MIDEAST: Many Arab Israelis May Not Vote

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Fawzia Sheikh

JERUSALEM, Mar 13 2006 (IPS) - Many Arab Israelis have said they will not vote in this month’s elections, political indifference that some say underscores the community’s feelings of marginalisation.

In an attempt to address this problem, the government has announced an affirmative action plan – just in time for the elections Mar. 28.

The government has said it plans to reserve 37.5 government positions every year for the next three years for Arab and other minority non-Jewish applicants. Also, any government office that hires an Arab to fill a vacant position would receive funds to hire an additional minority employee.

Feelings of discontent among the 550,000 Arab voters in a population of six million are not new, and are exacerbated by both Arab and Israeli political parties, experts say.

“Many of the Arabs in Israel look at the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) as some kind of Jewish playground that belongs to Jewish people or parties that are Jewish,” Mordechai Kedar, lecturer in the Arabic department at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan told IPS. “The language is Hebrew.”

Over the years, major Israeli parties have voiced “big promises for the Arab population…but after the elections these are forgotten,” said Adman Sa’adi, a professor specialising in Arab-Israeli politics at Ben Gurion University in Be’er Sheva.

“You can’t expect these Arabs to vote for these parties” since they fail to address their needs, Sa’adi said. Rather, he said, their policies have been catastrophic, whether it is house demolitions in the territories, or Israel’s security perimeter separating Jerusalem from the West Bank, which cuts off some Palestinian Israeli natives from family and businesses.

“These Israeli political leaders don’t speak about peace, only unilateral withdrawals,” Sa’adi told IPS.

An Israeli of Palestinian descent, Sa’adi said Arabs are relegated to status of second, or even third-class citizens. He said they have for example to queue alongside foreigners at airports’ passport control. “You are not wanted in the state. Sometimes the feeling is you are closer to an enemy rather than friends.”

Sa’adi told IPS that the police often harass Palestinians, including him, at airports, bus stations and Jewish public places.

Discrimination also commonly manifests itself in the granting of economic benefits to Jewish areas over their Arab counterparts, said Sa’adi. The Israeli High Court recently struck down a plan in which education benefits overwhelmingly went to Jewish cities and towns.

This relegation to the sidelines can be seen even in little things like signposts. Although Israeli law dictates that public signs must be tri-lingual – in Hebrew, Arabic and English – the Arabic translation is often incomprehensible. “It’s just kind of really humiliating,” Sa’adi said.

Kedar attributes Jewish denigration of the Arab population to memories of the holocaust and the perceived danger from being surrounded by nearly 300 million Arabs.

Some Israelis see Palestinians living within the state as a risk factor, Kedar said. “They are potential collaborators with Arabs outside, especially Palestinians who have family ties with Israeli citizens who are also Palestinian.”

Arab parties are also to blame for a significantly apathetic Palestinian electorate. Many Israeli Arabs accuse their own parties of focusing on politics at the expense of their constituencies in Arab towns and villages.

“They try to build their legitimacy and their name by challenging…the makeup and policies of the state,” said Kedar. As a result, many Palestinians living in Israel who plan to vote may support conventional Israeli parties to punish Arab members of the Knesset, Kedar said. “I hear it from my students.”

Islamic groups are also playing a role in Arab disdain for participating in the elections. The Islamic movement in Israel routinely urges Palestinians to boycott elections because it says Israel is built on Palestinian land, and casting a vote that elects members to the Knesset grants the state a seal of approval.