Politicians Court a Not-So-Silent Minority: Israeli Arabs

March 21, 2006

By DINA KRAFT

BAQA AL-GHARBIYEH, Israel — Dr. Ahmed Tibi waved to supporters as his car moved slowly down the main road of this Arab town, past carpet shops, vegetable stands and billboards that call him "a son of the village," unmistakable code for Arabs who are citizens but resist identification with Israel or Zionism.

"Look in the mirror and see whom you're voting for," Dr. Tibi told a gathering of potential voters here, a town bordering the West Bank. His eyes fixed on theirs, he said, "Zionist parties are the problem, not the solution." As Israel's election approaches on March 28, Arab and mainstream Israeli parties, the ones that Dr. Tibi meant by "Zionist parties," are competing for the votes of an alienated minority: Israeli Arabs.

A recent survey of 500 Arab voters found that only about 16 percent planned to vote for mainstream Israeli parties. In the last election roughly 30 percent of Israeli Arabs voted for these parties.

Almost 20 percent of Israel's 6.8 million citizens are Arabs (a group distinct from the Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip), and a significant voting bloc that has made a difference in past races.

Israeli Arabs speak of frustration with everyone who is trying to represent them. Many criticize both the Arab parties, for focusing more on Palestinian issues than on their own needs, and the mainstream ones, for decades of unfulfilled promises.

The Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections adds another element to the already complex political relationship between Israel's Jews and Arabs. But the Arabs say what would matter to them is if that victory produced further violence between Palestinians and Israelis.

"There is a fear that Israel will impose solutions and not negotiate, as in Gaza, and that will lead to clashes that will have some bearing on Arabs in Israel," said Muhammad Amara, an Israeli Arab who teaches political science at Bar-Ilan University, outside Tel Aviv.

Some Jewish Israelis are worried about a growing Islamist movement that appears emboldened by the Hamas victory. Leaders of the pragmatic Islamist wing in Israel that does participate in politics — unlike its more militant branch, which refuses to — stress that they are the face of moderate Islam. "We are against all extremists, whether they are Arab or Jewish," said Sheikh Abas Zakoor, a candidate of the Islamic Movement.

Dr. Tibi, a gynecologist who has been a member of Parliament since 1999, has joined in a coalition with the more pragmatic wing, which currently has two seats.

The heated nationalism practiced by Dr. Tibi and the Arab parties is an effort to tap into the mood of a fed-up minority.

"People live under continued and planned discrimination when it comes to the economy, education and jobs, and we do not see Israeli governments changing the situation," said Ali Haider, co-executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality, a group advocating equal status for Arabs and Jews.

Candidates from the mainstream parties are busy courting the Arab vote, too, touting their political muscle and promising to improve towns and villages, and schools and job prospects.

Fighting political discontent with economic solutions is part of Nadia Hilo's strategy to sway Arab voters. An Arab with a high spot on the Labor Party list, she criticizes the Arab parties for claiming to be their people's only legitimate representatives. She says she believes Labor will be part of the governing coalition with the power to force through an agenda focused on narrowing the economic gap between rich and poor.

"This will give a chance to the Arab sector to be more influential and improve their daily lives," she said.

The apathy of a community grown increasingly cynical about the power of government to change its status makes turnout uncertain. This could hurt the Arab parties, which dropped in 2003 to 8 seats, from 10, in the 120-seat Parliament. Only 62 percent of Israeli Arabs voted in 2003, a significant drop from previous years. Pollsters predict a similar figure this year, and expect the parties to win eight seats.

This year, the threshold for a party to win a seat was raised, so some of the smaller parties have banded together in new coalitions.

Mustafa Abu Mokh, 46, a member of Baqa's municipal council, said he doubted he would vote for any party. "What will convince me," he said, "is a party that will answer our day-to-day problems."

Arabs in Israel have higher levels of education, medical care and standards of living than their counterparts elsewhere in the Middle East. But they compare their lives with those of Israeli Jews, who are generally better off.

"Our life in this country is a kind of ambivalence," said Professor Amara. "On the one hand you are a citizen, but what kind of citizen can you be as an Arab citizen in a Jewish state?"

A 32-year-old resident of Baqa who would identify himself only as Hassan said the mainstream parties held no sway with him. His vote will be going to the Arab Balad Party. "We tried Labor; we tried Likud," he said. "They've done nothing." Azmi Bishara, an Arab member of Parliament who heads Balad, said that compounding the community's sense of isolation was that Jewish Israelis viewed Arabs with suspicion. "The best-case scenario is that they are a demographic burden or tolerated guests, and at worst a fifth column," he said.

Weary of politics and promises, Hanan Ihsaniya, a 23-year-old college student, is among those tuning out the elections all together. "We always vote," she said, "but we don't see results."