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Joint List MK Sami Abou Shahadeh, on September 25, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
Joint List Knesset member Sami Abou Shahadeh won the leadership of the Arab nationalist Balad faction Saturday night, beating out incumbent Mtanes Shihadeh, who has led the party in the last three elections.
Abou Shahadeh won 230-159 in a vote by the faction’s central committee. According to internal party rules, Shihadeh is now ineligible to be on the party’s slate in the March election.
Abou Shahadeh entered the Knesset in October 2019 as part of the Joint List alliance of four majority-Arab parties. A resident of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, he previously served on the city’s municipal council as a Balad representative, even joining mayor Ron Huldai’s ruling coalition. ....

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