The National Democratic Party

The introduction to the term paper being written about an Arab Israeli Political Party for our Election and Coalition Formation Simulation at the end of the course.

On June 17th, 1996, Azmi Bishara and Hashem Mahameed became members of the Fourteenth Knesset in the state of Israel representing a new political party formed by a group of young Arab Israeli intellectuals : the National Democratic Assembly (NDA). The NDA is also known as “Balad,” a name based on its acronym in Hebrew (“Brit Leumit Demokretit”).
Like the state of Israel, Balad has had a tumultuous time in the last fifteen years. It has formed partnerships and been a part of joint lists with a variety of political parties; it has faced changing electorate trends and support; it has had rocky relations with the rest of the government. In this paper, we will discuss the history, ideologies, and platform of the Balad political party in Israel. The first section of the discussion will explore the history of the party, including a summary of its creation, voting trends, and party leadership. We will then turn to a more in-depth examination of the party’s ideologies, including ideas about foreign policy, ethnic identity and pluralism, democracy, and the role of religion in the state. Finally, we will suggest what Balad’s campaign platform might look like if elections were to take place in 2010.

A Brief History of the Balad Party
Since its beginnings, Balad has had a fairly close partnership with several other predominately Arab parties. In its first election run (1996), the NDA ran on a joint list with the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (DFPE).1 Three years later, it joined the Arab Renewal Movement, though the partnership broke down less than a year into the term.2 In recent elections, the party has run on its own.
A simple analysis of a party’s strength in the Israeli government can be done by looking at the number of seats held by the party in the Knesset. Because Knesset seats are allocated on the basis of vote acquisition, the number of seats won by a party is indicative of the proportion of the population that voted for that particular party. In its first two Knesset runs (the fourteenth in 1996 and the fifteenth in 1999), Balad won two seats (of a total one hundred twenty). In 2003, Balad’s electoral support increased. It won three seats in the Sixteenth Knesset and has remained at that strength since.3
But the simple glance at seat number may be deceitful, partially due to joint ticketing with other parties. The party describes its own strength on its website, primarily in terms of how widespread it is throughout the country: “In just a few years, the NDA became one of the most popular parties among the Palestinian citizens of Israel, establishing over 60 branches in Arab towns throughout the state. ” Defining strength through a different lens, we might look at what percentage of different electoral subgroups a party wins. For example, even though Balad won three seats in both 2003 and 2006, its popularity declined among Arab Israelis, dropping from 30.9% in 2003 to 28.4% of the Arab Israeli vote as split between the NDA, the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, and the joint United Arab League-Arab Movement for Change list. In order to win that third seat in the Knesset, it had to negotiate vote reallocation with the DFPE.5 Moving from the 2003 to the 2006 elections also showed a drop for Balad in the Bedouin and Druze voting blocs. Examining these trends is important for the party in order to make policy adjustments that might increase the party’s power.
“It is not uncommon to hear people speaking of ‘the party or movement of this or that person’…Balad of Bishara. ” This statement reflects the importance of party leadership in Israel’s political system, especially among smaller parties who have only a few people actively working as the face of the party. Azmi Bishara was a former member of the Knesset under the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (suggesting the origins of the close relationship between the two parties), though he left the Communist party after the upheavals of 1989. Born in Nazareth in 1956, Bishara earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Humboldt University in Berlin. He headed the NDA in every election through the 2006 run for the Seventeenth Knesset, even vying for prime minister in 1999, becoming the first Arab Israeli to do so. During the time of his leadership, he underwent a trial after making some statements seemingly in support of the Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation. These statements include a press release on the party’s official website declaring the Palestinian people “will never surrender ” and a keynote speech made at a conference with the Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy on Septemer 3rd, 2002, during which he asserted it was “clear that this form of occupation cannot be ended without a resistance strategy. ” Today, Bishara is suspected of aided Hizbollah in the 2006 War with Lebanon; he is now living abroad and resigned from his position as MK.
Following Bishara’s dramatic exit from the Israeli government, another member of the Balad party made a remarkable entrance to the political stage and has continued to draw attention. Hanin Zoabi was born in 1969 and lived in Nazareth. Zoabi studied at Haifa University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In many ways, Zoabi was an average candidate for a Balad MK. Placed in the third slot on NDA’s list, Zoabi had a good chance of being elected. So what made Zoabi’s win so remarkable? She was the first female to be elected to Parliament from an Arab party. The few Palestinian women who served as Knesset members previously came from leftist Zionist parties, particularly Meretz and Labor.
If her election created waves, though, her statements since have caused hurricanes. In early 2009, Zoabi asserted her support for Iran’s having nuclear weapons, desiring a Cold War-esque Mutually Assured Destruction phenomena in which Iran plays the “counter-power to Israel…something to balance [Israel’s] power. ” This spring, she literally caused waves as she sailed on the flotilla into Gaza. In a press conference following her release from police custody, she was unapologetic, asserting that “Israel is used to doing whatever it wants with the Palestinians. ” In July 2010, the Knesset voted 34 to 16 to withhold a diplomatic passport for Zoabi and deny her subsidized legal counsel. Some have expressed concern that this action puts into question Israel’s democratic nature; Zoabi expressed her frustration that the Knesset did not “protect me from racism which targeted me for my views.22”
It has not only been her own actions that have threatened Zoabi’s political career. Her service as an MK was precarious even before she was elected. Israel’s Central Elections Committee disqualified the NDA from running in the 2009 elections by a vote of twenty-six to three in early, on the grounds that the party “does not recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland. ” Just after a week later, the High Court overturned the decision, asserting the case was based on “flimsy evidence. ” Balad Chair Zahalka called the overturn “a blow to Lieberman and the fascist Right...Balad stands by its platform. The court’s decision is a victory to the Arab public and to anyone who seeks democracy...we call on everyone to back the notion of ‘a people’s state’ and a life of equality and no discrimination.24” With that statement by the current chairperson of the National Democratic Alliance, we will turn to examine the political ideology of the Balad party.

