HAIFA, Israel — I was sitting in my family’s home in Haifa in 1984 when I watched a man who had just won a seat in the Knesset appear on television. In American-accented Hebrew, he reiterated the cornerstone of his campaign platform: All Arabs must be expelled from the land — by force, if necessary. In its televised campaign advertisement, his party had declared, “In the name of God and Israel, the Arabs must go.” I was 9 years old, Palestinian, Arab and a citizen of Israel. This man, Meir Kahane, wanted me gone.

Thirty-five years later, I am still here. Mr. Kahane’s party was banned by Israel’s High Court in 1988 and declared a terrorist organization in 1994. And I lead the Hadash Party and, for the past four years, the Joint List, representing Palestinian citizens of Israel in the Knesset. Mr. Kahane’s adherents are still here, too, but no party that so explicitly pledges allegiance to his vision has made a successful bid for the Knesset since.

That looks like it will change this year.

On Feb. 20, I sat with my 10-year-old son, Tayeb, in our family home in Haifa as we watched news reports that a new Kahanist party called Jewish Power, which advocates ethnic cleansing throughout the country and whose leader, in 2012, openly called for the erasure of Gaza, had incorporated and joined with two other extremist political parties to run in the general election on April 9. It seems very likely that they’ll take seats as members of the next Knesset.

In 1984, even right-wing members of Knesset left the room when Mr. Kahane stood to speak. The prime minister at the time, Yitzhak Shamir of the right-wing Likud Party, said he would absolutely refuse to allow Mr. Kahane into his coalition, even if it cost him the government. Now Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is opening the doors of the Knesset and welcoming the Kahanists inside.