<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-top-anchor"></div>
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container">
</div><div class="gmail-container" dir="ltr" lang="en-GB">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221101-chasing-a-mirage-how-israel-arab-parties-validate-israeli-apartheid/">middleeastmonitor.com</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Chasing a mirage: How Israel Arab parties validate Israeli Apartheid</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Dr Ramzy Barou - November 1, 2022</div></div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div id="gmail-post-content">
<img src="cid:ii_l9yvi60e0" alt="image.png" width="392" height="261"><br><p>Regardless of the outcome of the latest Israeli elections, Arab
parties will not reap meaningful political benefits, even if they
collectively achieve their highest representation ever. The reason is
not about the parties themselves, but in Israel's skewed political
system which is predicated on racism and marginalisation of non-Jews.</p>
<p>Israel was established on a problematic premise of being a homeland
of all Jews, everywhere – not of Palestine's own native inhabitants –
and on a bloody foundation, that of the Nakba and the destruction of
historic Palestine and the expulsion of its people.</p>
<p>Such beginnings were hardly conducive to the establishment of a real
democracy, perfect or blemished. Not only did Israel's discriminatory
attitude persist throughout the years, it actually worsened, especially
as the Palestinian Arab population rose disproportionally compared to
the Jewish population between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean
Sea.</p>
<p>The unfortunate reality is that some Arab parties have <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4323198" target="_blank">participated</a>
in Israeli elections since 1949, some independently and others under
the ruling Mapei party umbrella. They did so despite Arab communities in
Israel being ruled by a military government (1951-1966) and practically
governed, until this day, by the unlawful 'Defence (Emergency
Regulations)'. This participation has constantly been touted by Israel
and its supporters as proof of the State's democratic nature.</p>
<p>This claim alone has served as the backbone of Israeli <i>hasbara</i>
throughout the decades. Though often unwittingly, Arab political
parties in Israel have provided the fodder for such propaganda, making
it difficult for Palestinians to argue that the Israeli political system
is fundamentally flawed and racist.</p>
<p><strong><a title="Will elections end Israel's political deadlock?" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221031-will-elections-end-israels-political-deadlock/">OPINION: Will elections end Israel's political deadlock?</a></strong></p>
<p>Palestinian citizens have always debated among themselves about the
pros and cons of taking part in Israeli elections. Some understood that
their participation validates the Zionist ideology and Israeli
apartheid, while others argued that refraining from participating in the
political process denies Palestinians the opportunity to change the
system from within.</p>
<p>The latter argument has lost much of its merit, as Israel sank deeper
into apartheid, while social, political and legal conditions for
Palestinians worsened. The Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in
Israel (Adalah) <a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/law/index" target="_blank">reports</a>
on dozens of discriminatory laws in Israel that exclusively target Arab
communities. Additionally, in a report published in February, Amnesty
International <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/" target="_blank">describes</a>
thoroughly how the "representation of Palestinian citizens of Israel in
the decision making process … has been restricted and undermined by an
array of Israeli laws and policies."</p>
<p>This reality has existed for decades, long before 19 July, 2018, when the Israeli parliament <a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9569" target="_blank">approved</a>
the so-called Jewish Nation-State Basic Law. The Law was the most
glaring example of political and legal racism, which made Israel a
full-fledged apartheid regime.</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_563254" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/IMG_5215-scaled.jpg?fit=933%2C583&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1" alt="Israel: fifth election likely to result in political deadlock - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor]" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="392" height="245"></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Israel: fifth election likely to result in political deadlock – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor]</p></div><p>The
Law was also the most articulate proclamation of Jewish supremacy over
Palestinians in all aspects of life, including the right to
self-determination.</p>
<p>Those who have argued that Arab participation in Israeli politics
