The Arab satellite lists () or Arab lists () were

Israeli Arab The Arab citizens of Israel form the country's largest ethnic minority. Their community mainly consists of former Palestinian Citizenship Order 1925, Mandatory Palestine citizens (and their descendants) who continued to inhabit the territory ...

satellite parties formed for the purposes of electoral support of

Mapai Mapai (, an abbreviation for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', ) was a Labor Zionist and democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in January ...

(and later the Labor Party), and other

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

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 and the 1969 elections, most of the

vote was divided between the communist parties Maki and Rakah and the Arab satellite lists. The time span under (1948–1966) was described as the "golden age" of satellite parties. 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 area'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 ...

, 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 The lists were put together based on local influence, clans and religion. 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 The United Arab List (, ''HaReshima HaAravit HaMe'uhedet''; , ''al-Qā'ima al-'Arabiyya al-Muwaḥḥada''), commonly known by its Hebrew acronym Ra'am (, ), is an Islamist and conservative political party in Israel and the political wing of ...

, 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. Alongside the defeat of two other lists, the Christian-led Arab Brotherhood List and the more radical Bedouin-led Arab Citizens' List, the election was seen of the end of personalist Arab lists based on traditional leadership. 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

Elections

The table below shows the votes of Arab-Israelis for Arab-led political parties, Jewish-led political parties and the satellite lists:

References

{{Israeli political parties Arab supporters of Israel Arab citizens of Israel