A new Jewish-Arab political party has been established in Israel ahead of the upcoming Knesset elections later this year.
A Place For Us All was launched on Tuesday by its new co-leaders, Rula Daood and Alon-Lee Green.
The party will be made up of activists from the Standing Together movement, a grassroots group established in 2015, which aims to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace initiatives and harmony between Arab and Jewish Israelis.
During its launch event, the party said its major focus would be on the issues affecting voters’ day-to-day lives, including rates of violent crime, the civilian security situation amid the war with Iran, house prices and the cost of living.
Daood, speaking at the event, said: “We are announcing today a new party. The Place for All of Us Party. A truly joint party, truly egalitarian, that grew from the grassroots, and that will not disconnect from it.
"We are doing this because this is the last moment to save our society. They are abandoning us, murdering us, burning our future – and I know that to fix it, it's not enough to just say no. We also need to say what yes.
"So today I say – no to Netanyahu, to Ben-Gvir, to Smotrich. We are running to be part of the effort to oust them, and we are bringing with us those who usually don't go to the polls and flee from politics. And today I also say what yes – yes to Israeli-Palestinian peace, yes to national and civic equality, yes to social justice.”
Green added: “We've arrived at these fateful elections, and we know just how dramatic they are. We all love this place, we all love this country, we all love our society.
"And we know there's only one option, and it's that, in the end, after these elections, Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben Gvir won't be in the leadership. And that's exactly why we established Makom Le'Kolanu.
"The run of a Jewish-Arab party strengthens exactly that goal. We're bringing in young voters. We're bringing in women voters. Just like in the past ten years, we're bringing into the circle of activity people who weren't there before.
"We're pulling people out of despair into hope. We'll bring to the Knesset the energy from the streets, the change we've succeeded in generating on the roads.”
Israeli voters are due to go to the ballot this autumn, with elections required by law to take place by October 27.
The latest polling suggests a tight race between the right-wing bloc led by Netanyahu, with support from Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit, against the more centrist coalition headlined by Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Bennett and Lapid announced in April that they would be running on a joint ticket and merging their respective parties, Bennett 2026 and Yesh Atid, to form Beyachad (“Together”).
However, there are stumbling blocks for both factions on each end of the political spectrum.
Netanyahu appears to have lost the support of the Charedi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ), both of which have resigned their ministerial posts in his coalition (with UTJ pulling out altogether) and have previously attempted to dissolve the government and force early voting over the contentious issue of conscripting yeshiva students into the IDF.
On the other side, Yair Golan’s Democrats are polling at around 10 per cent of the vote, potentially splitting Beyachad’s vote, while the Arab parties have re-formed the Joint List, which could play the role of kingmaker for either coalition.
Earlier this month, MKs voted 106-0 in favour of a government-sponsored bill to dissolve the Knesset at its first reading.
That bill, though, does not contain the precise election date, with government whips saying this will be introduced ahead of the second or third reading. The dates for those two votes is also yet to be confirmed.
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