public divided on how to confront both a far-right government and a broken liberation movement.

By Amjad Iraqi November 7, 2022

Itamar Ben Gvir, head of Otzma Yehudit, celebrates with his supporters at an election night party, Jerusalem, November 1, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

The Kahanists won. Here’s how the left can rebuild

The results of the latest Israeli election are bleak. But amid the despair are clues to the way forward.

By Haggai Matar November 2, 2022

Members of the Joint List arrive for a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin at the President's Residence, Jerusalem, September 22, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The forgotten role of Palestinian citizens in Israel’s coalition wars

Contrary to popular belief, Arab parties have been backing prime ministerial candidates for decades. But what did they gain from the political game?

By Wadea Awawdy October 27, 2022

Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the Otzma Yehudit party, holds a press conference in Jerusalem, March 1, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Netanyahu is embracing fascists — and the world is tolerating them

Itamar Ben-Gvir is not an outlier in Israeli politics; he is part of a far-right alliance that the international community has been normalizing for years.

By Sami Abu Shehadeh March 4, 2021

Heba Yazbak of the Balad party speaks in the Israeli parliament on May 13, 2019, during a Plenary Hall session. (Noam Revkin Fenton / Flash90)

Every Israeli election needs a Palestinian woman as a villain

Attempts to bar Balad MK Heba Yazbak from the election shows how Palestinian women are constantly demonized as embodiments of Israeli fears.

By Orly Noy January 21, 2020

Former Balad MK Basel Ghattas arrives for a court hearing at the Be'er Sheva Magistrate's Court, April 9, 2017. (Yehuda Peretz/POOL)

Palestinian MK released from prison after two-year sentence

Ghattas served a two-year sentence for smuggling cellphones to Palestinian political prisoners. ‘The conditions that Palestinian prisoners face are a central tool the occupation uses to reinforce itself.’ Former Balad MK Basel Ghattas was released from prison Monday morning after serving two years for smuggling cellphones to Palestinian political prisoners in Israel. Although his family…

By Oren Ziv May 27, 2019

A Bedouin woman from the unrecognized village of Al-Araqib sits in front of an Israeli police van. Israel has demolished al-Araqib over 100 times. (Illustrative photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

The most radical thing you can say in Israel

The Knesset won’t even allow this law to be discussed, let alone voted on, because it proposes making Israel a ‘state of all its citizens.’ Why is that so threatening? The presidium of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, decided on Monday that a proposed law seeking to define Israel as “a state of all its citizens”…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man June 5, 2018