Israel elections 101: Did merger of Arab parties create a power-broker?
UPDATE 8:40 a.m. Friday:聽Arab political parties in Israel agreed late Thursday to merge their lists for the upcoming Israeli elections after resolving a dispute over the sharing of any additional representation in parliament. The following story, published hours before the agreement was announced, explains the motivations for, and possible impact of, the merger.
NAZARETH, Israel 鈥� For most of Israel鈥檚 history, a divided collection of parties representing the country鈥檚 Arab citizens has operated at the margins of national political life.聽But a first-ever push to merge three Arab parliamentary parties into a single slate for this March's general election is generating optimism among a disillusioned minority that makes up one fifth of the electorate.聽
Their hope is that the merger, which appears imminent, could help install a more dovish coalition government that would restart the peace process with the Palestinians and redress decades of inequality for Arab Israelis. The Arab parties, which together control 11 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, hope to add anywhere from one to four seats.
But a nagging doubt persists: would such a strategy聽galvanize higher Arab voter turnout. While participation in local elections has been high 鈥� exceeding 80 percent 鈥� the trend in parliamentary elections has been . In 2013 it was 57 percent, lagging the overall participation rate by 11 percent, because of increasing alienation from the Israeli mainstream and frustration with their own elected legislators.
A united campaign would be a symbolic milestone with the potential to boost Arab voter turnout by about one-third, argues Nohad Ali, a sociology professor at Haifa University, who advised Israeli legislators to raise the threshold for parties' representation in parliament.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an issue of identity. It will demonstrate to the [Arab] public that the unifier between us is greater than that which separates us,鈥欌�� says Professor聽Ali, who says his surveys show overwhelming public support for the move.
Offsetting that optimism over voter turnout are the political tensions that continue to alienate Arabs in Israel:
鈥� Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has campaigned hard for new聽legislation elevating Israel鈥檚 Jewish character over its democratic traditions
鈥� Israeli police have shot dead two聽Arab citizens of Israel聽in the last three months
鈥� and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party has called for Umm聽El Fahm, the second-largest Israeli Arab city, to be ceded to聽a future Palestinian state聽in exchange for Jewish settlements in the West Bank being made part of Israel.
New election law
Most of all, many Israeli Arabs聽say they still feel hostility left over from聽last summer鈥檚 war聽in聽the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip,聽during which demonstrations expressing聽sympathy for civilians killed there聽were聽criticized as support for Islamic terrorism. Most said they blame the current government and hope the elections will bring change.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 say just because one Arab did something, all of the Arabs are bad. This government has gone too far to the extreme,鈥� said Khaldi Hkmat, a Bedouin and聽a veteran of the Israeli army.聽鈥淚 ran to the battlefront during the Six-Day War. Now I鈥檓 afraid to go to Tel Aviv because of racism.鈥�
The impetus for the Arab parties to merge has been a new election law under which parties need a minimum of 3.25 percent of votes, up from 2 percent, to be seated in parliament. This reform, enacted by a right-wing government,聽presented the Arab parties, and other marginal parties, with the choice of uniting or risking elimination.
While backers justified the reform as a means for creating a more stable political system, many Israeli Arabs聽viewed raising the聽threshold as an attempt to exclude聽their聽parties.
And so negotiations聽have been聽held to combine Raam-Tal, an Islamist dominated party, with Hadash, a mixed Arab-Jewish socialist party, and the pan-Arab nationalist Balad party into聽a聽joint candidate slate before a Jan. 28 deadline for registering party lists.
Broad support for merger
Opinion surveys performed by聽Ali in the past and more recent campaign polls show that 80 to 90 percent of Israeli Arabs support such a merger.
