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Israeli Arabs Gain in Knesset Elections
(Ha'aretz) Judy Maltz - In Monday's Knesset elections, the Joint List (an alliance of four Arab-led parties) appears to have won 15 seats. There will be 17 Arabic-speaking members - an all-time record: 14 from the Joint List (the Hadash faction has one Jewish member), along with a member of the Arabic-speaking Druze community in each of the Likud, Blue and White, and Yisrael Beiteinu parties. The Joint List has four women. Iman Khatib, a representative of the Islamist United Arab List faction, will be the first hijab-wearing woman to serve in the Knesset. Blue and White has one female Druze lawmaker (Gadeer Mreeh). According to preliminary estimates, nearly 65% of the electorate in Arab towns voted, the highest turnout since 1999. The Joint List captured 88% of the Arab vote, up from 81% in the September vote. Voter turnout was especially high in a cluster of 10 Arab towns known as "The Triangle," where 350,000 Arab citizens live. The U.S. peace plan raised the possibility that this area could be part of a land swap, leaving them under the rule of the Palestinian Authority.