Haifa Assembly: The incitement against Fakher Bayadseh is a continuation of the exclusion of Arab representation and subjugation to the dictates of the right

SadaNews - On Monday, the National Democratic Assembly - Haifa branch, condemned the incitement targeting the appointment of Haifa City Council member, Fakher Bayadseh, as deputy mayor, confirming that it is a continuation of an ongoing policy aimed at subjugating Arab representation to the dictates of the right and turning municipal positions into ones conditioned by compliance and political loyalty.

The assembly stated in a press release that "what is happening today comes in the context of the continuous submission of the mayor, Einat Kalach-Yaffe, to the pressures of the racist right. Since the beginning of the current term, she has refused to appoint Raja Za'atra as deputy due to his political stances and excluded educator Sharbel Dakour from the coalition because he represented the assembly. She also dismissed Sally Abd due to her opposition to the war on Gaza, and today the same attempt is repeated through incitement against the appointment of Fakher Bayadseh, in an attempt to impose a political ceiling on representatives of the Arab community, making the position conditional upon submission to the right's dictates."

The assembly added that "this approach is not limited to the composition of the municipal coalition, but falls within a continuous policy that has affected the rights of the Arab community in the city, undermining the independence of its cultural and educational institutions, restricting private and public schools, and discriminating in budgets and services provided to Arab neighborhoods, culminating in excluding the assembly from managing Beit Al-Karma and replacing it with a representative from the right."

The assembly pointed out that this approach is "accompanied by the municipality's failure to deal with the personal security crisis that our community is experiencing, despite imposing a 'security tax' without any tangible results, as well as the assaults perpetrated by the municipal police against members of our community, whether in the incident of the assault on Santa Claus during the holiday season or the assault on the young Arab man at Haifa beach."

The assembly affirmed that "the ongoing incitement against the appointment of Fakher Bayadseh, despite the rotation agreement within the coalition and after Raja Za'atra waived the deputy position twice, reflects the extent of the pressures exerted by the right on the mayor and raises serious questions about whether she will repeat her submission to these pressures as she has done in previous instances."

It emphasized that "conditioning positions on abandoning political stances constitutes a dangerous precedent that infringes on democratic representation and transforms the position into one that is dependent on the right's satisfaction."

Dr. Nasreen Shhada, the secretary of the National Democratic Assembly - Haifa branch, said that "what is happening today is an attempt to subject our community’s representatives to a test of political loyalty," indicating that "true partnership is one that respects representatives of the Arab community and their right to uphold their positions."

Shhada added: "Yaffe has received wide support from Arab voters, yet she continues to make concessions to the racist right, and it is time to strip the cover off the exclusion policy and the attempts to impose loyalty standards on our representatives."