Democratic List of Nazareth
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The Democratic List of Nazareth (Hebrew: רשימה דמוקרטית של נצרת, Reshima Demokratit shel Natzrat) was a political party in Israel and the only Israeli Arab party in the first Knesset. The party was so named as it was based in Nazareth, the largest Arab city in Israel.
[edit] History
In the 1949 elections, the Democratic List of Nazareth gained 1.7% of the vote and two seats in the Knesset. It was represented by Seif-El-Din El-Zubi and its leader, Amin-Salim Jarjora.
The party was associated with David Ben Gurion's Mapai, as Ben Gurion was keen to include Israeli Arabs in the functioning of the state in order to prove Jews and Arabs could co-exist peacefully and productively, and during the 1950s several other Israeli Arab parties associated with Mapai appeared. As a result of the association, the party was part of the coalitions that formed the first and second governments during the first Knesset.
Before the 1951 election, the party disbanded, though it is possible (information on the subject is difficult to come by) that it was transformed into the Democratic List for Israeli Arabs, which El-Zubi had become a member of. Jarjora did not return to the Knesset, but went on to become Mayor of Nazareth in 1954, a position he filled until being replaced by El-Zubi in 1959.
