Standing Together founders launch Arab-Jewish party

by Philissa Cramer, Grace Gilson

(JTA) — The cofounders of the Israeli coexistence group Standing Together have launched a new Arab-Jewish political party in advance of this fall’s election, joining several other left-wing parties hoping to shift their country’s direction.

The party, called A Place for Us All, is running six candidates who are evenly split between Arab and Jewish Israelis and also evenly split on gender lines.

Alon-Lee Green, one of the founders and candidates, fended off concerns that A Place for Us All could cannibalize votes from other liberal parties and even effectively disenfranchise its supporters. In Israel’s electoral system, votes for parties that fail to draw at least 3.25% of ballots are thrown out.

Green declined to confirm whether his party would disband ahead of the election if it is not on track to meet the threshold but said that there was also an option of “running as a united bloc of a few parties” and signaled that some negotiations with other parties had already taken place.

“We will be a responsible actor,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We will not stand in the way of change — we will enact change, and this is the entire reason we are running.”

Green and Rula Daood announced A Place for Us All in a video and appearance in Nazareth on Tuesday. The video, in both Hebrew and Arabic, features footage from recent Standing Together demonstrations opposing the war in Gaza, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and violence in Arab communities.

The party’s slate also features two other Jewish Israelis and two other Israeli Arabs. They include Sally Abed, a Palestinian member of the Haifa City Council, and Yonatan Zeigen, whose mother Vivian Silver was a peace activist killed on Oct. 7.

The party platform calls for diplomacy instead of war, efforts to curb crime, free education from birth and a minimum wage of 50 shekels (about $17).

A Place for Us All joins more than a dozen other parties running in the election, which must take place before the end of October. Polls show that the current right-wing governing coalition would not retain control if the election were held today, but they also do not suggest an unfettered path for an opposition coalition, either.

News of the new party drew mixed responses from left-wing Israelis, who hope that the election will augur a new direction for their country and end the long tenure of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Some, including those affiliated with Standing Together, applauded the announcement as injecting new energy into a stagnant political system that has left wide swaths of Israeli society feeling unrepresented. They also cheered a vision for “truly equal” Arab-Jewish representation at a time when most mainstream parties are treating as toxic the idea of including any Arabs in a political coalition. (Yair Golan, head of the left-wing Democrats, has also urged Jewish-Arab governing alliances.)

“There aren’t enough votes without the votes of the Palestinians,” Green said. “If the Palestinians think they can do it themselves, they will find themselves in the corner, isolated. Jewish-Arab partnership is the key, is the missing piece of the puzzle to replace Netanyahu.”

But even those who might be drawn to A Place for Us All’s vision criticized the Standing Together activists for dividing the left at a time when its consolidation is seen as essential to ousting Netanyahu.

“They undoubtedly did the most leftist thing possible to do,” tweeted the journalist Amnon Harari, an editor at Haaretz, the left-wing Israeli newspaper. “To blather about some ideological subtone that simply necessitates the establishment of a new political home, just to inadvertently ensure the victory of Netanyahu’s right-wing-fascist government.”

Kumi Israel, a major antigovernment protest group, posted a statement that did not directly refer to the new party but was clearly about it

“Lately, we are witnessing a disturbing phenomenon of the establishment of small parties and fragments of parties, most of which have no real chance of passing the electoral threshold,” the group tweeted. “It is important to state the obvious: In such fateful elections, there is no room for political adventures. This is a matter of irresponsibility. Anyone who risks burning precious votes of the liberal bloc, in all its various shades, directly harms the chances of replacing the current government.”

Standing Together says it has 7,000 registered members, fewer than liberal parties that have failed to meet the electoral threshold in the past.

Green said he believed A Place for Us All could meet the electoral threshold, pointing to polling suggesting that the party would get 2.6% of votes before even campaigning. He said he believed his newly formed party could galvanize young Palestinian-Israeli voters, only 25% of whom say they are planning to vote, as well as female voters, of whom he said only 40% have historically cast ballots.

“We hope not to divide the cake more, but to enlarge the cake and bring in more voters, rather than taking them away,” Uri Weltmann, Standing Together’s national field director who is leading the campaign, told Haaretz on Tuesday.

The election will offer a high-stakes test for Standing Together, which has recently found a significant following abroad, of how much its vision resonates with Israelis. The group was founded a decade ago but rose to greater prominence during the war in Gaza, when it stood out as a rare Israeli voice in favor of a ceasefire. Its activists have sought to deliver Gaza aid, protect Arabs from Jewish extremists, and build local Arab-Jewish coalitions.

The group’s activities have drawn criticism from both the anti-Arab Israeli right and pro-Palestinian activists who say it fails to challenge Israel adequately.

Green had previously said the group would not become a political party while leaving open other avenues for entry into politics. Speaking in New York City in November, he said, “Standing Together will not become a political party. But Standing Together is not just a movement. Standing Together is part of an ecosystem, of a universe, of a political idea of peace and equality of social justice. So the movement will exist and I hope we will see other parts of this ecosystem being born in the next few years.”

On Tuesday, Standing Together said in a statement that it would remain officially nonpartisan, even as its leaders run for office.

“Our movement counts more than 7,000 dues-paying members, Jews and Palestinians, among them individuals active in various political parties as well as individuals who are not members of any party,” it said. “We welcome Standing Together activists who choose to take an active role in electoral politics and help shape the future of our society.”