The Arab nationalist Balad party officially kicked off its electoral campaign Saturday night, accusing its former allies in the now-defunct Joint List of sidelining ideology for a seat at the political table ahead of the upcoming Knesset elections.
Just over a week after its messy split with the Hadash and Ta’al parties, Balad used the event to draw battle lines between the factions, arguing that voters are being presented with a false choice: Either steadfastly refuse to engage with Zionist parties and thereby lose out economically, or compromise their principles by collaborating with mainstream Israeli parties in exchange for financial benefits.
“You all represent a referendum attesting to the fact that that the choice isn’t between national belonging and rights, and that politics were not created to make people choose between their national identity and their daily…
