Arab Democratic Party

   A political party formed in 1988 by former Alignment member of the Knesset Abd El-Wahab Darawshe that contested the 1988 Knesset election. Its platform called for appropriate and active representation for Arabs in Israel in all state institutions. In foreign policy, it called for the recognition of the right of the Palestinian Arab people to self-determination. It advocated convening an international peace conference with the participation on an equal basis of all the parties involved, including the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The party called for the withdrawal of Israel from all the territories occupied in the Six-Day War (1967) and the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and eastern Jerusalem. It won one seat in the 1988 election, two in 1992, and four in 1996, when it ran on a joint slate with the United Arab List (UAL). The joint UAL-Arab Democratic Party, headed by Taleb a-Sanaa, won five seats in the May 1999 election to the 15th Knesset and two seats in the January 2003 election to the 16th Knesset. It won four seats in 2006.

   See also Arab-Israeli Conflict, Arab Political Parties.