The possibility of cooperation between the聽current聽Arab parties has dominated the political debate on social networks,聽in聽mainstream Arab media and in households, says Jacky Khoury, an Israeli-Arab reporter for the Haaretz newspaper. To a large degree, that jibes with the ideology of parties like Balad and Ra鈥檃m Tal, which promote secular and Islamic brands of Palestinian nationalism, respectively.聽聽聽
鈥淭he request of our public is that we will run together. There鈥檚 pressure from every direction,鈥欌�� says Wasil Taha, the chairman of Balad and a former Knesset member. 鈥淚t will make our list into a central factor in Israeli politics. We think we can impact who is the prime minister in Israel.鈥�
Arab parties have never been part of a governing coalition in Israel. Their anti-Zionist聽ideologies make聽them legislative outsiders, and in 2009 and 2013 right-wing lawmakers tried to have them disqualified.聽Even the Israeli left and center have been uneasy about such a partnership for fear of being seen as relying on Arab support.
There鈥檚 been one exception: following聽the聽1992 election, Arab parties supported聽Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin鈥檚 peace agreements with the Palestinians even while remaining outside his聽government.
Israeli Arabs say聽this year's election is an opportunity to revive that alliance and become a 鈥渟afety net鈥� for such a government. Older Israeli Arabs nostalgically recall the Labor 鈥淎lignment鈥� and remember the Rabin government as promoting integration.
Unity's costs and benefits
About one fifth of the Israeli Arab vote 鈥� or about 3 of the 15 Knesset seats that Professor聽Ali calculates are elected by Arab voters 鈥� goes to Zionist parties, many of whom reserve spots for Arab representatives. The Labor party recently recruited a veteran Israeli Arab sportscaster, Zoheir Baloul, who describes himself as a Palestinian Israeli, drawing criticism from Likud.
鈥淭he Arabs need to be together. It鈥檚 better that way. Afterwards, the Labor party will invite it into the coalition,鈥欌�� says Rafa Izzadin, who says he comes from a Labor family. 鈥淚t was better with the Alignment.鈥�
The聽Arab parties reportedly have been聽haggling over which group would benefit from any added seats accrued to the merged list. There also have been ideological obstacles: some of the Jewish-Arab 鈥淗adash鈥� socialist party expressed hesitation about banding together with Raam-Taal, an Islamist party with no women legislators.
Critics say the government essentially forced the Arab parties into an unnatural alliance, stifling political pluralism and hurting democracy.
鈥淚t will weaken the democratic spectrum that the Arab community can choose between,鈥欌�� said Jafar Farah, the director of Mossawa, an Arab-Israeli civil rights group. 鈥淭he Arab community will not have the ability to choose between different alternatives, which are always limited.鈥欌��
Pocketbook issues
Still, a common frustration expressed privately is that Arab lawmakers focus on Palestinian statehood to the exclusion of domestic issues facing Arab Israelis. With the cost of living issues high on the election agenda, Arab Israelis say they,聽too, are聽prioritizing pocketbook issues.
Nazmi Fawzi, a聽civil engineering student at the prestigious Technion University in Haifa, says the Arab unity move is motivated mainly by political survival, not the broader public interest.聽His main concern, he says, is finding聽a job聽despite what many youths say is discrimination from Jewish employers, and he will support whichever party can deliver.
鈥淚f I go to a job interview, I don鈥檛 want to be turned away when they see I didn鈥檛 do army service,鈥欌�� says Mr. Fawzi. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 care if the party is Arab or Jewish. Whoever puts food on the table, that鈥檚 who I鈥檒l eat with.鈥�
Whatever the enthusiasm for a unified Arab list, that alone will not be enough to boost turnout, says Mohammed Dawarshe, co-executive director of the Givat Haviva Institute, a non-profit that promotes civic engagement to bridge social divisions.
鈥淚f the option is just another place in the opposition to express anger, the public is smart enough to realize that isn鈥檛 going to make a difference,鈥欌�� he says.
鈥淚f it鈥檚 a close race between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader聽Isaac聽Herzog, and he [Herzog] says the right thing, like, 鈥業 will consider Arab parties in the coalition, or appoint Arab ministers in the government,鈥� those will be the right messages to get the people out of their apathy.鈥�
