The Arab parties' running - together on a joint list or separately - is expected to have significant political consequences in the upcoming elections.
There is deep disagreement within the Arab parties on the issue, with Hadash Party representative MK Ofer Kassif speaking out clearly against joining forces.
According to a report by Yishai Friedman on Channel 14, at a recent conference, Ofer Kassif stated that he strongly opposes running together as part of a 'technical bloc' with the Ra'am party.
Kassif's main claim is that the intention of the chairman of the Ra'am, MK Mansour Abbas, is to politically ally with Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman and sit with them in the same government.
Kassif based his concerns on a statement by Abbas, who he said called Bennett "the future.".
In his remarks at the conference, MK Kassif presented a hypothetical scenario in which running on a joint list yields an unprecedented achievement of 20 seats for the list - of which five seats belong to the Ra'am party. According to him, this achievement will be meaningless if the Ra'am party exploits its power to support the coalition of Bennett and Lieberman.
""Imagine if the Knesset says: 'We're taking our 5 to support the coalition of Bennett and Lieberman.' What did we do with that?" Kassif wondered.
He summed up the move as one that would constitute "one step forward that will lead to two steps back.".
According to Kassif, even if uniting the parties in a joint run results in a numerical electoral achievement, Abbas's willingness to cooperate with Bennett will ultimately harm the Arab parties and the entire Arab public.
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