A Historic First? Israel's Arabs Could Lead Parliamentary Oppositionhttps://english.aawsat.com/home/article/1911456/historic-first-israels-arabs-could-lead-parliamentary-opposition
A Historic First? Israel's Arabs Could Lead Parliamentary Opposition
Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint List, gestures as he hands out pamphlets during an an election campaign event in Tira, northern Israel September 5, 2019. (Reuters)
A Historic First? Israel's Arabs Could Lead Parliamentary Opposition
Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint List, gestures as he hands out pamphlets during an an election campaign event in Tira, northern Israel September 5, 2019. (Reuters)
Israel’s Arab parties are set to be the largest non-ruling bloc in parliament - and could even lead the opposition - if a national unity government emerges from Tuesday’s election.
A surge in turnout gave the Arab-dominated Joint List 13 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, making it the third-largest grouping behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party, with 31 seats, and Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White, with 33.
That would make the Joint List the largest opposition grouping in parliament if a unity government takes shape, a realistic possibility even though Gantz rebuffed Netanyahu’s initial invitation, reported Reuters.
No party drawn from the 21 percent Arab minority has ever been part of an Israeli government. But if Joint List head Ayman Odeh, 44, becomes opposition leader, he would receive monthly briefings from the Mossad intelligence agency and meet visiting heads of state.
This would provide a platform to voice Arab complaints of discrimination against them and give a bigger platform to Arab parties that differ with parties drawn from the country’s Jewish majority.
“It is an interesting position, never before held by someone from the Arab population. It has a lot of influence,” Odeh told reporters outside his home in Haifa, a mixed Arab and Jewish city in northern Israel.
But although the Joint List will be the single biggest group, other opposition parties combined would have enough seats to block his appointment through an absolute majority vote, analysts said.
“There’s no way the other parties will agree to have Ayman Odeh as head of the opposition, and grant our community recognition and legitimacy,” said Aida Touma-Sliman, an Arab lawmaker from Odeh’s Hadash faction.
Arab lawmakers often call for an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and the dismantling of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank.
’Symbolic’ win
The Arab community in Israel is mainly descendants of the Palestinians who remained in Israel after its creation in 1948, and some in the younger generation openly identify as Palestinian.
They make up 1.9 million of Israel’s 9 million population, and often complains of discrimination in health, education and housing, living in cities such as Nazareth and Acre in the north and Bedouin towns in the southern Negev desert.
The Mossawa Center rights group says Israel’s state budget often favors Jews, allocating more funds to Jewish localities and schools than to Arab ones. Some 47% of Arab citizens live in poverty, far above a national average of 18%, it says.
However, Netanyahu’s Likud party counters that its 15 billion-shekel ($4.19 billion) investment plan for the Arab sector during the last parliament “is the largest such commitment in Israel’s history”, according to Eli Hazan, Likud’s foreign affairs director.
In Tuesday’s election, Odeh and his group of four Arab parties ran a united front and Arab turnout increased sharply. That helped them regain seats lost in April when they were divided and turnout plummeted.
The Joint List held up its stronger showing on Tuesday’s rerun as a victory over what is described as an “unprecedented campaign of incitement against the Arab public” by Netanyahu and right-wing parties.
Netanyahu made allegations of voter fraud in Arab communities an issue in his election campaign, and sought to deploy cameras to the country’s polling centers in what Arab leaders described an attempt to scare off voters. Israel’s top court refused to allow cameras.
Eid Jbaili, a 55-year-old gym teacher from Haifa, said he boycotted the April election but voted on Tuesday “because my community’s leaders showed they could exude unity in the face of adversity”.
But Jbaili was unsure an Arab opposition leader would be able to provide anything beyond a “small symbolic win” for his community.
“We still won’t be decision-makers in this country,” he said.
Bleak Future for West Bank Pupils as Budget Cuts Bite
Private tutoring makes up some, but not all of the teaching shortfall for the Hajj twins. Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP
At an hour when Ahmad and Mohammed should have been in the classroom, the two brothers sat idle at home in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
The 10-year-old twins are part of a generation abruptly cut adrift by a fiscal crisis that has slashed public schooling from five days a week to three across the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority's deepening budget shortfall is cutting through every layer of society across the West Bank.
But nowhere are the consequences more stark than in its schools, where reduced salaries for teachers, shortened weeks and mounting uncertainty are reshaping the future of around 630,000 pupils.
Unable to meet its wage bill in full, the Palestinian Authority has cut teachers' pay to 60 percent, with public schools now operating at less than two-thirds capacity.
"Without proper education, there is no university. That means their future could be lost," Ibrahim al-Hajj, father of the twins, told AFP.
The budget shortfall stems in part from Israel's decision to withhold customs tax revenues it collects on the Palestinian Authority's behalf, a measure taken after the war in Gaza erupted in October 2023.
