After decades of boycotts, Palestinian citizens of Israel turned out to vote. It could shape what comes next

By Zeena Saifi, Abeer Salman, Jeremy Diamond, CNN

Taibeh, Israel (CNN) — For decades, many Palestinian citizens of Israel stayed away from the polls, refusing to legitimize a system they say has oppressed their people, sidelined their concerns, and failed to represent them.

But this time felt different: after four years under the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, hundreds of thousands of Arab voters decided they could not afford to sit on the sidelines.

They turned out in record numbers – nearly 80% – to vote on Tuesday, compared with 53% in the last elections, according to the Mossawa Center, a civil society organization promoting equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel. That turnout gives Israel’s Arab parties unprecedented political sway with 19 seats in the 120-seat parliament.

That surge was driven by a number of interlocking reasons. First, rising violent crime in the Arab community – seen as the result of negligent policing. Second, an urgent desire to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and bring an end to his right-wing coalition, which includes hardline ministers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. No one was left in any doubt about the strength of feeling towards Israel’s national security minister, in particular, on Tuesday night, as chants of “Ben-Gvir, go home” broke out at the election headquarters of Joint List, the major Arab political alliance, as it became clear just how well the party had done.

Long history

Netanyahu’s coalition has overseen Israel’s devastating three-year war in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands, and a yearslong campaign of settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

“Our community wanted to bring down this criminal government, to change the grave reality caused by the policies of Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir,” said Dr. Ahmad Tibi, a leader of the Joint List.

Tibi has spent nearly three decades urging the Arab community to exercise their right to vote. Now, he said, that high turnout is already having an impact: keeping Netanyahu from forming another right-wing government.

Palestinian citizens of Israel – who make up 20% of the population – are descendants of Palestinians who were not expelled or forced to flee their homes when Israel was established in 1948. They were given citizenship but lived under military rule until 1966; many, though, feel that discrimination within Israeli society has continued to this day.

They also include Palestinians who were born before 1948, like Mohammed Abdelhai’s 80-year-old aunt.

On Tuesday, at her nephew’s urging, she became a first-time voter in the town of Tira, in central Israel.

“I told her we have to vote,” Abdelhai said. “The last government was very aggressive with us, so this time we need every vote,” he said.

The most important issue for him, he said, was a pervasive racism and lack of equality between Arabs and Jews in Israel.

“If we can make a change, we can make a change. Why not? Why stay stuck in the same place?”

Balance of power

The strength of the Arab vote also means that neither Netanyahu’s governing coalition nor the opposition bloc are expected to win an outright majority.

Now, Tibi’s Joint List, along with Ra’am, another Arab-majority party, appear to hold the balance of power.

Tibi said the Joint List is prepared to help the opposition form a minority government, led by former military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot. The Joint List would not join the government and would not seek any ministerial appointments in exchange – only a commitment to combat crime impacting the Arab community and stop the demolitions of Bedouin homes, which have risen under Netanyahu’s government.

“If they want us to help, we will be there in order to help … we want to support the candidate of the opposition.” Tibi said.

But doing so will require Eisenkot and his coalition to “be brave” in the face of Netanyahu’s condemnation of any attempt to form a government with the help of Israel’s Arab parties, he said.

That’s because the idea of forming a government with the support of Arab parties has become politically toxic in Israel, with a majority of Jewish voters opposed. Several opposition parties have also previously ruled out such an arrangement.

It remains unclear how much Eisenkot is willing to lean on the Arab parties for support. The only opposition party that supports doing that is the left-wing Democrats Party led by Yair Golan.

“We have an opportunity to form a change government in partnership with Israel’s Arab citizens,” Golan said on Wednesday. “Now we need courage. We need leadership. We need to stop being afraid and to start taking action.”

For Tibi, it’s more than fear holding some political leaders back.

“It’s the pure racism against 20% of the population, Arab citizens. We are a legitimate part of parliament. We are a legitimate part of the citizens,” he said.

Deligitimization efforts

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently sought to delegitimize Arab voters and has repeatedly used the prospect of lawmakers from the Arab community sitting in government as a way to motivate his base to turn out and vote.

In September, the CEC approved a motion to ban Arab parties to run in the election – a decision that was overturned by the High Court.

As it became clear just how well Arab parties had polled on Wednesday, Netanyahu’s Likud issued a statement accusing them of “stealing the election.”

This was followed on Thursday by the chair of Israel’s Central Elections Committee (CEC) sending a letter to the head of Israel’s security agency, the Shin Bet, asking him to investigate allegations of foreign interference in the election aimed at boosting turnout among Arab voters.

In the letter, the CEC chair, Noam Sohlberg, admitted he could not attest to any of the suspicions, and Israeli police have said they have received nothing to back up the claims.

Arab party leaders say Likud’s attacks amount to incitement and have pledged to defend the election results. Mansour Abbas, Ra’am party leader, said he would cooperate with any investigation and Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen said Netanyahu was “defeated” and “refuses to accept the voters’ decision.”

‘We belong to this country’

Many of the policies that have afflicted Palestinian citizens of Israel have been enacted under Ben-Gvir, the national security minister who was previously convicted of supporting terrorism and inciting anti-Arab racism.

On Tuesday, some residents in Arab-majority towns told CNN they left polling stations without voting because of intimidation from men supporting far-right Israeli parties like Ben-Gvir’s.

“People face high pressure – there was an old woman who could not stand the pressure, another one is pregnant who could not bear the situation and left … this is all because of racism,” said Taibeh resident Ulfat, who asked to be identified by her first name only.

From Tibi’s point of view, the higher turnout among Arab voters compared with the Jewish majority shows that Palestinian citizens are “willing to influence and take part” in Israeli politics.

“We are being blocked by the right and sometimes by the opposition. This is not a democracy. It’s an ethnic democracy. It’s a democracy for Jews,” he said.

That sense of exclusion was echoed by voters across Arab communities, many of whom said it is what pushed them to the polls this time.

Tira resident Munther Mansour, 60, has voted in the past, but this time he sees a real chance that his vote will count.

“We never took an interest in elections before. But the level of racism and changes in our day-to-day life forced people to go out and exercise their right,” he said.

“We belong to this country; we are part of the country. So we must exercise this right.”

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