Election campaign in Israel: in power for the first time – and disappointed

For the first time, an Arab party is part of the governing coalition in Israel. But many Arab Israelis are dissatisfied with the balance sheet. What does this mean for next week’s general election?

“Greetings to my homeland. I am a native. I will not be humiliated.” The election campaign anthem of the Arab-Israeli Balad party resounds militantly from the loudspeakers in a tent over the garden fences of Abu Gosh, a small town a few kilometers away that is dominated by Arab-Israelis from Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Many here worry about rising crime in Israel’s Arab cities. 200 listeners, mostly men, came to hear the top candidate and party leader Sami Abu Shehadeh speak.

“During the election campaign in Israel, people talk about how much champagne Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife drinks. But the problems are the building of settlements, the occupation, the discrimination against our Arab minority. The government sees the escalating violence and does nothing.”

Disappointed with government participation

The current government has made the situation worse, although for the first time an Arab party has co-governed, the 46-year-old politician exclaims, adjusting his glasses.

As a result, many have lost confidence in politics. That is dangerous, according to Abu Schehadeh. That’s why his party is going it alone in the election, wanting to stand out from the other two Arab parties, Raam and Chadashr.

“We learned from the last election that when an Arab party co-governs, it stops representing the opinions of its own voters. It becomes the oppressor of its own people,” because it supports Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in the governing coalition, for example, says Abu Shehadeh.

Are the Arab parties losing their influence?

Not everyone who came into the tent with the plastic chairs sees it that way. Murat Jaber would have preferred the Arab parties to run together to increase their influence. In this way, each of the parties falls short of their potential, according to the young software engineer.

He still wants to vote, even if many of his friends want to boycott the election. “If someone like me applies to a high-tech company, the guy who served in the Israeli army has a better chance. Because I wasn’t there because of my faith, I had a lot of trouble finding a job in the high-tech sector . Sami Abu Shehadeh is young. He brings us new hope for a better life.”

And hoping to be less discriminated against, adds a 65-year-old taxi driver. He tells of his son, who works as a doctor in a clinic. A few days ago, someone threw a stone at him: “The police told him they didn’t have time. Imagine if he were a Jew. He’s a doctor in a Jewish hospital.”

Court dispute

For many here, Abu Shehadeh is something of a last hope. But that was almost the end of it. Just recently, the Balad party, the most nationalist of the three Arab parties, had to contest its exclusion from the elections before the Supreme Court. The accusation: Balad rejects the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

Abu Shehadeh is indeed committed to making the Jewish state a state for all citizens, including the Arabs in the country, he says. That’s why he’s been accused of being an extreme minority – a minority that makes up a fifth of the population, counters the politician and grins. “We, the Arab Israelis, are tipping the scales in the election because Israel is divided in two. Those who are for Netanyahu and those who are against him. If more of us vote, there could be a majority who will result in Netanyahu not coming into government.”

But exactly the opposite could be the case. Voter turnout among the minority Arab population is predicted to be lower because the Arab parties are fragmented.