News Analysis: Islamic Movement Enters Race for Knesset with Bid for Unity

For the first time in the political history of Israel’s Arab population, the Islamic Movement has decided to enter Israeli national politics.

The historic decision, coming two months before the May 29 Knesset elections, emerged from a meeting last week of the movement’s Council of Sages, a group of 25 secular and religious Islamic leaders.

The council met March 23 in a private home here in this Israeli Arab town and its initiative was ratified Monday night by the movement’s national convention.

Last May, the convention, composed of some 100 secular and religious activists, had voted to keep the movement out of the national political limelight, as has been the case in previous election years.

The Islamic Movement has avoided running candidates in national elections until now for two reasons.

First, the movement wanted to avoid a situation in which it would be required to swear allegiance to the Jewish state, as is required by all Knesset members.

Second, it wanted to focus on municipal activities, building up a power base within the local communities. Movement members now govern seven Arab municipalities in Israel.

The movement, which adheres to Islamic fundamentalist principles but opposes the use of violence, has gained a following among Israeli Arabs, particularly those living in economically depressed communities.

The centerpiece of the Islamic Movement’s decision to enter national politics is an initiative to encourage all Israeli Arab parties to run under a joint list in the upcoming Knesset elections.

The move is similar to the decision made two weeks ago, when David Levy’s centrist Gesher Party agreed to run on a joint list with the right-wing Likud Party of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Tsomet Party of Rafael Eitan.

The Islamic Movement’s proposed joint list would bring together the Arab Democratic Party of Abdel Wahab Darawshe that now holds two seats in the Knesset; Hadash, a communist grouping comprised of Jews and Arabs also known as the Democratic Front of Peace and Equality, which now has three Knesset seats; and newly formed Arab Movement for Change, led by Dr. Ahmed Tibi, who has won a reputation as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s adviser.

A number of smaller Arab parties that traditionally do not make the threshold of votes needed to win a Knesset seat also would be encouraged to join.

According to recent polls, the joint Arab list could win eight Knesset seats.

With a population of some 805,000 out of Israel’s total population of 5.6 million, Israeli Arabs have the potential of electing as many as 14 Knesset members.

But many vote for Zionist parties – recent censuses show a heavy backing for Prime Minister Shimon Peres’ Labor Party – thereby lessening the showing of the Arab parties.

If the Islamic Movement’s new initiative succeeds, it has the potential of attracting increasing numbers of Israeli Arabs to the joint list, giving it added Knesset strength.

If it fails, the Arab parties would have to go it alone in the elections, where the parties of Darawshe and Tibi face the danger of not receiving the required 1.5 percent of the total vote needed for a Knesset seat.

In the traditionally factional politics of Israel, where governments are formed with the narrowest of margins in Knesset support, Arab parties have come to play an increasingly pivotal role.

Four years ago, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin gained the backing of the two Arab parties to obtain a Knesset majority backing the formation of his new government. In exchange, Rabin reached an agreement with them to improve the economic and social conditions of Arab citizens.

The danger of Arab parties losing their parliamentary influence was a major reason why the Islamic Movement decided to give the new electoral initiative a try.

The decision also came amid Israel’s crackdown on Hamas, launched in the wake of the series of terror bombings that rocked Israel – and the peace process – in late February and early March.

Israel’s Islamic Movement has close ties to Hamas; in the wake of the bombings, the movement caught the increasing attention of security services.

The movement’s meetings this week came after the recent detention by Israel of Suleiman Ahmad Agbariya, the deputy mayor of Umm el-Fahm, one of seven Israeli Arab towns run by the Islamic Movement. He was suspected of having extended financial aid to relatives of Hamas terrorists.

The detention of Agbariya, along with the closing of the Islamic Salvation Committee, a self-described humanitarian group he ran, sent a current of fear through the Islamic Movement that it might soon be outlawed, even though that idea is not being seriously considered in government circles.

Still, if a joint Arab list were to include at least one Islamic Movement member elected to the Knesset, the movement could gain added protection.

The decision if Kafr Kasim to seek a joint Knesset list was regarded as a victory for Sheik Abdullah Niner Darwish, a longtime pragmatist who argued that the Islamic Movement should participate in national Israeli politics.

He faced two daunting opponents, Sheik Raed Salah Mahajneh, the charismatic mayor of Umm el-Fahm, the second largest Arab town in Israel after Nazareth; and Sheik Kamal Khatib, the radical leader of the Islamic Movement in the Galilee. Both maintained that the group should continue to stay out of Israel’s national elections.

But even if the Islamic Movement has overcome its own internal difficulties, there is yet another hurdle: bringing together two of the coalition’s potential partners, Darawshe and Tibi, who are bitter rivals and barely speak to each other.

“It’s going to be a difficult match,” said Yossi Elgazi, the Arab affairs expert of the Israeli daily Ha’aretz.

But, referring to the recent Likud-Gesher-Tsomet merger, Elgazi added, “who would have guessed” that Benjamin Netanyahu would “go along with David Levy?”