The West Bank's economy has also been hammered by a halt to permits for Palestinians seeking work in Israel and the proliferation of checkpoints and other movement controls.
- 'No foundation' for learning -
"Educational opportunities we had were much better than what this generation has today," said Aisha Khatib, 57, headmistress of the brothers' school in Nablus.
"Salaries are cut, working days are reduced, and students are not receiving enough education to become properly educated adults," she said, adding that many teachers had left for other work, while some students had begun working to help support their families during prolonged school closures.
Hajj said he worried about the time his sons were losing.
When classes are cancelled, he and his wife must leave the boys alone at home, where they spend much of the day on their phones or watching television.
Part of the time, the brothers attend private tutoring.
"We go downstairs to the teacher and she teaches us. Then we go back home," said Mohammad, who enjoys English lessons and hopes to become a carpenter.
But the extra lessons are costly, and Hajj, a farmer, said he cannot indefinitely compensate for what he sees as a steady academic decline.
Tamara Shtayyeh, a teacher in Nablus, said she had seen the impact firsthand in her own household.
Her 16-year-old daughter Zeena, who is due to sit the Palestinian high school exam, Tawjihi, next year, has seen her average grades drop by six percentage points since classroom hours were reduced, Shtayyeh said.
Younger pupils, however, may face the gravest consequences.
"In the basic stage, there is no proper foundation," she said. "Especially from first to fourth grade, there is no solid grounding in writing or reading."
Irregular attendance, with pupils out of school more often than in, has eroded attention spans and discipline, she added.
"There is a clear decline in students' levels -- lower grades, tension, laziness," Shtayyeh said.
- 'Systemic emergency' -
For UN-run schools teaching around 48,000 students in refugee camps across the West Bank, the picture is equally bleak.
The territory has shifted from "a learning poverty crisis to a full-scale systemic emergency," said Jonathan Fowler, spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
UNRWA schools are widely regarded as offering comparatively high educational standards.
But Fowler said proficiency in Arabic and mathematics had plummeted in recent years, driven not only by the budget crisis but also by Israeli military incursions and the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The combination of hybrid schooling, trauma and over 2,000 documented incidents of military or settler interference in 2024-25 has resulted in a landscape of lost learning for thousands of Palestinian refugee students," he said.
UNRWA itself is weighing a shorter school week as it grapples with its own funding shortfall, after key donor countries - including the United States under President Donald Trump - halted contributions to the agency, the main provider of health and education services in West Bank refugee camps.
In the northern West Bank, where Israeli military operations in refugee camps displaced around 35,000 people in 2025, some pupils have lost up to 45 percent of learning days, Fowler said.
Elsewhere, schools face demolition orders from Israeli authorities or outright closure, including six UNRWA schools in annexed east Jerusalem.
Teachers say the cumulative toll is profound.
"We are supposed to look toward a bright and successful future," Shtayyeh said. "But what we are seeing is things getting worse and worse."
Security Issues Complicate Tasks of ‘Technocratic Committee’ in Gaza Striphttps://english.aawsat.com/features/5240786-security-issues-complicate-tasks-%E2%80%98technocratic-committee%E2%80%99-gaza-strip
Security Issues Complicate Tasks of ‘Technocratic Committee’ in Gaza Strip
Fighters from the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Feb. 20, 2025. (dpa)
The Palestinian National Committee tasked with administering the Gaza Strip is facing a number of challenges that go beyond Israel’s continued veto on its entry into the enclave via the Rafah crossing. These challenges extend to several issues related to the handover of authority from Hamas, foremost among them the security file.
Nasman and the Interior Ministry File
During talks held to form the committee, and even after its members were selected, Hamas repeatedly sought to exclude retired Palestinian intelligence officer Sami Nasman from the interior portfolio, which would be responsible for security conditions inside the Gaza Strip. Those efforts failed amid insistence by mediators and the United States that Nasman remain in his post, after Rami Hilles, who had been assigned the religious endowments and religious affairs portfolio, was removed in response to Hamas’s demands, as well as those of other Palestinian factions.
A kite flies over a camp for displaced people in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, on Saturday. (AFP)
Sources close to the committee told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hamas continues to insist that its security personnel remain in service within the agencies that will operate under the committee’s supervision. This position is rejected not only by the committee’s leadership, but also by the executive body of the Peace Council, as well as other parties including the United States and Israel.
The sources said this issue further complicates the committee’s ability to assume its duties in an orderly manner, explaining that Hamas, by insisting on certain demands related to its security employees and police forces, seeks to impose its presence in one way or another within the committee’s work.
The sources added that there is a prevailing sense within the committee and among other parties that Hamas is determined, by all means, to keep its members within the new administrative framework overseeing the Gaza Strip. They noted that Hamas has continued to make new appointments within the leadership ranks of its security services, describing this as part of attempts to undermine plans prepared by Sami Nasman for managing security.
