For the fifth time in four years, Israelis watched yesterday as a new Knesset was sworn in. Conspicuously absent were the representatives of the Arab Balad party, which did not make it pass the Knesset-entry threshold at the Nov. 1 elections. For the first time since Azmi Bishara founded the party in the 1990s, Balad has no representatives in the Israeli parliament.  

A year ago, the Arab Ra’am party made history by joining the coalition and instilling hope among Arab society for real change. This week, Israeli Arabs found themselves with one less party in the Knesset and a real danger that Balad will completely disappear from the political map.

The party was ill-prepared for these elections. It split from the Arab Joint List on the very last day that the parties could submit their lists to the election committee. Nevertheless, it received close to 140,000 votes, missing the Knesset-entry threshold only by little.

But the leadership of Balad must confront now not only the fact that they are out of the Knesset, but also how much support the party really has. Analysts claim that many votes were in fact an expression of solidarity with party leader Sami Abu Shehadeh, who told voters that he was the victim of injustice from his former partners in the Joint List. In other words, many of the people who voted for Balad did not necessary support the party's platform.