Former MK Dr. Yousef Jabareen was elected Saturday to lead Hadash’s Knesset list, replacing longtime party leader Ayman Odeh, Israeli media reported Saturday afternoon.
Jabareen, a resident of Umm al-Fahm, defeated Dr. Shukri Awawdeh during the party’s national council meeting in Deir Hanna.
“I call for the establishment of the broadest and strongest Joint List possible. This is the need of the hour, and it is what our public demands. Therefore, the responsibility falls on all of us to act accordingly,” he said in a statement published by the party.
“I call on all components of the Joint List to commit themselves to this mission, advance the negotiations, and become an influential and decisive political force. We will do everything to prevent the Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, and Smotrich government from continuing for another term, and we will fight for equality, for democracy, and for peace, together with the Jewish democratic forces.”
Hadash said the vote marked the opening of its election campaign and made it the first political faction in Israel to select its list ahead of the next election.
Jabareen returns to front-line politics
Jabareen previously served as a Knesset member for Hadash and the Joint List from 2015 to 2021. During the 23rd Knesset, he chaired the Committee on the Rights of the Child and helped advance regulations on the supervision of early childhood daycare centers.
A lawyer and academic specializing in constitutional law and human rights, Jabareen previously taught at the University of Haifa and Tel-Hai College. He is married and a father of four.
Ayman Odeh and MK Aida Touma-Sliman, who have represented Hadash in the Knesset since 2015, did not run in the internal vote. Under the party constitution, which encourages leadership renewal, they would have needed a two-thirds majority to be elected again, Walla reported.
Hadash said its national council includes 966 delegates and described it as the broadest representative body of Arab and Arab-Jewish citizens in Israel.
During the Deir Hanna conference, Hadash officials described the coming election as a “decisive struggle” against the Netanyahu government and against what they called the deepening of occupation, abandonment, racism, and fascism.
