Arab politicians are concerned of low voter turn out, say campaign to encourage voting doesn't address Israeli-Arabs.
By ILENE PRUSHERAhmed Tibi at Israel Institute of Democracy forum 370(photo credit: Courtesy IDI)
Arab participation in the upcoming Knesset elections looks set to drop below its usual paltry level if a concerted effort is not made towards convincing Arab voters that their votes count, and that their representatives have more than a marginal role to play, said several leading Arab politicians on Sunday at a roundtable discussion at the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem.Dr. Ahmed Tibi, the head of the Ra’am-Ta’al list in the outgoing Knesset, noted that a new government push to get people out to vote has so far totally ignored the Arab sector.“Recently there has been a government advertising campaign to encourage voting, but it is focused on the Jewish public, and it begs the question, what stands behind the forgotten room of the Arab voter? Is there someone, perhaps in Likud-Beytenu, who is not interested in raising the rate of participation of Arab voters?” Tibi asked at the roundtable, which was held in partnership with the Abraham Fund Initiatives, an organization dedicated to Arab-Jewish coexistence.Click for full JPost coverageTibi said that the Arab voting rate has consistently been going down with every election, just as it has among Jews, but that this year was predicted to be different. For a number of reasons – from the socioeconomic situation in Israel to the eight-day war with Hamas in Gaza that ended last week – voter participation among Jews was predicted to increase, while that among Arabs would drop.Voter participation among Israeli Arabs stood at 53 percent in the last elections, a record low.Part of the problem is that even the “center-left,” as Tibi put it, does not treat the Arab parties as partners.He pointed to the fact that when Kadima leader Tzipi Livni had a chance to form a coalition, she never once contacted the Arab parties to discuss the possibilities.The voter apathy and disillusionment with the Israeli system – only about 15 percent abstain for ideological reasons, Tibi says – could mean a lower proportion of Arabs vote while a higher proportion of Jews do, which might cause the Arab parties to lose some of the 10 mandates they currently have in the 120-seat Knesset. Tibi urged the three Arab parties to unite to prevent this form happening.MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad) told the audience that the main motivating factor for Arabs to vote should be to prevent the continuation of a government under the control of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman.“The agreement between Netanyahu and Liberman is one of the most dangerous developments in Israel. I know Liberman from my university days; we’re talking about a very dangerous politician. He is paving the way to be prime minister of Israel – there is a danger of fascism here – and we need to prevent it. If we can strengthen ourselves by three or four mandates, we can block Netanyahu and Liberman.”Ayman Odeh of Hadash, which describes itself as a joint Arab-Jewish movement, said that the Zionist parties send out a message that the Arab parties are unimportant. “The feeling that we don’t have influence is the main reason why people don’t vote,” he said. “When the Arab sector feels that it can change the government, I think it will significantly raise the rate of participation.
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