Rallies called in five Israeli cities demanding a government built on Jewish-Arab partnership

Demonstrations have been called in Israel demanding a government formed on the basis of Jewish-Arab partnership, with the support of Arab parties. The programme, organised at the initiative of the 'Change Bloc', is to be held on Saturday night local time.

Organisers from the group Standing Together said gatherings would take place at 7:30 p.m. at Habima Square in Tel Aviv and Paris Square in Jerusalem. Programmes would also be held at the same time in Beersheba, Haifa and Tayibe.

The backdrop is Tuesday's election. In that vote the opposition bloc won 67 seats, while the ruling coalition won 53. Of the opposition bloc's 67 seats, however, 48 belong to Zionist parties and 19 to Arab non-Zionist parties.

The four Zionist parties are Gadi Eisenkot's 'Yashar', Naftali Bennett's 'Beyachad', Yair Golan's 'The Democrats' and Avigdor Lieberman's 'Yisrael Beiteinu'. The two Arab-led parties are Youssef Jabareen's 'Joint List' and Mansour Abbas's 'Ra'am'.

The difficulty is that most leaders of the Jewish opposition parties have said in the past that they would not cooperate with the Arab parties. So despite holding a majority of seats, the question of forming a government while keeping the Arab parties outside remains unresolved.

The organisers said demonstrators are demanding that the bloc's leaders recognise their victory and form a government based on Jewish-Arab partnership. In their words, the Jewish-Arab majority that voted for change needs to be reflected in the next government as well.

The organisers said now is not the time to abandon partnership, but to turn it into a political force capable of changing reality.

They added that the value of an Arab vote is equal to that of a Jewish vote, and demanded that Arab citizens be full partners in building the country's future.