Jafar Farah
Mossawa Center
The Advocacy Center for Palestinian citizens in Israel
Palestinian citizens of Israel comprise 12.4% of voters for the Prime Minister. Palestinian votes number 504,300 out of 4.1 million votes. Arab residents of the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem do not vote for Prime Minister.
In the elections of 1999 MK Azmi Bishara ran for Prime Minister. A few days before the election he withdrew his candidacy and all the activists in the Arab sector worked to elect Ehud Barak. 95% of Palestinian citizens supported Barak in 1999 and facilitated his election. After the election, Prime Minister Barak refused to invite Arab MK’s to join his coalition. He preferred to form a Jewish coalition with Shas, the Mafdal and Yisrael B’Aliya, which supported Binyamin Netanyahu in the 1999 elections.
The “white slip” phenomenon is not new: in 1996 when Shimon Peres ran for Prime Minister, some activists in Arab parties called for voting with a “white slip” in protest of the bombing of the Lebanese Kfar Kana by the Israeli Airforce. The election results were: Netanyahu (50.49%) Peres (49.51%). 1.2% of Arab voters voted with a ‘white slip’ in those elections.
Since the 70’s there is a decreasing trend in the participation of Palestinian citizens in Israeli elections. In 1955 the percentage of Palestinian citizens voting was 90%. In 1992 only 70% of eligible Palestinian citizens voted in the elections. In the 1996 elections, which were the first to directly elect a Prime Minister, the number of Palestinian citizens voting increased, with 77% participating in the elections. This increase was due to the policies of the Rabin government and the Oslo Accords, as well as because elections for Prime Minister and the Knesset took place at the same time. In 1999, there was a decrease in Arab voting, and only 75% voted.
In recent years Arab ideological streams calling for non-participation in Knesset elections grew stronger. The Northern branch of the Islamic Movement and the Sons of the Village Movement expressed ideological opposition to participation in elections for the Israeli Knesset. This streams were strengthened following disappointment in the ability of Arab Knesset members to influence government policy.
The governments of Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak brought about a decline in the status and economic and social situation of Palestinian citizens of Israel. A survey of the Central Bureau of Statistics found that in 1999 the situation of Arab towns and villages worsened significantly. 98% of Arab localities are in the 4 lowest socio-economic groupings (on a scale of ten).
An analysis of the budget, done by Mossawa Center, for the year 2000 government shows that only 4% of the 13 billion Shekel development budget is allocated to Arab localities. Except for the education budget, Barak’s government cut the budgets earmarked for the Arab population in every other budget category - to sums lower than that of Netanyahu’s 1999 budget.
Barak also refused to grant “national priority” status to 15 Arab localities, which were taken off the “national priority” map by the Netanyahu government (settlements were added instead). When the leaders of the local councils found out that Barak intends to cut their budgets, they held a general strike and built a protest tent outside the Prime Minister’s office. In the agreement signed after the 40-day strike, it was decided that the government, along with the local authorities, will prepare a development plan for Arab localities. The development plan was supposed to be presented for government authorization in August 2000, to be included in the 2001 budget proposal.
This plan was not presented in August, and only on The 22nd of October did the government, authorize it after the murder of 13 Palestinian citizens, with the election in the horizon. The government that prepared the budget and announced it loudly forgot to include the same budget in its budget proposal presented to the Knesset on October 29th. The “four billion shekel” plan was supposed to bring the percentage of the budget earmarked for Palestinian citizens to 8% of the general budget. However, there is no mention of the development plan in the budget proposal.
“Democracy” Shoots Its Citizens
The national protest of Palestinian citizens of Israel over Ariel Sharon’s provocative visit to Al-Haram Al-Sharif and the tragic killing of Muhamad A-Dura was brutally suppressed by Israeli security forces. From the 1st to The 8th of October, the police killed 13 Palestinian citizens. The attempts of Palestinian community leaders to stop the killing through talking with the government did not succeed. The Prime Minister and Minister for Internal Security gave unprecedented backing to the police forces. The Prime Minister agreed to meet with Palestinian leaders, but insisted on inviting them to his office in Jerusalem. At the end of the meeting he travelled to Nazareth to support the Northern police commander, Alik Ron. Three more citizens were killed by the police forces in the following days.
Instead of a criminal and judicial investigation of the policemen who shot citizens, the government preferred, only following public pressure, to create a state commission of inquiry. No officer or commander was tried for his behavior while dispersing the demonstrations of Palestinian citizens. (The last time security forces in Israel aimed fire with the intent to kill Palestinian citizens was in 1976, when six citizens were killed by police fire while protesting land confiscation).
After the killing of 13 Palestinian citizens and the continued killing of more than 400 Palestinians in the territories the leaders of the Palestinian community in Israel decided they cannot vote for Ehud Barak. Some of the political parties considered voting for Barak if he succeeded in bringing a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
In the last two weeks, the parties representing the Palestinian public decided to call on their supporters to do the following:
Hadash “white slip”
Balad boycott elections &“white slip”
The Islamic Movement, represented in the Knesset “white slip”
The Islamic Movement, Shiekh Raid Salah Stream boycott elections
The Democratic Arab Party “white slip”
Sons of the Village Movement boycott elections
The ten Arab Knesset members tried to unite behind an Arab candidate for Prime Minister but did not succeed.
On Election Day protests are expected in the localities where residents were killed in October: Um El-Fahm, Nazareth, Arrabe, Sakhnin, Kfar Manda, Jatt and Kfar Kana. The bereaved parents and party activists will stand at the entrance to voting stations with stickers saying “If the martyr votes, I’ll vote.” The pictures of the martyrs will greet voters.
It seems that, as happened in 1996 when they punished Peres for the bombing of Kfar Kana, Palestinian citizens will punish Barak, and will not support him as they did in 1999. It is expected that the voting rate in localities, which lost lives, will not number more than 10%.
Surveys show that the voting rates of Palestinian citizens in general will be about 30-40%, most of which will go to Ehud Barak, and a minute percentage to Sharon.
Palestinian political scientists estimate that the events of October and the boycott of the elections for Prime Minister signal a new stage of relations between Palestinian citizens and the Jewish ethnic democracy. Palestinian citizens do not believe Barak intends on bringing a true peace with the Palestinian people. A Jewish democratic state, which continually discriminates, shoots its citizens and does not recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, is not a democracy for many Palestinian citizens.
Many Palestinians believe the states relation to them is one of an “Israeli apartheid”. The brutal behavior of the police and the relation of the Jewish left-wing parties to Palestinian citizens as “filler” votes accelerated the discussion on the nature and identity of a democracy where the Jewish democratic state ignores the national, cultural, and legal rights of the Palestinian minority. It is expected that this discussion will only become stronger, even if a Palestinian state is created alongside Israel. This is a difficult civil discussion where the government must not use force to suppress civil protest.
On Election Day information and media centers will operate through:
The Mossawa Center Will provide media access to information, positions and analyses of leaders of the Palestinian community in Israel.
For more information:
Mossawa Center, Jafar Farah, 050-510304, or 04, 8699587 *Information provided in this article may be quoted with credit to Mossawa Center.