Arab Joint List shows its potential political influence
In Israel’s jumbled-up political realities, it is still unclear who the winners and who the losers were in last month’s elections to its legislative body, the Knesset. But one definite success story has been the mobilization of Palestinians to go out and vote. This has yielded 13 seats for the Joint List, which comprises four Arab parties. When those parties ran separately in April’s election, many of their supporters stayed at home and consequently they ended up with only 10 members of the Knesset. But the recent result has demonstrated once again that their constituency is keen on unity and pragmatism, something their leader, Ayman Odeh, has championed since he was elected. And he has done so without sweeping ideological differences under the carpet.
If unity among the main Arab parties was one major incentive for Palestinians to exercise their civic right and vote for the Joint List, the other, ironically, was the constant bigoted attacks against them by the right-wing Jewish parties, and especially by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his merchants of hate speech. Turnout among Palestinian citizens, who account for nearly a fifth of Israel’s population, rose by 12 points to 61 percent in a matter of five months. This is testimony to the efforts of the leaders and activists of the Joint List in mobilizing their supporters, and — more significantly — to the growing awareness that apathy and election boycotts don’t serve the Palestinian minority, which is made up of mainly Muslims and Christians, of Israel.
In several previous elections, the lower turnout among this community was driven by a strong conviction that their participation made no real difference. They are a minority in their own country, while the vast majority of the Jewish population and the state institutions don’t genuinely see them as equal citizens, and most definitely don’t treat them as such. Worse, some of the unscrupulous right — deliberately, opportunistically and without a shred of evidence — label them as a fifth column.
Three voting options are available for Palestinians: To support the Zionist parties, to support parties that are predominantly Arab, or to stay away from politics altogether, especially national politics. Their tendency to vote for Zionist parties was, in the early days of the state, a pragmatic acceptance of the Jewish character of Israel, and it was done in the hope that this expression of loyalty would result in their being treated as equal citizens — as stated in the Declaration of Independence — and would be rewarded with generous resources. But this did not happen. For decades after 1948, the communist Rakah party was the only one to represent Palestinians, but gradually there came to be more nationalist elements within it than communists. It was always a small party, serving in opposition with little to no influence on the political scene or on decisions of concern to its constituency. Eventually, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, Rakah — 95 percent of whose voters were Palestinians — ceased to exist and a number of Arab parties took its place to better represent the range of views among the country’s Palestinian citizens. However, these parties were all small and struggled to attract enough voters to make them a force to be reckoned with.
But, today, Israel’s extreme right, in its chauvinistic nationalism, has made it clear to Palestinians that it is making a concerted effort to exclude them from the political discourse and representation in the Knesset. In the 2015 election, it was Avigdor Lieberman — a political chameleon whose greed for power is only exceeded by that of his one-time mentor, Netanyahu — who, by campaigning to raise the entry threshold to the Knesset, pushed the Arab parties to run as one list, almost as a matter of survival. Ironically, the 2015 version of the Joint List ended up with 13 seats, while Lieberman barely managed to gather enough votes to cross the line and enter the Knesset.
It was during the same 2015 election that Netanyahu, in a dreadful, racist statement, announced that “Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves” to encourage his supporters to come out and vote. And, in this year’s elections, he continued his despicable delegitimization campaign against Palestinians and their representatives.
Once more this tactic failed, and thankfully achieved the opposite result. It has made it clear to Palestinians that, when it comes to politics, there is strength in numbers — in this case the number of representatives in the Knesset. To top that, the NationState Law passed last year unashamedly enshrined in law the country’s discrimination against minorities, something which has been a sad reality since Israel was founded 71 years ago. But, with greater Palestinian political power, there is a bigger chance of reversing this legislation.
Now that the Joint List has become the third most powerful faction in the Knesset after Likud and Blue and White, Odeh might become leader of the opposition and, in this official role, would have regular meetings with the prime minister, be invited to all state ceremonies, and even enjoy the protection of the security services. Having a Palestinian in this position could be the first step toward the full inclusion of Palestinian society and its representatives in the decision and policymaking processes of the state of Israel.
Even more significantly, though still a dream given the current political realities, there may come a time and a future election following which the Joint List will be invited to participate in government. Whether or not it chose to do so, this would be a first and most important step in the process of fully integrating the Palestinian minority in Israel. For now, this might be a dream, but it is one that can and should be realized, for the sake of the Palestinians and, equally, for the entire country.