Newly elected Arab MKS to Meet with Abbas
Image by Getty Images
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Four members of Israel’s Joint Arab List elected to the Knesset met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.
Ayman Odeh, the Arab-Israeli party’s leader, headed the delegation that visited the Muquata, the P.A.’s headquarters in Ramallah, on Tuesday evening, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported Wednesday. The others were Masoud Ghanayim, Jamal Zahalqa and Usama al-Saadi.
With its 13 seats garnered in last week’s election, the Joint Arab List will be the third largest party in Israel’s parliament. The party did not recommend any political leader to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to serve as prime minister.
Four Arab parties — United Arab List, Ta’al, Balad and Hadash — combined to create the Joint Arab List in order to reach the electoral threshold of four seats. More than 90 percent of Arab-Israeli voters supported the coalition in the elections, the party said, citing its own polling results.
During the meeting, Abbas reportedly praised the party.
Party members said they had not been invited to the meeting of Arab and other minority leaders with Netanyahu on Tuesday, where he reportedly apologized for anti-Arab fear mongering in the waning hours of Election Day.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
