Inside Israel Today: An Arab View of the Election

we can't eat pop of Occupation our people who can't be part of that the mission of the Palestinian house in Israel you're listening to inside Israel today with your Hoffman on the Land of Israel Network hello and welcome to inside Israel today here on the land of Israel network on the Land of Israel com where we are exactly one week away from the Israeli election ladies and gentlemen it is really happening we're finally getting there there's even weather reports and the weather reports say that it's going to be a beautiful day on election day it's going to be sunny it's going to be in the nut in the 60s it's going to be wonderful and we at the Land of Israel Network and at the Jerusalem Post of course have been following this election very closely and have been informing people around the world about what's going on and in the case of the radio in particular about who the candidates are and so we have been on this show on inside Israel today little by little introducing you to many candidates as the over the last 10 weeks we have had one candidate every day for the last ten weeks from 10 different parties and the way that we ended the show last week was that we said that we didn't really know who we were going to do on the last day and here we are on the last election show before the election and so I asked should I interview someone from an Arab party in it got a lot of listeners who wrote me very nicely that yes I should and so then there was the question of who would we interview because one thing that we have done is we've been interviewing new candidates the kadosh / tile party has new only one new candidate in a realistic slot his name is / cacif he is Jewish and very controversial and we wanted to interview an Arab and so instead the other list of Arabs running in this election is called ha da is called the United Arab List / ballad the united arab list is a muslim party and bala is an arab nationalist party in the last election ballad was led by jamal zahalka and by Haneen Zoabi both of them decided not to run again and so they have a whole new list of people that you have never heard of that I have never heard of they have names that are difficult to spell but they we are going to learn about them and so today we have on our show the leader of the ballade party his name is Matt honest Shahada and we will be speaking speaking to him after the election excuse me and we will be speaking to him after the break now before the break though what I wanted to talk about was how over the last week or two I've had many friends and acquaintances and even family members tell me I have no one to vote for what can we do there's too much mudslinging it's too dirty people don't want to have the candidates that have that have been mudslinging going back and forth and they want to have somebody clean and they are trying to figure out how to vote in this election and so the advice that I give people is you need to look not at the leader of the party you need to look at who is on the cusp in the polls I recommend people go into the website of the central Elections Committee assuming it works Beth Lee road b ec h AI r OT dot gov dot al and you can then look at the list of candidates of the different parties that you're considering and see who is there on the cusp so randomly selecting parties not revealing anything about political views in any way let's try it okay the blue and white party has in it many people that you've heard of at the top been against higher lipid bogie alone and Gabi Ashkenazi but they're not gonna be the people your vote goes to your vote will go to the people that are in the early thirties on the list so let's see who we have here because right now latest channel two poll here had them getting 32 seats who is number 32 Eitan Ginsburg a10 Ginsburg is the former mayor of Raanana and he was a member of the Labour Party for many years and he was the first out of the closet gay mayor in Israel let's look at who's number 33 you have got a year of our Khan Gardi of Archon is an Ethiopian activist who was a former memorably could and randomly could for Knesset number 34 and 35 on the list happen to also be gay you have their eden role who is the head of the gay caucus of Yesha teed and you have a fellow named your i Lahav hertz a new who is the head of the israeli union of students number 36 moshe moots matt alone is a former head of the IDF's handicap union and he was a member of Knesset with you LBT knew of a big door Lieberman going further down because no one poll shows them getting as much as 36 let's look at number 31 isn't or leaf Romina who it was a member of tell him of moshe allen's party number 30 is a former member of knesset of isha teed name Boas topper offski okay let's continue playing that game a lot of the parties are on the cusp so we don't know whether they'll be entering the Knesset or not so if you Moshe Coughlin's cool on who party they have a member of Knesset Roy Folkman over there right there on the cusp you went to Harvard was a pretty outstanding parliamentarian in the outgoing Knesset the new right party of Naphtali been in a new yellow chick ad Carolyn Glick former columnist of The Jerusalem Post is right there at number six they're getting six seats in the polls the is a hoot party of Moshe Feiglin they right now all the polls are showing that they're getting in and so you look at who is number four on the list is row need drawer who we interviewed here couple weeks ago on inside Israel today and activist for men's rights number five is a woman named Libby Malad who comes from the left and is there in Fay Glyn's party she's the expert on education and on school vouchers and number six of shy Malka who is the director general of the party and has been very close to Fay Glen for many years and his views are certainly very right-wing in Lily could you need to be looking at that list to add who's there on the border yet number 28 right now they're getting 28 seats in the polls over there you have Sharon Haskell the Knesset member from the Likud over the past couple years who was born in Toronto who was raised in Australia and represented the Jerusalem Post a very nicely at the debate in Raanana that I covered and as she has been interviewed here the Land of Israel Network by mr. Josh hastin let's look at all who else is here on the cusp number 29 is a woman named Michal Shearer who was an assistant to get on Tsar number 30 is Cathy shiiit who is an assistant to near Bar cot and to you Sorrell cats number 31 is mullah patine who is a Druze activist number 32 my Golan is she was a a right-wing activist who was one of the speakers in the pro-trump rally and number 33 is Uzi Diane who is the former deputy chief of staff of the IDF who we interviewed in our second week here of meet the candidate on inside Israel today so you know tough decisions people have for this election and but be a smart voter you know people have been asking me for platforms come on parties don't implement platforms very few parties have even come out with platforms and and they're not gonna do what they say in them there's an 80 page platform by blue and white don't believe it there's a 300 page platform by is a hoot it's 300 pages there he's not running for prime minister it's not gonna happen maybe he'll get two things done let's lower our expectations here for our politicians the Likud hasn't come out of the platform in 15 years because the platform really is whatever Bibi decides to do that's