The consequences of Arab parties' divide and quest for power in Israeli politics on Arab voters

Abstract

The Arab parties in Israel present a unique case of electoral dynamics. Israel’s Arab Palestinian parties are faced with a hard task in their attempt to influence politics in Israel’s parliament: they push for an improved citizenship status while seeking justice in line with the national Palestinian struggle. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on the one hand, and the regional relations between Israel and its neighbouring countries, on the other, influence all this. After unification under the Joint List in 2015, the Arab parties gained momentum and power, reaching becoming the third largest party in Israel. Recent elections saw another unprecedented event: for the first time in history, an Arab party joined the coalition government. This chapter examines the politics of the Arab parties in Israel in recent elections, and seeks to understand how an Islamist party managed to become the first Arab party in Israel to be part of a coalition government in May 2021, and the implications of this for Palestinians and their citizenship status in Israel. The historic event of forming a government coalition with an Islamist party is driving scholars to investigate the ways in which Arabs legislators are integrated into the decision-making processes in Israel, their behaviour, and the impact they can make on the political status and perceptions of Palestinian identity.