Zionism and Israel - Encyclopedic Dictionary
Balad Party - National Democratic Assembly Definition

Balad Party, National Democratic Assembly - An Israeli Arab political party - An Arab party whose full name is the National Democratic Assembly, and is called "Balad" for the acronym of its Hebrew name, and because Balad means homeland in Arabic. This party, established by Dr. Azmi Bishara towards the elections for the Fourteenth Knesset, advocates Israel’s turning into "a state of all its citizens." It ran for the Fourteenth Knesset in a joint list with the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash ) (a political arm of the Israel Communist Party). Toward the end of the Fourteenth Knesset, its two members - Bishara and Hashem Mahameed broke away from Hadash-Balad and formed an independent parliamentary group. Balad received two mandates in the Fifteenth Knesset (1999) but the group split and Bishara remained its only member. Balad received three mandates in the Sixteenth Knesset. (2003)

Synonyms and alternate spellings:

Further Information: Political Parties, Israel

Hebrew/Arabic pronunciation and transliteration conventions:

'H - ('het) a guttural sound made deep in the throat. To Western ears it may sound like the "ch" in loch. In Arabic there are several letters that have similar sounds. Examples: 'hanukah, 'hamas, 'haredi. Formerly, this sound was often represented by ch, especially in German transliterations of Hebrew. Thus, 'hanukah is often rendered as Chanuka for example.

ch - (chaf) a sound like "ch" in loch or the Russian Kh as in Khruschev or German Ach, made by putting the tongue against the roof of the mouth. In Hebrew, a chaf can never occur at the beginning of a word. At the beginning of a word, it has a dot in it and is pronounced "Kaf."

u - usually between oo as in spoon and u as in put.

a- sounded like a in arm

ah- used to represent an a sound made by the letter hey at the end of a word. It is the same sound as a. Haganah and Hagana are alternative acceptable transliterations.

'a-notation used for Hebrew and Arabic ayin, a guttural ah sound.

o - close to the French o as in homme.

th - (taf without a dot) - Th was formerly used to transliterate the Hebrew taf sound for taf without a dot. However in modern Hebrew there is no detectable difference in standard pronunciation of taf with or without a dot, and therefore Histadruth and Histadrut, Rehovoth and Rehovot are all acceptable.

q- (quf) - In transliteration of Hebrew and Arabic, it is best to consistently use the letter q for the quf, to avoid confusion with similar sounding words that might be spelled with a kaf, which should be transliterated as K. Thus, Hatiqva is preferable to Hatikva for example.

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This work and individual entries are copyright © 2005 by Ami Isseroff and Zionism and Israel Information Center and may not reproduced in any form without permission unless explicitly noted otherwise. Individual entries may be cited with credit to The Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Zionism and Israel