the way it works in Israeli politics if Netanyahu was gonna continue being Prime Minister his non platform will continue to govern us and so with all due respect to those who want to vote on platforms that's really beautiful and really naive and for all those who are voting on how I like the sky who leads a party your vote doesn't go to him your vote goes to la Javert siano or to Lula Pettine keep that in mind when you go to vote on Election Day after the break we will be speaking to the new leader of a loud mr. doctor Matata strata stay with us remember always said President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that you and I especially are descended from immigrants and revolutionists we look for a younger generation that is going to be more American than we are now I don't know that I could say I'm more American than FDR but I can say that I'm a descendant of immigrants and I've got more than a little bit of the revolutionist in me Sam Roth Mike Feuer and this is the Jewish story Joann Roth Mike foyer for the best Jewish history podcast the Jewish story on the Land of Israel network at the land of Israel dot-com [Music] and we're back here on inside Israel today on the Land of Israel network on the Land of Israel calm we have on the line Matan Escada the leader of ballad Matano snake for coming here on inside israel today thank you please tell us about yourself my name is the panacea shadi I was born in another 8 in 72 I study my first degree in economic and international relations at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem I finished in 95 and then I have my Masters in Science University and after that a PhD in the hidden University in political science and I was specialized in political economy I am married from Manali Rohan shadi she's a social worker I have two boys and one girls I live there now in 3fh in caramel mountains nice to get to know you okay thank you why are you entering politics you you have had a relatively relaxing life why would anyone want to go to the Knesset exactly before my politics official official career I was in metal chemist center in - I was the academic manager of research centre but since I remember myself and I was a high school even I'm politics I came from a family which was there any political actives my believe in politics our life is politics I will study what we study what we learn our infrastructure housing everything is politics to the Palestinians in Israel and my father was also active in any political party he was also a pointer a pointer and so it was I think it was normal to be him for me to be in politics I started my politics active I said in the high school after that in the university when I started to the first degree I was politically active I was addicted to the Arab student commit in the Hebrew University and after that I continued invalid a party since 1988 I was officially a member in Palestine National Democratic assembly and I was all the time political activists active academic active I involved in my Society in the particular situation and all the problem so I think it was normal to be in the politics in the end of of in this stage of my life and college so please tell us why the ballade party the ballot party has a reputation in Israel for being controversial with the leaders than they've had in the past like Azmi Bishara jamal zahalka and Haneen Zoabi in Basel ratas why ballade the unique party and atmosphere of proscenium Israel that became with the beacon camera a our political platform is unique to a Palestinian situation of status in Israel because you are mixed between the national rights of the Palestinians red as the minority national minorities and the homeland people and the Democratic side we said the Palestinians as a national minority will have a protected right we have a collective right in our identity our history our relation to our land our country so we need all we demand this rise from the state freestyle and beside that we demand that Israel must be a democratic state a normal state as an estate in the world whose a democratic regime but a read emphatically regime we demand Shiva on equality for all Israeli citizen or a decent citizen who lives in this state and so I was our man it's Yanni it was especially all have a relation for our national for our national status in Israel we are not speaking about economic problem all as the Communist Party who said that all struggle is mama Dee Messina Mahdi Mahmoud status where we are not poor because we are poor are poor because we are Arabs we don't have a resource because we have added not because we are poor so when you have the national demand we have national identity and when are the only party who demand in this field our national demand on national identity collective right national collective rights what was for me and nationalists it was normal to be in this party and I think we have our political platform can in all can make our life pickle ethical tea and Israel so I have always wondered if you want to make the lives better of Arabs in Israel why doesn't a narrow party ever agree to join a coalition that's where they divide up the spoils I can understand not wanting to join if Netanyahu remains Prime Minister but if somebody other than Netanyahu becomes Prime Minister then I don't understand why not even when the Labour Party has been in power the Arab parties have always refused to join the government and it's not people are hurt by that no it's easy question we can't be part of a few patient part of the occupation our people we can't be part of the Domitian affair Palestinians house in Israel inside this way we can be passed in healing our nation if and we're in the government as a collective salute responsibility yes you have if you part in that coalition you have collectively responsible about the policy about the outcome of the policy we can't we did we can't discriminate against our people as part of a gentleman so it's a very easy problem problematic but in the state where different the regime change and we speak for example a state of all the citizen if you can then we speak about the part of the government but the state will be different there will be no occupation there will be no discrimination will be no killing no house demolition no you know that atmosphere would be different in the in the situation has right now no other party can be part of the coalition besides I think also the tradition party Prime Minister he won't be able to have a Arabs party in the coalition to limited might in the Israeli society so there is a condition if you want to be in the coalition that the older regime must change thank you very much for coming here is a very very active thank you shukran shukran shukran young that was Matar Estrada the leader of the ballade party and they are also right there on the cusp there are polls that show that they won't make it in we will see and that's what makes her democracy is so exciting and it's been a pleasure taking you through 11 different parties here and our meet the candidates series on inside Israel today next week it will be Election Day I don't know how I'm gonna tape a show it'll be a busy day maybe we'll do it the day before no we're gonna try to figure that one out but or maybe we'll take you around like we did when we had election day last time when he ran for mayor over here when we had elections for mayor we'll see but this has been Gil Hoffman inside Israel today on the Land of Israel network on the Land of Israel calm Shalom from Jerusalem