Meet Hanin Zuabi, Arab Woman MK

by Charles Lenchner · 2009-03-01 06:23:00 UTC
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This article was co-written by Charles Lenchner and Roni Henig

Meet Hanin Zuabi, a newly elected Member of Knesset representing the nationalist Palestinian Party Balad (NDA = National Democratic Alliance, or Tajamu). Before the recent elections, Balad voted to save one spot out of every three for women candidates. This decision, originally led by the party's former chairman Azmi Bisharah, made Balad the Arab party with largest amount of women on their list. (Possibly the highest percentage in the entire Arab world, not just among Arab parties in Israel.)

In the last elections, Balad won three seats in the Knesset. As a result, Hanin Zuabi, number three on Balad's list, became first woman MK elected from an Arab party. Zuabi is a 39 year old single (!!!) woman from Nazareth. She became seriously politically active in 1997, when she first joined the joint list of Balad and Hadash following Balad's chairman at the time, Azmi Bishara. Zuabi has a Masters degree in communications, and in addition to her political activity; she worked for several years as a media literacy teacher in the Arab school system. In the year 2000, she co-established I'lam, a media center for Palestinians in Israel, an association of Arab journalists trying to correct the record of the Hebrew media as it reports on Palestinian and Arab issues.

Zuabi's connection to politics seems almost natural. She studied at the St. Josef School in Nazareth, where education for national pride was highly emphasized and students were exposed to Palestinian history and tradition. Many of her relatives were elected officials or held senior posts in local government. Her identity as a Palestinian Arab, she claims, was molded at home.

"I represent the Party's platform and values first", said Zuabi shortly after the elections, "and I also represent the ambitions of Arab women, not only those who voted for Balad. It is important for Arab women to see a woman acting in the center of political activity and in the center of decisions taking in Israel". Yet, Zuabi refuses to define herself as feminist. Identifying as feminist might have been interpreted as turning against her society's values. As some other Arab women activists, she believes that the national struggle takes precedence over women's rights, and equality in terms of gender can only be achieved as part of a larger political mobilization.

Balad is committed to transforming the state of Israel from a Jewish state to a state for all its citizens. This is essentially the same as the vision of a democratic secular state, one of two: one would still be Palestinian, and the other would still be Israeli.

For more information:

www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1061494.html

www.tajamoa.org/?mod=article&ID=860

news.walla.co.il/?w=/1/1433989

Finally, the Alternative Information Center posted a good analysis of the struggle between Hadash and Balad this past election season, marking a transformation of sorts.

Charles Lenchner
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