1. Knesset, "National Democratic Assembly (Balad)," (Knesset.org.il, 2010).
2. Haaretz, "Balad: A country of all its citizens, cultural autonomy for Arabs," (23 December 2002).
3. Knesset, "National Democratic Assembly (Balad)," (Knesset.org.il, 2010).
4. NDA, "National Democratic Assembly - NDA," (Tajamoa.org, 5 February 2009).
5. Elie Rekhess, “The Arab Minority in Israel and the Seventeenth Knesset Elections: The Beginning of a New Era?,” in Arian Asher and Michael Shamir, eds. The Elections in Israel 2006, (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2008), pp. 166.
6. Elie Rekhess, “The Arab Minority in Israel and the Seventeenth Knesset Elections: The Beginning of a New Era?,” in Arian Asher and Michael Shamir, eds. The Elections in Israel 2006, (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2008), pp. 167 and 172-173.
7. Amal Jamal, "The Arab Leadership in Israel: Ascendance and Fragmentation," (Journal of Palestine Studies 35(2)), pp. 17.
8. Don Peretz and Gideon Doron, "Sectarian Politics and the Peace Process: The 1999 Israel Elections," (Middle East Journal 54(2)), pp. 271.
9. Azmi Bishara et al, "On Palestinians in the Israeli Knesset: Interview with Azmi Bishara," (Middle East Research and Information Project: Middle East Report, 201), pp. 27.
10. Knesset, "Azmi Bishara" (Knesset.org.il, 2010).
11. Haaretz, "Balad: A country of all its citizens, cultural autonomy for Arabs," (23 December 2002).
12. Amal Jamal, "The Arab Leadership in Israel: Ascendance and Fragmentation," (Journal of Palestine Studies 35(2)), pp. 8.
13. NDA, "National Democratic Assembly PRESS RELEASE," (Tajamoa.org, 24 September 2002).
14. Azmi Bishara, "The Quest for Strategy," (Journal of Palestine Studies 32(2)), pp 42.
15. Jewish Virtual Library. "National Democratic Party (Balad)," (Jvl.org, 2010).
16. Knesset, "Hanin Zoabi," (Knesset.org.il, 2010).
17. Brenda Gazzar, "Balad candidate may be first Arab party woman MK," (The Jerusalem Post Online, 9 February 2009).
18. Suheir Abu Oksa Daoud, "Palestinian Women in the Israeli Knesset," (Middle East Report 240), pp. 26.
19. Samuel Sokol, "New Balad MK praises Iran's nuke quest," (The Jerusalem Post Online, 31 March 2009).
20. Yaakov Katz, "Gaza flotilla finally sets out," (The Jerusalem Post Online, 30 May 2010).
21. Rebecca Anna Stoil, "Zoabi: 'Confrontation was not our goal,'" (The Jerusalem Post Online, 2 June 2010).
22. Rebecca Anna Stoil, "Knesset revokes Zoabi's MK rights," (The Jerusalem Post Online, 13 July 2010).
23. Aviad Glickman, "Arab parties disqualified from elections," (ynetnews, 12 January 2009).
24. Aviad Glickman, "Arab parties win disqualification appeal," (ynetnews, 21 January 2009).