Balad doctrine — MK Jamal Zahalka interview, 'A State of all its Citizens', Feb 2007

Balad is [a] national democratic party defined by two political positions. One is the demand that Israel be a state of all its citizens, as opposed to Israel's self-definition as a Jewish state, and two is cultural autonomy for Palestinians inside Israel.

Israel should be a state of all its citizens, not a state that belongs to one part of its population. Israel defines itself as a Jewish state. So, it's not our state. It's not just a question of definition or nature. It's a question of substance, structure, aims, goals, policies, laws...

We can summarize our problem in one sentence: Palestinians were the victims of the obsession to establish a Jewish state over those who were a majority in their own country. This could not be implemented without transfer or apartheid. Israel managed to do both... Because they did not succeed in producing the Jewish majority by immigration, transfer was the necessary result of the effort to build a Jewish and democratic state.

Now when our party came, we were made famous for being the political party who says: there's a solution to this contradiction. The state should be the state of all its citizens, in equality. That's modern democracy, based on the equal human being, not the hierarchical human being... It explores the real nature of the Israeli state. Not just equality between Jews and Arabs, but the very nature of the state. Israel is not a secular state – it has not even reached the point of separation of religion and state. You can't separate religion and state so long as the state is defined as a Jewish state.

In our model, we don't ignore cultural autonomy and cultural rights. We think that in Israel, Palestinian citizens should have the autonomy to express their culture. This follows international law, the Convention of the Rights of Minorities... Of course we also recognize the right of Jewish people for self-determination and culture... but in the frame of the state. Not that the state expresses that... We think the state should be empty – and there are Jews, and there are Arabs, and there can be others. Like, in principle, India... a secular state...

[On the 2003 attempt to ban Balad from elections:] The main accusation? We want the transformation of Israel from a Jewish state to a state of all citizens – that's the democratic challenge. And even the attorney general's representative said to the court: "This is a very dangerous party. They are asking for 100% equality", and that means canceling the privileges of Jews in the state of Jews. It means canceling the privileges of the Jewish agencies in land, housing, planning, the law of return, things that are fundamental in Israel.

[On the Israeli consensus he opposes:] no to withdrawal to 1967 borders, no to the right of return for Palestinian refugees, no to dismantling the settlements, no to a real independent Palestinian state. If a Palestinian state is built, it should be controlled by Israel under very hard restrictions. In any agreement, Palestinians should recognize Israel as a Jewish state. That's the Israeli consensus of all mainstream parties.