Israeli Arabs Campaign For Municipal Elections
With municipal elections scheduled for Oct. 22, Israeli Arabs are engaged in fierce local political battles throughout the country, in contrast to their indifference toward national politics.
Elections will be held in Israel on Oct. 22, for the local authorities. Unlike the elections for the 19th Knesset, which took place in January 2013 and were boycotted by many of the country’s Arab citizens, elections for the local authorities are a totally different story.
During the national elections, failure to realize their democratic right was an act of protest by the Arabs. It was a combination of desperation and anger directed against the Israeli establishment that discriminated against them, and of bitter disappointment with the Arab members of the Knesset, who failed to keep their promises, as far as the local population was concerned.
I spent the last elections for the Knesset in the town of Umm al-Fahm, one of Israel’s biggest Arab cities, where I was witness to the failed attempts to bring voters to the polling stations. Every attempt to convince them that a single ballot that they cast could change the balance of power failed. In most Arab settlements, that celebration of democracy looked more like a day of mourning and protest. It was only toward evening, when it looked like there was about to be a new government in Israel, that some Arab residents changed their minds and came to vote, with caution and apprehension. These late votes improved the voting rate among the Arab sector slightly (bringing it up to about 52%), but it was still considerably lower than the voting rate in the Jewish sector.
In contrast, there is enormous interest in the candidates and lists running in the local elections, and there are bitter fights between candidates competing for every single vote. Thousands of volunteers were recruited to campaign for their favored candidates. They stand at intersections waving signs and pass from door to door, so that it now seems quite clear that the anticipated voting rate in Arab towns and cities next week will be significantly higher than that of Jewish settlements.
