Ta'al ( he, תַּעַ״ל, an acronym for he, תְּנוּעָה עֲרָבִית לְהִתְחַדְּשׁוּת, label=none, lit=Arab Movement for Renewal, ar, الحركة العربية للتغيير) is an
Israeli Arab
The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...
in
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
led by
Ahmad Tibi
Ahmad Tibi ( ar, أحمد الطيبي, , he, אַחְמָד טִיבִּי, , sometimes spelled Ahmed Tibi; born 19 December 1958) is a Palestinian-Israeli politician. The leader of the Ta'al party, he has served as a member of the Knesset s ...
.
History
Ta'al was founded by Tibi in the mid-1990s. It ran in the
1996 elections under the name Arab Union, but won only 2,087 votes (0.1%). For the
1999 elections it ran as part of the
Balad list. Tibi won a seat, and broke away from Balad on 21 December that year. In the
2003 elections the party ran on a joint list with
Hadash
Hadash ( he, חד״ש, lit=New), an acronym for ''HaHazit HaDemokratit LeShalom uLeShivion'' ( he, הַחֲזִית הַדֶּמוֹקְרָטִית לְשָׁלוֹם וּלְשִׁוְיוֹן, lit=The Democratic Front for Peace and Equalit ...
, with Tibi retaining his seat.
On 7 February 2006 Tibi left the alliance with Hadash. For the
2006 elections the party ran on a joint list with the
United Arab List, running as Ra'am–Ta'al (Ra'am is the Hebrew acronym for the UAL).
On 12 January 2009, the Ra'am–Ta'al list was disqualified from the
2009 elections by the
Central Elections Committee
The Israeli Central Elections Committee ( he, ועדת הבחירות המרכזית, ''Va'adet HaBehirot HaMerkazit'') is the body charged under the Knesset Elections Law of 1969 to carry out the elections for the upcoming Knesset. The committe ...
. Twenty-one committee members voted in favor of its disqualification, with eight members voting against and two members abstaining. Tibi said the decision was related to
Operation Cast Lead
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...
, claiming "this is a racist country. We are accustomed to these types of struggles and we will win" and that "this decision strives for a Knesset without Arabs that will only lead to the increased solidarity between the Arab public and its leadership". He said he would appeal to the
Israeli High Court of Justice
ar, المحكمة العليا
, image = Emblem of Israel dark blue full.svg
, imagesize = 100px
, caption = Emblem of Israel
, motto =
, established =
, location = Givat Ram, Jerusalem
, coordinat ...
.
On 21 January the High Court of Justice overturned the Committee's decision unanimously. Tibi welcomed the decision and said: "We have beaten fascism. This fight is over but the battle is not. Racism has become a trend in Israel ... the court's decision has righted a wrong by
Kadima
Kadima ( he, קדימה, lit=''Forward'') was a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely following the implementation of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement pl ...
and
Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the la ...
".
The list won four seats, with Tibi retaining his place in the Knesset.
The party was part of the
Joint List in the
2015 election, before it withdrew in January 2019, though it decided to rejoin the alliance for the
September 2019 election and ran as part of it in the
2020 election as well. It left the alliance again on 28 January 2021, until it rejoined once again on 3 February.
Ideology
Ta'al supports an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 green lines and a
two-state solution
The two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict envisions an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River. The boundary between the two states is still subject to dispute and negotiation ...
, with a Palestinian state established alongside Israel in the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
and
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
.
Ta'al has been often described as
secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...
.
Despite this the party was an ally of the
Islamist United Arab List (Ra'am) and ran on their list between 2006 and 2015. Additionally their leader Tibi has been heavily criticized for
homophobic
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...
comments in 2019.
The party is described as
(Arab) nationalist but more moderate compared to
Balad.
References
External links
Ta'alKnesset website
{{Authority control
Anti-racism in Israel
Anti-Zionism in Israel
Arab nationalism in Israel
Arab nationalist political parties
Arab political parties in Israel
Political parties in Israel
Secularism in Israel
Anti-Zionist political parties