Haneen Zoabi

Three activists had been caught at the Jordan border carrying suitcases full of cash, and the party had covered it with about 1,300 fake donation receipts in the names of people who actually, surprise, surprise, don't really exist.

Former Knesset member, Knesset member, i.e. serving in Israel's parliament, Hanin Zoabi, and 12 others were convicted of fraud and forgery in 2021.

And guess who appeared on Arab television from Qatar this week to call it accusations against Doha's sick fantasy? That same Azmi Beshara.

This gets really sticky for Israel to navigate because in many ways, Qatar has become a partner, famously in negotiations, but also in managing situations in the Arab world.

That was in the lead-up to the 2014 Operation Protective Edging in Gaza, but really a very traumatic episode for Israeli society.

Well, Hanin Zoabi said that that was not a terrorist attack.

So that is just to give you a sense of some of the figures that are affiliated with the Balad Party, at least in the past.

And this is a party that supports a one-state solution, which would mean, of course, no more Israel.

It allowed Azmi Bishara to run in 2003.

It allowed Haneen Zoabi to run in 2013 and 2015 after she had sailed on the Mavi Marmara flotilla and later said the men who kidnapped three Israeli teenagers were, quote, not terrorists.

Chiba Yazbak was allowed to run in 2020.

She called Samir Kuntar a martyr.