Not even the most optimistic of polls give the Blue and White Party any hope of forming a relatively stable government after the April 9 elections without the support of the two Arab parties running, Ra’am-Balad and Hadash-Ta’al.

However, neither one may get sufficient votes to enable the formation of a center-left bloc large enough to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ra’am-Balad may not attract enough votes to get into the Knesset at all. Labor and left-wing Meretz are not doing well among Arab voters, while Blue and White leader Benny Gantz has declared on more than one occasion that Arab parties would not be welcome in his government. In a Feb. 8 interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, Gantz said he will consider partnership with any Zionist, a clear reference to the Arab parties not known to share the Zionist dream. In a March 19 interview on Channel 11, Gantz explicitly ruled out any political dialogue with Arab representatives.

Little wonder, then, that many among Israel 21% non-Jewish minority are planning to spending their day off on April 9 meeting up with friends and family or going shopping rather than heading to the ballot box. The main challenge that the Arab parties now face is convincing the Arab voters that despite their frustration and disappointment, abstention would hurt their own interests. A video by popular Arab rapper Tamer Nafar confronting that question has tens of thousands of views.

A poll commissioned by the Hadash-Ta’al list forecasts a turnout of 51%, compared with 63.5% in the 2015 elections. Another poll, commissioned by the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Abraham Fund, foresees a turnout of 56%, 7.5% less than last time. Such low Arab turnout was last recorded when then-opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu challenged Prime Minister Shimon Peres in 1996, in the wake of Israel’s unintentional killing of dozens of children in the Lebanese village of Kafr Kana during a military operation codenamed Grapes of Wrath.