ISRAELI-ARAB PARTIES APPEAR SET TO REMAIN ON

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 001193 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM IS GOI INTERNAL ELECTIONS SUBJECT: ISRAELI-ARAB PARTIES APPEAR SET TO REMAIN ON PARLIAMENTARY MAP (C-NE6-00442) ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Recent polls show that rising Israeli-Arab interest in the March 28 elections, possibly prompted by fears of a growing right-wing Jewish vote, may yield up to 10 Knesset seats for Israeli-Arab parties, up two seats from the current Knesset. Until this past week, polls have projected low Israeli-Arab turnout, but a poll released March 24 shows that turnout among Israeli-Arab voters would be 69 percent if elections were held today, a percentage higher than in the 2003 Knesset election, and higher than that projected for the general public. End summary. -------------- Voter Turnout is Key -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Israel's some one-million Arab population, which makes up about 20 percent of Israel's population, includes about 550,000-600,000 eligible voters, a relatively low proportion that is due to the Arab sector's large youth population. Those Israeli-Arab voters constitute only about 12 percent of Israel's total of approximately five million eligible voters. In addition, while some 70-80 percent of these Israeli-Arab voters cast ballots for Arab parties in the past two elections, the remaining voters cast their ballots for non-Arab parties. A new law requiring that political parties obtain two percent of the overall vote to obtain Knesset representation, rather than the 1.5 percent required in the past, has presented a challenge to the three major Israeli-Arab parties -- United Arab List (UAL, Islamist),Balad (Arab Nationalist),and Hadash (Jewish-Arab) -- all of which are represented in the current Knesset. Despite similar platforms that each call for the creation of a Palestinian state and for equality between Jews and Arabs within Israel, the three have resisted calls from the Arab public that they unite under a single party list. As a result, until recently, polls have shown that they risked splitting the Arab vote so much that none of them would get enough votes to pass the threshold. Arab community leaders charge party leaders with allowing their egos to stand in the way of unification. ¶3. (SBU) As Dr. Elie Rekhess of Tel Aviv University's Dayan Center told a forum on the Israeli-Arab electorate March 21, a low Jewish voter turnout, such as that projected for the coming election, presents opportunities, but the Israeli-Arab sector has been, at least until recently, suffering from its own voter apathy problems. Accordingly, Israeli-Arab political leaders must get out their people if they are to benefit from the anticipated low Jewish-voter turnout. The Arab voter turnout has been lower than the overall turnout in the last five Knesset elections, with 2003 bringing a particularly high gap between the Arab and overall turnouts. Some 62 percent of Israeli Arabs voted in the 2003 Knesset election, down 13 percent from the 1999 Knesset elections and 15 percent from the 1996 election, and well below even the near record low 68 percent of the overall electorate in the 2003 election. The Israeli-Arab parties also face a continuing, although apparently flagging challenge from the long-standing elements that call for Israeli-Arab boycott of all national elections. ¶4. (SBU) A March 24 poll indicates, however, that the recent trend of lower than average Israeli-Arab participation thus far may have shifted. The poll shows that were elections to be held today, some 69 percent of the Israeli-Arab electorate would vote. This poll and others released March 24 show that were elections to be held today, the three Arab parties, running separately, would win a total of nine or ten Knesset seats, up from the eight seats indicated in earlier polls and from their showing in the last election. Observers attribute the turnaround to at least two factors: the growth of Avigdor Lieberman's far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party, which calls for re-arranging borders to exclude Israeli-Arabs from Israel, and the recognition that the combination of low Israeli-Arab turnout and the new higher threshold for Knesset seats could preclude any Arab parties from winning seats. Rekhess suggested that these reasons accounted for the recent announcement by Umm el-Fahm Mayor and Northern Islamic Movement leader Hashem Abdul-Rahman that he intends to vote. The Northern Islamic Movement has traditionally advocated boycotting national elections. Hanna Swaid, who is number two on the Hadash list, claimed to Poloff March 23 that the combination of Rahman's decision and concern about Lieberman's popularity will increase voter turnout in the Arab "triangle" towns, of which Umm el-Fahm is the largest, that are home to 25 percent of Israel's Arab population. ¶5. (SBU) Swaid said that the Northern Islamic Movement is not urging a boycott of the elections this year, as