Arab Woman Intends to Run for President of Israel

An Arab woman announced her intention to run for the post of President of Israel next year, for the first time in the history of the Jewish state.

Today, Tuesday, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that Arab businesswoman Ilham Khazen announced her intention to run for the presidency in Israel to succeed the current president, Reuven Rivlin, whose term will expire in July 2021.

Khazen, a resident of the Arab town of Ba'nah in the Galilee region in northern Israel, said that this door (Israeli presidency) has been closed to the Arab community for a long time, and the time has come to open it and for Israeli Arabs to participate in political work, to reach positions of influence and decision-making positions, and to provide more space in Key positions.

She added that she wants to represent all the people of Israel, overall factions, and to consolidate coexistence between Arabs and Jews.

The President of Israel is elected by the Knesset (Parliament), for a term of 7 years.

Khazen owns a chain of pharmacies in northern Israel and a medical center in the city of Sakhnin.

She is the mother of five children and the grandmother of two grandchildren, according to Yediot Aharonot.

She told the newspaper that she is very excited as she received a lot of warm reactions to her decision.

She  calls on the Joint List to support her step and unite with her, and not to oppose her as they did with the peace agreement with the UAE and Bahrain, as they voted against it.

The Joint List, an amalgamation of four Arab parties,  (15 members of the Knesset out of 120) voted against the peace agreements between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain, claiming that they did not address a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The number of Arab citizens (Muslims and Christians) in Israel is (1,930,000), constituting 21 percent of the population, according to official data from the Israeli Statistics Center.