The Arab Minority in Israel and the Seventeenth Knesset Elections: The Beginning of a New Era?

Abstract

This article addresses the question of whether the voting patterns of Arabs in Israel—reflected in the results of Arab sector voting in the elections to the Seventeenth Knesset—attest to an essential shift in the nature of the political activity of the Arab minority, or whether the patterns of the past remain relevant for the 2006 elections. Voting pattern characteristics are discussed below in the context of the current changes affecting the Arab minority in Israel in three areas: politics, national identity, and socio-economic conditions. In the sphere of politics, the article discusses the ongoing exclusion of the Arab population from the political system, particularly, those unwritten principles and procedures that render ineffective the representation of Arabs in the executive and the political arena, and their impact on their voting patterns. These effects are manifest in the ineffectiveness of Arab representation in the Knesset, the trust crisis between Arab Knesset Members and their voting public, and factionalism within Arab politics preventing the formation of a united front. In the sphere of national identity, the article examines national-religious changes which are reshaping the processes of “Palestinization” and “Israelization” for Israeli Arabs. These developments are manifest on several levels: the debate centering on the nature of the state and on propositions for alternatives models; the coalescing self-identity of this group as a national minority possessing collective rights; the initiation of a debate on “the 1948 files”; the growing strength of the Islamic trend; and the changing patterns of public protest. These factors have left a clear imprint on party politics in Arab society. Concerning the socio-economic sphere, the article reviews the increasing frustration of the Arab population in light of the growing disparity between Jews and Arabs (manifest in land shortages, a lack of infrastructure and industrial-