served a purpose in the past should have done more than collectively
denounce the Nation-State Law, by resigning en masse, effective
immediately. They should have taken advantage of the international
uproar to convert their struggle from a parliamentary to a popular
grassroots one.</p>
<p>Alas, they have not. They continued to participate in Israeli
elections, arguing that if they achieved greater representation in the
Israeli Knesset, they should be able to challenge the tsunami of Israeli
discriminatory laws.</p>
<p>This did not happen, even after the Joint List, which <a href="https://ecfr.eu/special/mapping_palestinian_politics/joint_list/" target="_blank">unified</a>
four Arab parties in the March 2020 elections, achieved its greatest
turnout ever, becoming the Knesset's third largest political bloc.</p>
<p>The supposed historic victory culminated to nil because all
mainstream Jewish parties, regardless of their ideological backgrounds,
refused to include Arab parties in their potential coalitions.</p>
<p>The enthusiasm that mobilised Arab voters behind the Joint List began
to dwindle, and the List itself fragmented, thanks to Mansour Abbas,
the head of the Arab party, Ra'am.</p>
<p>In the March 2021 elections, Abbas wanted to change the dynamics of
Arab politics in Israel altogether. "We focus on the issues and problems
of the Arab citizens of Israel within the Green Line," Abbas <a href="https://time.com/6073019/mansour-abbas-arab-israel-coalition-government/" target="_blank">told</a>
TIME magazine in June 2021, adding "we want to heal our own problems"
as if declaring a historic delink from the rest of the Palestinian
struggle.</p>
<p>Abbas was wrong, as Israel perceives him, his followers, the Joint
List and all Palestinians to be obstacles in its efforts to maintain the
exclusivist 'Jewish identity of the State. The Abbas experiment,
however, became even more interesting, when Ra'am won 4 seats and joined
a government coalition led by far-right, anti-Palestinian politician,
Naftali Bennet.</p>
<p>By the time the coalition collapsed in June, Abbas <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/vote-or-dont-vote-its-the-same-arab-israelis-despondent-ahead-of-5th-elections/" target="_blank">achieved little</a>, aside from splitting the Arab vote and proving, again, that changing Israeli politics from within has always been a fantasy.</p>
<p>Even after all of this, Arab parties in Israel still insisted on
participating in a political system that, despite its numerous
contradictions, agreed on one thing: Palestinians are, and will always
be, the enemy.</p>
<p><strong><a title="Israel election tightly poised as Netanyahu bids for comeback" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221101-israel-election-tightly-poised-as-netanyahu-bids-for-comeback/">OPINION: Israel election tightly poised as Netanyahu bids for comeback</a></strong></p>
<p>Even the violent events of May 2021, where Palestinians found
themselves fighting on multiple fronts – against the Israeli army,
police, intelligence services, armed settlers and even ordinary citizens
– did not seem to change the Arab politicians' mindset. Arab population
centres in Umm Al-Fahm, Lydda and Jaffa, were <a href="https://jcpa.org/an-in-depth-analysis-of-the-forces-driving-the-israeli-arab-riots-of-may-2021/" target="_blank">attacked</a>
with the same racist mentality as Gaza and Sheikh Jarrah, illustrating
that nearly 75 years of supposed integration between Jews and Arabs
under Israel's political system hardly changed the racist view towards
Palestinians.</p>
<p>Instead of converting the energy of what Palestinians dubbed the
'Unity Intifada' to invest in Palestinian unity, Arab Israeli
politicians returned to the Israeli Knesset, as if they still had hope
in salvaging Israel's inherently corrupt political system.</p>
<p>The self-delusion continues. On 29 September, Israel's Central Election Committee <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221010-israel-supreme-court-overturns-ban-on-arab-party-running-in-elections/">disqualified</a>
an Arab party, Balad, from running in the November elections. The
decision was eventually overturned by the country's Supreme Court,
urging an Arab legal organisation in Israel to describe the decision as
'historic'. In essence, they suggested that Israel's apartheid system
still carries the hope of true democracy.</p>
<p>The future of Arab politics in Israel will remain grim if Arab
politicians continue to pursue this failed tactic. Though Palestinian
citizens of Israel are socio-economically privileged if compared to
Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, they enjoy nominal or no
substantive political or legal rights. By remaining loyal participants
in Israel's democracy charade, these politicians continue to validate
the Israeli establishment, thus harming, not only Palestinian
communities in Israel but, in fact, Palestinians everywhere.</p>
<p>The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.</p>
</div></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>