After the Sakhnin Meeting: The Conditions of 'The Unified' Hinder the Restructuring of 'The Joint'

SadaNews - The negotiations for forming the Joint List in a technical alliance format among the parties are still stalled due to the political conditions that the Unified List is trying to impose on the other parties, transforming it from a technical list to a political alliance list with the Unified List's program and granting national legitimacy to its approach by entering the government coalition and recognizing the Jewish nature of the state.

The meeting yesterday, Tuesday, in Sakhnin between the leaders of the four parties and representatives of the National Committee of Heads of Local Authorities - the seven-member committee - ended without any progress in the negotiations. Although the Joint List, the Democratic Front, and the Arab List for Change initially expressed their agreement to a document presented by the seven-member committee to form the Joint List, the Unified List and its leader, Mansour Abbas, insisted on their positions of transforming the technical list into a political project that adopts the Unified's approach.

The meeting saw discussions that lasted several hours, during which the participants addressed various outstanding issues among the political parties in an attempt to reduce the gaps of disagreement and enhance the prospects for reaching common understandings.

Since the formation meeting of the list last Thursday, and subsequently in the meetings on Sunday and Tuesday, the chances of forming the technical Joint List have diminished, as the Unified List insists on a political vision and project that differs from the proposals adopted by the other Arab parties, but it tries to compel the other components to accept it and not oppose it, thereby abolishing the principle of technicality and plurality for the Joint List.

In contrast, the option of running in two separate lists has emerged as the most talked-about scenario at this stage.

According to sources, the Sakhnin meeting did not yield any tangible progress on the contentious issues raised; however, the sources confirmed that the discussions are still ongoing and have not reached a breaking point, indicating a desire among some parties to continue communications in the coming days in search of common ground that may lead to broader understandings.

Sources told "Arab 48" earlier this week that the recent tension followed a political document presented by the Unified List during the Sunday meeting, which included political principles that, according to parties involved in the negotiations, exceed the concept of the "technical list" that was the basis of previous understandings among the parties.

The paper includes a vision that considers the political goal of the Joint List to be increasing Arab representation and working to oust the current right-wing government and replace it with another government in which Arabs have political influence, whether by participating in it or providing a "safety net" or "blocking body" for it, as long as it remains "less bad" than the current right-wing government.

The paper also stipulates the right of each party to conduct separate negotiations after the elections with the aim of joining a government coalition or providing a safety net for it, alongside a call for coordinating parliamentary positions and not quickly transitioning to oppose any alternative right-wing government, as long as that may lead to the return of Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies to power.

Parties involved in the negotiations, including the Democratic Front and the Arab List for Change, viewed the proposal as adding new political commitments that were not part of the previous understandings, and bringing the discussion back to issues that had been resolved over the past weeks.

The sources noted that the Unified List aims, through this formula, to gain national legitimacy from the three parties for its political approach based on engaging in Zionist government coalitions, within the camp led by Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, and Avigdor Lieberman.

These sources stated that the current proposal exceeds the idea of the technical list, as it aims to transform this path into part of the political program of the Joint List, after Mansour Abbas had promised the leaders of Bennett's camp that the Joint List would be based on a political ground that grants him the legitimacy to join any future government coalition.

Source: Arab 48