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Israeli Arabs Edge Toward Single Ticket as Crucial Revote Looms

Israeli Arabs Edge Toward Single Ticket to Draw More Voters

(Bloomberg) -- Israeli Arab political parties are close to reconstituting a joint list to run in upcoming elections, a senior lawmaker said, after the breakup of the ticket led to a disappointing showing in April 9 polls.

“We will form the joint list within days for complete unity of all our citizens,” said Ayman Odeh, who led the unified ticket to capture 13 of parliament’s 120 seats in 2015 elections. Ahead of the April vote, the list splintered into three and Israeli Arab parties won just 10 seats as disaffected supporters stayed away from the polls.

Israeli Arabs Edge Toward Single Ticket as Crucial Revote Looms

Turnout among Arab voters, who make up a fifth of Israel’s 9 million people, plunged to less than half in April. But internal polls show it jumping to 65% and a prospective unified list winning at least 11 seats, Odeh said.

In Israel’s fractured political system, every added seat can be a significant determiner of clout.

“The Arab public was very angry that the Joint List was dismantled,” he said. “But this time we will restore it and they’ll vote for us again.”

List Ranking

Negotiations are currently stuck over the ranking of various lawmakers on the ticket, said Mansour Abbas, the leader of the United Arab List. He gave the formation of a unified list a 50-50 chance.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his political survival clouded by a draft indictment on corruption charges, called for a repeat election on Sept. 17 after failing to form a coalition government. Polls suggest he wouldn’t have an easier time of it after the next vote, and Odeh said the opposition needed Arab citizens’ help to send Netanyahu home after more than 13 years in office.

“The government can’t be changed without the Arab citizens,” he said, taking time out from the interview to take a selfie with a prominent Israeli Jewish political scientist.

Arab parties have never been part of a governing coalition, though they supported Yitzhak Rabin’s minority government in the 1990s. The few Arabs who’ve served in cabinet belonged to Zionist factions, and Arab party leaders have objected to the idea of joining an Israeli administration.

Odeh said Arab parties would consider supporting a government if its platform endorsed their demand for full equality for their constituents and the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. Negotiations on the formation of such a state stalled more than five years ago.

On Paper

Israel’s Arab citizens, while enjoying full equal rights on paper, face bias in employment and housing, and their communities have received far less funding for schools, health care, transportation and infrastructure. About half of all Arab families live in poverty.

Some have blamed their situation in part on Arab legislators, saying they spend too much time on the Palestinian cause and not enough on Israeli Arabs’ day-to-day struggles. In the last election, some switched from Arab parties to Meretz, a social democratic party dominated by Zionist lawmakers and committed to Palestinian statehood.

Public pressure on the Arab street for a joint list will likely give the politicians the push they need to unite, said Nohad Ali, a sociologist at Western Galilee College.

“The problems of equality, violence and house demolitions are, in the subconscious of the Arab citizen, even more acute than the Palestinian problem and peace,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Riad Hamade at rhamade@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Mark Williams

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