Joint List's number 3, Fatin Ghattas, tells BBC occupied peoples may resist

Dr. Fatin Ghattas, who holds third place on the Joint List's slate of candidates, told the BBC that resistance has accompanied every occupation in the world and that international law allows a people living under occupation to resist the power occupying it. According to a summary posted by political journalist Amit Segal on his Telegram channel, the remarks came in answer to a question about Hamas, and Ghattas said this needed to be understood clearly.

In the same interview, Ghattas rejected the argument that a government including the Joint List would be a government of terror. Ghattas said that what the present government is doing amounts to very large-scale terror against Arab citizens and in the occupied territories, describing this as the reality on the ground. The Hebrew news outlet News.co.il reported that the comments had caused an uproar.

What the Joint List is

The Joint List is an electoral alliance of parties that draw most of their support from Israel's Arab citizens, who make up a substantial minority of the country's population. Arab-led parties have run in Israeli elections both separately and in combination, and the question of whether any of them could sit in, or support, a governing coalition is a recurring argument in Israeli politics. Ghattas's comments addressed that argument directly: critics on the Israeli right have long said that bringing Arab parties into government would mean relying on lawmakers who do not condemn armed groups such as Hamas.

What a slate position means

Israel elects its parliament, the Knesset, through a nationwide system of proportional representation with closed party lists. Voters choose a party, not an individual, and seats are filled in the order in which candidates appear on the list. A candidate ranked number 3 is therefore near the top of the party's slate and among those most likely to enter parliament if the list passes the electoral threshold. Remarks by a candidate in that position tend to be read as reflecting the party's leadership rather than a fringe view.

Hamas and the language of resistance

Hamas is the Islamist movement that has governed the Gaza Strip and is designated a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union, among others. Its fighters carried out the cross-border attack on southern Israel that triggered the Gaza war. In Arabic and in Palestinian political discourse, the word usually rendered as "resistance" is commonly used to describe armed struggle against Israel, which is why its use in answer to a question about Hamas draws strong reactions in Israel.

Ghattas framed the point as a legal one, saying international law in effect permits resistance by a people under occupation. In Israeli usage, "the occupied territories" or simply "the territories" generally refers to the West Bank, and in some framings to Gaza and East Jerusalem as well, areas Israel captured in war and whose status remains disputed internationally.

How the two accounts differ

The two reports agree on the substance of what Ghattas said. They differ in small ways. Segal's post renders Ghattas as speaking of terror directed "towards us as citizens", while News.co.il described the target as Arab citizens specifically. News.co.il also characterised the remarks as having set off a storm; Segal's post presented the quotes without describing any reaction. Neither report quotes anyone responding to Ghattas.

What the reports do not say

• Neither report links to or quotes the BBC interview itself, so the full wording, the language it was conducted in and the exact question put to Ghattas cannot be checked from this material.
• The reports do not say whether Ghattas cited any specific legal instrument, or drew any distinction between attacks on soldiers and attacks on civilians.
• No response from the Joint List's leadership, from other parties or from the government has been reported.
• News.co.il describes an uproar but does not say who objected or how.