The Arab satellite lists, Arab lists, or satellite parties were

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 ...

satellite parties formed for the purposes of electoral support of

Mapai Mapai ( he, מַפָּא"י, an acronym for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', lit. "Workers' Party of the Land of Israel") was a democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger in ...

(and later the Labor Party), and other

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

parties between 1948 and the mid 1970s.Rebecca Kook: "For the first seven rounds of elections. most of the Arab votes were distributed amongst the Israeli Communist party (Maki later to become Rakach. later to become Hadash) and various Mapai and Mapam satellite lists. These were lists formed by the two main labor movement parties headed by Arab candidates. They were for all intents and purposes, however, extensions of the leading parties in terms of positions and coalition alignment. They are commonly described as satellite lists because of the patronage relationship between them and Mapai. The Israel Communist party, however, was long considered the only party to truly represent Arab interests until the appearance of the Progressive List for Peace (PLP) in 1984."; i
''Israel in Comparative Perspective: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom'', edited by Michael N. Barnett
p.214 Between the

1949 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1949. Previous: List of elections in 1948 Next: List of elections in 1949 Asia Afghanistan * 1949 Afghan parliamentary election Iran * 1949 Iranian Senate elections Israel * 1949 Israeli legisl ...

and the 1969 elections, most of the

vote was divided between the communist parties Maki and Rakah and the Arab satellite lists. According to Israeli scholar Rebecca Kook, Maki and Rakah were considered the only parties to truly represent Arab interests until the Progressive List for Peace won two seats in the 1984 elections. The existence of the Arab lists was partially because Arabs were barred from membership of Mapai until 1973. Unlike normal

political parties 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 political ideology ...

, they were not active between elections. Most of the lists survived more than one term, and all were subservient to the policies of their patron

.As'ad Ghanem: "Most of the lists were established by Mapai under Ben-Gurion... Most of them served more than one term and all were subservient to the leaders of Mapai
''The Palestinian-Arab Minority in Israel, 1948-2000: A Political Study''
As'ad Ghanem, p.41 According to Ilana Kaufman, the Arab lists; "were not proper parties but ad hoc electoral arrangements for the election of Arabs to the Knesset." Majid Al Haj writes that the object of the lists "was not the political mobilization of the Arab populations but rather the capture of Arab votes." The Labor Party withdrew its support from its last satellite list, the United Arab List, prior to the 1981 elections. The

Alignment Alignment may refer to: Archaeology * Alignment (archaeology), a co-linear arrangement of features or structures with external landmarks * Stone alignment, a linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones Biology * Struc ...

, an alliance of the Labor Party and Mapam, saw its share of the Arab vote triple in the elections, whilst the UAL failed to cross the electoral threshold. The Arab Democratic Party, established in 1988 as a breakaway from the Labor Party, effectively took their place in the political sphere.Ghanem, p. 42

List of Arab satellite lists

References

{{Israeli political parties