it has in the past. The director of the Mossawa Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens of Israel, Jafah Farah, told Poloff March 7 that some members of the Northern Islamic movement are, in fact, actively participating in the election campaign. Swaid said that Hadash's "get Umm el-Fahm in the Knesset" campaign, as well as the fact that an Umm el-Fahm resident is number four on Hadash's Knesset list, may be resonating with that community. Mayor Rahman assessed that Hadash would get the highest number of votes in Umm el-Fahm. ¶6. (SBU) Swaid also said that the Arab parties are doing more this year to get out the vote on election day. He said Hadash plans to spend 20-30 percent of its NIS one million (USD 210,000) total campaign budget on getting out the vote on election day. "We've also made practical arrangements for election day. We're providing transportation. For the first time, (leaders of the Arab parties) developed a joint committee in each town...(to work) on this issue. This sort of cooperation has never happened before. We realize that not enough people might vote, and (we) would rather they show up and vote for a rival Arab party than not vote at all." -------------- The "Zionist" Competition -------------- ¶7. (SBU) With the fractious Arab parties consistently excluded from governing coalitions, and a feeling by some Israeli Arabs that their own leaders do little for their communities, some 20 percent of Israeli Arab voters in the last two elections cast ballots for left-leaning Jewish majority or "Zionist" parties, principally Labor and Meretz, for the social-welfare-oriented and ultra-orthodox Shas party, and even in thin numbers for Likud. That support for Zionist parties may be challenged this year. Dr. Rekhess said that he does not recall an election campaign "where the Arab parties invested so much energy against the Zionist parties and on getting out the vote." According to a study Rekhess released last November, nearly half of the Arab electorate would have voted for the non-Arab parties had elections been held at that time, with over one third of those votes going to Labor and many to a Sharon-led Kadima. The March 24 poll, however, shows that as high as 80 percent of the Arab electorate would vote for one of the Arab parties if elections were held today. The poll shows that Labor, Kadima, Meretz and Likud would split the remaining 20 percent of those voting, winning about nine, six, two, and 1.5 percent respectively. (Note: The pollster noted these were approximate percentages. End note.) ¶8. (SBU) The mayor of the Arab village of Sakhnin, Sami Eisa, and Rahman, both assessed to Poloff in separate meetings in February and March, respectively, that only about 20 percent of voters in their communities would support the "Zionist" parties this time around. Eisa, who said he had at one time been close to joining Kadima, dismissed the pull of Kadima in his community as ephemeral. Eisa said that soon after Kadima's creation last November, he and other Arab mayors had engaged in negotiations with then-PM Sharon on joining Kadima, but that negotiations fell apart after Sharon's hospitalization. According to Rahman, "Kadima made a historic mistake" by not placing any Israeli Arabs in realistic positions on the Kadima list. Kadima has included one member of the Druze sect, which the majority of Israeli Arabs do not consider as representative of their interests, and placed its first Israeli Arab in the number 51 slot. ¶9. (SBU) Israel has never in its 58-year history had a governing coalition that included Israeli-Arab political parties, although such Israeli-Arab parties consistently win some Knesset seats. Both the Jewish public and Jewish political leaders acknowledge openly that for passage of all most-significant legislation, such as that related to the Palestinians and the budget, the votes that constitute the threshold Knesset majority must be comprised exclusively of votes by Jewish Knesset members. Dr. Rekhess, Hanna Swaid, and Abir Kopty, a spokesperson for the Mossawa Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens who also spoke at the March 21 forum, asserted that a feeling of disappointment nonetheless lingers among the Israeli-Arab electorate that Arab parties have not looked out for the interests of the Arab sector in general. Kopty said that because the Arab parties have never been in the government, many Israeli Arabs view their influence as limited. Rekhess said that Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz's commitment to appoint an Israeli-Arab minister, and Labor's placement of three Israeli Arabs in realistic places on its Knesset list, and Peretz's overall left-leaning economic policies appeals to some Arab voters. ********************************************* ******************** Visit Embassy Tel Aviv's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/telaviv You can also access this site through the State Department's Classified SIPRNET website. ********************************************* ******************** JONES