I am not religious by any means, but this seems quite stupid to me. If you want to attract Jews to your party, a simple gesture like not holding the vote on Shabat might be a nice symbol to start with. Sheesh!

Before 1948, the Hadash Party was called the Palestine Communist Party and most of its members were Jews. Arabs didn't want anything to do with it. After independence, it attempted to attract Arab voters and it succeeded beyond it wildest dreams until most of the party is now Arab. You can thank Stalin and the former USSR for that. Besides that , the one thing that the Communist Party is good at is forming "front" groups to get naive but well meaning citizens to join. It could be cultural, linguistic or issue groups but they all answer to a Central Committee who inturn answers to an international Central Committee. At one time this use to be the Comintern that was located in Moscow of the former Soviet Union. So to my fellow Jews in Israel don't be suckered into this little spider web that Barakeh is spinning.

Hadash loves Jews! That's why they're holding their primary elections on Shabbat because they know the Jews won't be at work....no...wait...... Idiots!

I am a Jew and I do sympathise with Arab Israelis. I do think they are marginalised to some extent, and I think it would be right to rectify this. I would also like to see Arab Israelis assimilated better into mainstream Israeli culture. However, by concerning themselves with Palestinian issues this party alienates me, along with many potential supporters I'm sure. It's all very well to find sympathy, but this is useless if you cannot understand the concerns of Jewish Israelis, most of all the imminent threat of annihilation and the use of Palestinians as a geographic and political base for terrorism. There is absolutely no connection between Arab Israeli rights and Palestinian rights. The sooner this is realised the better. Social equality and security are not mutually exclusive. There is no reason to be against the security fence.

They might attract some jews who have no interest in religion, Israel remaining a jewish state and think like Yossi Belin but the average jew wont be rushing to join Hadash. There is a difference between doing well in a national & local election. The left will go for Kadima or Labour and the far left will go for Meeretz. The right will go for Likud, Yisrael Baitaniu and Hatkvah. The haredi and low income families who dont support the political policies of the left or right will vote for haredi parties mainly Shas who are experts at getting money out of the governmnet and they dont do anything for free. The traditional arab party voters will vote for Hadash, Balad and the others. The average jewish swing voter either go with the left or the right every election not the haredi and especialy not the arab parties.

a party that refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people; one that has collaborated over the years with those set out to annihilate it, both from within and without the state of Israel.

The Hadash candidate in Sakhnin was a woman who was convicted of failing to report a plan she knew about a Palestinian terror attack, which resulted in dead Jews. The Hadash party knew about this, and did not object or even distance themselves from her, and actually voiced support. Ultimately she withdrew her candidacy for personal reasons, but as far as Hadash was concerned - she was a legitimate candidate. I wonder how many Jews would want to identify themselves with such party? Even among the few self-haters among us, I bet most are not that stupid.