The party was formed on 15 February 1988, towards the end of the term of the eleventh Knesset, when Abdulwahab Darawshe broke away from the Alignment to create his own faction in protest at the party's policy on the First Intifada. At the time of its founding, the party was the only solely Israeli Arab faction in the Knesset (although the Progressive List for Peace's only MK was an Israeli Arab, the party also had Jewish membership), and the first since the demise of the original United Arab List in the 1981 elections.