Hadash Council Impeached MK Issam Mahul from the Second Place
On Saturday, MK Issam Mahul was removed from the second place of the Hadash list to the Knesset. Mahul lost to Dr. Hanna Swaid, former Head of the Ilbun Municipality. Swaid received 238 votes (54%), while Mahul received only 197 votes. Immediately after the results were announced, turmoil erupted and the voting process was stopped. Mahul claimed that the voting outcome was a result of a behind-the-scenes deal.
Yesterday the Hadash council gathered in Shepharam and around 500 delegates were asked to vote on the first four party nominees to the next Kneset. The council meeting was very tense. A few days before the assembly it became clear that there are intentions to remove Mahul from the second place. Mahul is the secretary of the communist party (MKI), which is a main component of Hadash and controls most branches and most funds of the party. Even before the assembly, the leaders of Hadash were exchanging accusations through the written media; Mahul already then claimed that there are intentions to prevent him the second place.
After the voting results were made known, Mahul’s supporters gathered for consultation. They demanded that Dov Hanin, who was considered to be an ally of Mahul and was competing for the third place, withdraw from the race. Hanin refused.
Muhamed Baraca was elected for the first place with 296 votes (69%). Another candidate for the first place, Thaarid Shavita from Tira, received only 136 votes (31%).
For the second seat, as mentioned above, MK Issam Mahul and Dr Hanna Swaid were competing. A’id Tuma, another candidate removed her application, surprisingly, shortly before the election. The chairman of Hadash delegation to the Histadrut withdrew his name from the race for the first place.
Mahul, after the results of the vote, stated: “I accept the results, but there were other hands that influenced the votes. There are people in the leadership of Hadash that acted on a personal level, the communist party has recently warned about such steps. There were deals signed behind the scenes on behalf of people that are not members of Hadash.” In edition, Mahul said that the communist party is an essential component of Hadash and announced that it will assemble on the coming Monday to discuss the results. Several members of the council left the hall after Mahul’s speech.
While 500 delegates voted for the first place, only 383 delegates participated in the election for the third place. . Hanin won the third place; he competed for this seat with the Negev representative Yosef al-Atawana. Hanin won 76% of the votes.
For the forth seat, representatives competed, all men after the five female candidates withdrew their applications. There was a second round for the forth seat where Dr. Afowo Aebaria won over Manal Shalvi. Aebaria got 64% of the votes while Shalvi only 36%.
On Monday the political council of MKI will assemble to discuss its future of MKI in Hadash. One of the topics that will be discussed is the integration of MK Ahmad Tibi in the party. MKI would like to insure the place of Hanin and therefore will object to a coalition with Tibi. In the last election, Hadash selected Hanin for the third place, however he was demoted to the forth place due to the agreement with Tibi. Certain people in MKI claim that the agreement with Tibi did not increase the power of Hadash. Mahul, Hanin and ex MK Gozansky would present the remove of Tibi from the list as an ultimatum. In the speech after his loss, Mahul already hinted at this move. “Foreign hands are dealing in Hadash behind the scenes. A different list will be presented, different than the one you elect today,” said Mahul.
The struggle in Hadash did not start yesterday. It has been going on for a few years now. One group is representing MK Mahul, Gozansky and the majority of MKI which insist on putting a Jewish member in one of the first three places and object to the cooperation with Tibi. This group claims that the Arab-Jewish cooperation must be evident in the list to the Kneset. The second group is led by MK Baraca together with central actors within Hadash movement. This group wishes to continue the agreement with Tibi. This group might also have been involved in preventing Mahul from winning the second place. -- Bryan Atinsky Editor, News from Within e-mail: bryan at alt-info.org Tel: (972)2-624-1159 P.O. Box 31417, Jerusalem 91313 http://www.newsfromwithin.org http://www.alternativenews.org