The new logo of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, published on its page on X.
Hamas Denies the Allegations
Sources within Hamas denied those accusations. They told Asharq Al-Awsat that Sami Nasman, “as we understand from multiple parties, does not plan to come to Gaza at this time, which raises serious questions about his commitment to managing the Interior portfolio. Without his presence inside the enclave, he cannot exercise his authority, and that would amount to failure.”
The sources said the movement had many reservations about Nasman, who had previously been convicted by Hamas-run courts over what it described as “sabotage” plots. However, given the current reality, Hamas has no objection to his assumption of those responsibilities.
The sources said government institutions in Gaza are ready to hand over authority, noting that each ministry has detailed procedures and a complete framework in place to ensure a smooth transfer without obstacles. They stressed that Hamas is keen on ensuring the success of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.
The sources did not rule out the possibility that overarching policies could be imposed on the committee, which would affect its work and responsibilities inside the Gaza Strip, reducing it to merely an instrument for implementing those policies.
Hamas has repeatedly welcomed the committee’s work in public statements, saying it will fully facilitate its mission.
A meeting of the Gaza Administration Committee in Cairo. (File Photo – Egyptian State Information Service)
The Committee’s Position
In a statement issued on Saturday, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza said that statements and declarations from inside the enclave regarding readiness to transfer the management of all institutions and public facilities represent a step in the interest of citizens and pave the way for the committee to fully assume its responsibilities during the transitional phase.
The committee said that the announcement of readiness for an orderly transition constitutes a pivotal moment for the start of its work as the interim administration of the Gaza Strip, and a real opportunity to halt the humanitarian deterioration and preserve the resilience of residents who have endured severe suffering over the past period, according to the text of the statement.
“Our current priority is to ensure the unimpeded flow of aid, launch the reconstruction process, and create the conditions necessary to strengthen the unity of our people,” the committee said. “This path must be based on clear and defined understandings characterized by transparency and implementability, and aligned with the 20-point plan and UN Security Council Resolution 2803.”
Fighters from Hamas ahead of a prisoner exchange, Feb. 1, 2025. (EPA)
The committee stressed that it cannot effectively assume its responsibilities unless it is granted full administrative and civilian authority necessary to carry out its duties, in addition to policing responsibilities.
“Responsibility requires genuine empowerment that enables it to operate efficiently and independently. This would open the door to serious international support for reconstruction efforts, pave the way for a full Israeli withdrawal, and help restore daily life to normal,” it said.
The committee affirmed its commitment to carrying out this task with a sense of responsibility and professional discipline, and with the highest standards of transparency and accountability, calling on mediators and all relevant parties to expedite the resolution of outstanding issues without delay.
Armed Men in Hospitals
In a related development, the Hamas-run Ministry of Interior and National Security said in a statement on Saturday that it is making continuous and intensive efforts to ensure there are no armed presences within hospitals, particularly involving members of certain families who enter them. The ministry said this is aimed at preserving the sanctity of medical facilities and protecting them as purely humanitarian zones that must remain free of any tensions or armed displays.
The ministry said it has deployed a dedicated police force for field monitoring and enforcement, and to take legal action against violators. It acknowledged facing on-the-ground challenges, particularly in light of repeated Israeli strikes on its personnel while carrying out their duties, which it said has affected the speed of addressing some cases. It said it will continue to carry out its responsibilities with firmness.
Local Palestinian media reported late Friday that Doctors Without Borders decided to suspend all non-urgent medical procedures at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis starting Jan. 20, 2026, due to concerns related to the management of the facility and the preservation of its neutrality, as well as security breaches inside the hospital complex.
US President Donald Trump holds a document establishing the Peace Council for Gaza in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 27, 2026. (Reuters)
The organization said in a statement attributed to it, not published on its official platforms or website, that its staff and patients had, in recent months, observed the presence of armed men, some masked, in various areas of the complex, along with incidents of intimidation, arbitrary arrests of patients, and suspected weapons transfers. It said this posed a direct threat to the safety of staff and patients.
Asharq Al-Awsat attempted to obtain confirmation from the organization regarding the authenticity of the statement but received no response.
Field Developments
On the ground, Israeli violations in the Gaza Strip continued. Gunfire from military vehicles and drones, along with artillery shelling, caused injuries in Khan Younis in the south and north of Nuseirat in central Gaza.
Daily demolition operations targeting infrastructure and homes also continued in areas along both sides of the so-called yellow line, across various parts of the enclave.
What is the Two-state Solution to the Israel-Palestinian Conflict?https://english.aawsat.com/features/5240360-what-two-state-solution-israel-palestinian-conflict
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises following an explosion, within the "yellow line" zone, which is controlled by Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 10, 2026. Picture taken with a phone. REUTERS/Haseeb Alwazeer/File Photo
What is the Two-state Solution to the Israel-Palestinian Conflict?
