But the parties were forced into an uncomfortable alliance by two developments that threatened their survival in the parliament.
The first was a decision last year to raise the electoral threshold to a level that none of the Arab parties could expect to surmount separately. The move was widely interpreted as an effort by the right to rid the 120-seat chamber of Arab MPs.
Compounding their problems, the Arab parties have faced flagging support from the Palestinian public in recent elections, with turnouts falling to barely more than half the electorate.
According to a report on the election published this week by the Nazareth-based Human Rights Association (HRA), the decline in voting represents two trends.
One, based on principle, argues that elections should be boycotted to avoid conferring legitimacy on "the Zionist parliament." That position has adherents in a small secular party, the Sons of the Village (Ibnaa al-Balad), and the more influential northern wing of the Islamic Movement, led by Sheikh Raed Salah.
But much of the recent drop-off in voting can probably be ascribed to another trend: growing disenchantment with parliamentary politics as a whole.
Mohammed Zeidan, the director of the HRA, said an increasing number of Palestinian citizens felt that Arab politicians had no hope of being effective in advancing the minority's rights, given both the current right-wing climate and the infighting that has beset the Arab parties.
Hopes of more seatsMany supporters criticized the discord between the parties, pointing out that they shared common ground on the biggest issues facing the Palestinian minority. All want an end both to the racist laws and practices that enforce discrimination inside Israel, and to the occupation suffered by millions of their Palestinian kin across the Green Line.
Surveys showed that the parties could significantly raise voter turnout if they united -- which in turn would lead to more seats in the Knesset.
When the Joint List was announced last month, its leaders said they expected to increase their tally of seats to as many as 15 in the next parliament, making it the third or fourth largest bloc in the Knesset.
The list's campaign slogan, to be unveiled in Nazareth this weekend, is "the will of the people," suggesting that the party leaders have finally listened to their electorates.
But indications so far are that any unity is only paper thin. The clue may be in the use of the word "joint" to describe the list rather than "unified" or "unity."
The term was preferred for two probable reasons.
The first is that the socialist Hadash party prizes its primary identity as a Jewish-Arab party, even making sure that it has a Jewish candidate in one of its top slots. This tradition is deeply entrenched in the party's philosophy, even though only a small proportion of its members and voters are Jewish.
That has often put it at odds with the more nationalist Balad party, to which Zoabi belongs. Balad's key demands are that the minority be allowed educational and cultural autonomy to help preserve a Palestinian identity under constant threat from Israeli state policy, and that it begin to develop national political institutions to create a more accountable local Arab leadership.
Hadash reportedly preferred a "joint" list, conveying the impression of cooperation with the Jewish population, over a "unity" list that would have suggested an exclusive Arab identity.
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