http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055524.html
Last update - 21:11 14/01/2009
Arab parties: We'll establish an alternative Arab parliament
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israeli Arab, Israel news
Israeli Arab political party Balad, recently banned from the upcoming
general elections by Israel's central elections committee, warned on Wednesday
that if the court upholds the committee's decision, the party will call for a
boycott of the elections and establish an alternative Arab parliament.
Balad Chairman MK Jamal Zahalka told Haaretz on Wednesday that "if the
High Court of Justice upholds the ban, our call for the establishment of an
Arab parliament will gain immense momentum. If we can't be elected to
parliament, we'll establish one of our own."
Balad, like the northern chapter of Islamic Movement, have been seeking
elections for the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee in Israel for some time now,
thus essentially establishing an independent parliament. The Central
Eelections Committee voted overwhelmingly in favor of the motions to ban the
Arab parties on Monday, accusing the Arab parties of incitement, supporting
terrorist groups and refusing to recognize Israel's right to exist.
Another Israeli Arab party, Hadash, opposes this move, calling it
separatist, and maintaining that Jews and Arabs need to combine their efforts
in political endeavors in the state of Israel.
Zahalka devoted the morning to a long meeting at the offices of the Arab
rights legal center Adalah, which is preparing the court petitions seeking to
overturn the committee's ban on Arab parties from participating in the
elections. Adalah fears that the justices who receive the petitions will be
influenced by the current warfare in Gaza, and prejudiced against the Arab
plight.
Zahalka went on to say that "the banning of the Arab parties will give
rise to a serious crisis in the relations between the state and its Arab
citizens. All the parties voted for the ban, but parties that wish to rule the
country must understand that this is not in their best interest. They are
waiting for the court to rescue them."
Hadash, which defines itself as a "Jewish-Arab" party, has called on the
Arab public not to comply with calls to boycott the elections, even if the ban
on Arab parties is upheld by the courts.
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