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises following an explosion, within the "yellow line" zone, which is controlled by Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 10, 2026. Picture taken with a phone. REUTERS/Haseeb Alwazeer/File Photo
Israel has taken steps to help settlers acquire land in the occupied West Bank and widen its powers in parts of the territory where Palestinians have some self-rule - measures they said aimed to undermine the two-state solution.
It marks the latest blow to the idea of establishing a Palestinian state co-existing peacefully alongside Israel in territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Long backed by world powers, this vision formed the bedrock of the US-backed peace process ushered in by the 1993 Oslo Accords.
But the obstacles have only grown with time. They include accelerating Jewish settlement on occupied land and uncompromising positions on core issues including borders, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.
WHAT ARE ISRAEL'S NEW DECISIONS?
They would expedite settler land purchases by making public previously confidential West Bank land registries, and also repeal a Jordanian law governing land purchases in the West Bank, which was controlled by Jordan from 1948 until 1967.
Further, Israel would expand "monitoring and enforcement actions" to parts of the West Bank known as areas A and B, specifically "regarding water offences, damage to archaeological sites and environmental hazards that pollute the entire region", a statement by the finance and defense ministers said.
The West Bank was split into Areas A, B and C under the Oslo Accords. The Palestinian Authority has full administrative and security control in Area A - 18% of the territory. In Area B, around 22%, the PA runs civil affairs with security in Israeli hands. Most Palestinians in the West Bank live in areas A and B.
Israel has full control over the remaining 60% - Area C, including the border with Jordan.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the measures violate international law and aim to undermine Palestinian institutions and a future two-state solution.
Ultranationalist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called the decision a "real revolution" and said, "We will continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state."
WHAT ARE TWO-STATE SOLUTION'S ORIGINS?
Conflict ignited in British-ruled Palestine between Arabs and Jews who had migrated there, seeking a national home as they fled antisemitic persecution in Europe and citing biblical ties to the land throughout centuries in exile.
In 1947, the United Nations agreed on a plan partitioning Palestine into Arab and Jewish states with international rule over Jerusalem. Jewish leaders accepted the plan, which gave them 56% of the land. The Arab League rejected it.
The state of Israel was declared on May 14, 1948. A day later, five Arab states attacked. The war ended with Israel controlling 77% of the territory.
Some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes, ending up in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria as well as in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In the 1967 war, Israel captured the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt.
Although 157 of the 193 UN member states already recognize Palestine as a state, it is not itself a UN member, meaning most Palestinians are not recognized by the world body as citizens of any state. About nine million live as refugees in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and territories captured by Israel in 1967. Another 2 million live in Israel as Israeli citizens.
HAS A DEAL EVER BEEN CLOSE?
The Oslo Accords, signed by Israeli Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, led the PLO to recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce violence. Palestinians hoped this would be a step towards independence, with East Jerusalem as their capital.
The process suffered multiple reverses on both sides.
Hamas killed more than 330 Israelis in suicide attacks from 1994 to 2005, according to Israel's government. In 2007, the group seized Gaza from the PA in a brief civil war. Hamas' 1988 charter advocates Israel's demise, though in recent years it has said it would accept a Palestinian state along 1967 borders. Israel says that stance is a ruse.
In 1995, Rabin was assassinated by an ultranationalist Jew seeking to derail any land-for-peace deal.
In 2000, US President Bill Clinton brought Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to Camp David to clinch a deal, but it failed, with the future of Jerusalem, deemed by Israel as its "eternal and indivisible" capital, the main obstacle.
The conflict escalated with a second Palestinian intifada (uprising) in 2000 to 2005. US administrations sought to revive peacemaking, to no avail, with the last bid collapsing in 2014.
HOW BIG ARE THE OBSTACLES TODAY?
While Israel withdrew settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005, settlements expanded in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, their population rising from 250,000 in 1993 to 700,000 three decades later, according to Israeli organization Peace Now. Palestinians say this undermines the basis of a viable state.
Jewish settlement in the West Bank accelerated sharply after the 2023 start of the Gaza war.
During the Second Intifada two decades ago, Israel also constructed a barrier in the West Bank it said was intended to stop Palestinian suicide bombers from entering its cities. Palestinians call the move a land grab.
The PA led by President Mahmoud Abbas administers islands of West Bank land surrounded by a zone of Israeli control comprising 60% of the territory, including the Jordanian border and the settlements, arrangements set out in the Oslo Accords.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is the most right-wing in Israeli history and includes religious nationalists who draw support from settlers. Smotrich has said there is no such thing as a Palestinian people.
Hamas and Israel have fought repeated wars over the past two decades, culminating in the attacks on communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that ignited the Gaza war.
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