This week's ruling by the High Court of Justice to allow the candidacy of would-be Joint List politician Heba Yazbak (Balad) in the March 2 elections came as no surprise, yet it still outraged Israeli politicians and many in the Arab Israeli public.
Many in both communities see Yazbak as a new Hanin Zoabi, the former Balad lawmaker whose radical views and conduct resulted in multiple suspensions from parliament, over her support of acts of terror against the State of Israel.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The surprising aspect of the court's decision is its narrow 5-4 split. This is the first time that four out of the nine judges hearing the petition seeking to repeal the Election Committee's ruling have unequivocally upheld such a decision, deeming Yazbak's Facebook posts as clear expressions of support for the anti-Israeli activity. This may very well be a sign of things to come.
Had she been barred from running in next month's elections, Yazbak might have found herself leading a more militant line, sweeping a major and significant part of the Joint Arab List's MKs.
Many of the faction's members consider the disbanding of the Joint Arab List and resignation from the Knesset a goal in and of itself. As part of their propaganda campaign prior to High Court's ruling, many Arab lawmakers argued that if the petition to disqualify Yazbak were to be granted, the Joint List as a whole should withdraw its Knesset candidacy.
Some even demanded that in such a case the party should boycott the elections entirely, as an expression of protest against the court and solidarity with Yazbak.
However, both the Jewish and the Arab public should try to look beyond the current uproar. The ruling may bring about a slow, yet essential change in the Joint Arab List – a change that has, in fact, already begun among the younger generation, led by the party's chairman Mtanes Shehadeh. It appears that despite the faction's defiant rhetoric, the present generation has no intention of following in the footsteps of its predecessors – such as Balad founder Azmi Bishara, Zoabi, Said Nafa, and Basel Ghattas – all of whom have been investigated or tried for security violations.
The younger generation fully understands that the rules of the game – whether parliamentary or legal – are changing.
This generation, which has won the internal elections for all of the party's leadership positions, is more pragmatic and, contrary to its predecessors, it directs its message inward, addressing the Arab electorate rather than the Arab world. Its representatives see the leaders of the other Arab parties – Ayman Oden from Hadash and Ahmad Tibi from Ra'am-Ta'al – as competitors, aspiring to become a pertinent choice for Arab voters.
This position contrasts with that of the previous generation, whose members' deeds and actions elicited harsh criticism and deterred many voters – particularly young ones – from joining the party's ranks. Clear evidence of this change is the decline of support for Balad among young Arab voters, particularly in student groups at various Israeli universities.
About a month ago I wrote here that Balad may be nearing the end of its road. In a sense this still holds true: The "Balad of old," so to speak, may dissolve, to be replaced by the new and different Balad. The party's present leaders conduct themselves differently from its founders. Albeit, this change may be a question of tactics rather than ideology.
The new leadership seeks to distinguish itself from the former one, while also presenting an alternative to the other Arab parties. Yet even if this a change in style and not in essence – in some cases, to paraphrase Marx, it is being that determines consciousness.
