Arab-majority party Hadash announced on Wednesday that it was moving forward with reestablishing a joint electoral list with the Ta’al and Balad parties ahead of the upcoming national vote, while “leaving the door open” for Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am to join at a later stage.

“Hadash, Ta’al and Balad have decided to move forward with reestablishing the Joint List ahead of the upcoming elections,” the party said in a statement, adding that “a final agreement with Ra’am has not yet been reached” despite the other three parties’ “efforts and flexibility.”

Hadash said it remains committed to forming “the broadest possible joint list,” but that it cannot remain in “a state of waiting and uncertainty.” The party added that even if Ra’am ultimately runs independently, they will seek to sign a vote-sharing agreement with the faction to maximize surplus votes and boost turnout.

The four Arab-majority parties signed an agreement in January committing to work together to revive the joint ticket ahead of this year’s election, but negotiations stalled for months, mainly due to Abbas’s insistence that the bloc be purely technical, to preserve Ra’am’s ability to join a governing coalition, which the other Arab parties oppose.

According to Hadash, the three parties ultimately accepted that demand. A source with knowledge of the negotiations told The Times of Israel that the main obstacle remaining in the talks was Ra’am’s demand that the other parties commit not to oppose or bring down any government that the Islamist party chooses to join.

That condition was a red line for the other three parties, the source said, arguing that they, “like Ra’am, insist on their right to act independently” and vote as they see fit.

Representatives of the National Committee of Arab Local Council Heads met Tuesday in Sakhnin with leaders of all four parties to try and bridge the gaps,........

© The Times of Israel