DAOUD KUTTAB

November 08, 2022

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Palestinian citizens in Israel are going through confusing times. On the one hand, the Palestinian cause — and especially the status of Al-Aqsa Mosque — is and will continue to be important to them, yet day-to-day affairs are crowding their interests. For this 21 percent of the citizens of Israel, perhaps the No. 1 concern has been crime in the cities and villages. Crime figures have rocketed, with consecutive Israeli governments failing to bring an end to fatalities caused by firearms. Most but not all of those who possess firearms are individuals with questionable reputations and often with close ties to various Israeli security agencies or with the Israeli underground.

Mansour Abbas, the head of the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, realized that in order to make a difference it is a waste of time being in opposition. Therefore, he joined the Naftali Bennett-Yair Lapid-Benny Gantz coalition with demands of bigger budgets for the Arab communities in Israel and a much more serious resolve in tackling the crime issue.

This idea seems to have been contagious, as the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality headed by Ayman Odeh and its partners decided that they also wanted to make their Knesset seats count, and so they moved in the same direction. The only problem, however, was the rebellious pan-Arab faction, Tajamu, headed by Sami Abu Shehadeh, who felt that the Palestine issue should continue to be the compass for all Palestinian political groups. He was unwilling to go the route of Mansour Abbas, Odeh and Ahmad Tibi. The latter two also did not want him, with their feeling being that his insistence on not naming the next prime minister would weaken their efforts to be effective.

Some see in the election results the removal of the liberal facade that Israel has been hiding behind for decades

Daoud Kuttab

As a result, last week’s elections in Israel became a referendum on dignity (Abu Shehadeh) versus effectiveness (all others). The only problem was that the split came extremely late and did not allow enough time for all three Palestinian lists running in the Israeli elections to pass the 3.25 percent threshold. Still, it almost worked. Tajamu garnered an impressive 138,000 votes in an election that saw the overall voter turnout of Israeli Jews rise to 71 percent, meaning that the threshold moved closer to 150,000. The two veteran factions made it to five mandates each, but the votes that went to Abu Shehadeh’s faction failed to cross the threshold, meaning that those votes were wasted.

A similar situation occurred with the left-wing, anti-occupation movement Meretz, which was not given a chance to merge by the Labor Party. Labor barely crossed the threshold, gaining only four mandates. So, the votes for at least eight seats were burned, allowing Benjamin Netanyahu and his racist, fundamentalist friends to reach 64 seats out of 120, which is enough to give the former prime minister, who is still embroiled in a corruption case, a return to power.

The strong showing of Tajamu has been credited to the fact that, for once, Palestinian citizens in Israel were able to vote for a list without any political baggage, whether Islamic or Arab/Jewish.

Nevertheless, the reality on the ground will most likely get worst in the coming period, as already the racist Religious Zionist list, which won 14 seats, has begun calling for Palestinians to be denied the right to participate in future elections.

While the results of the elections have left the Palestinian communities in Israel and in the Occupied Territories bracing themselves for a difficult period, some see in the results the removal of the liberal facade that Israel has been hiding behind for decades. It also puts Israelis in the anti-democratic right-wing column, which is being fought over around the world. The US administration has already stated that it will not engage with what it considers the outwardly racist elements within Netanyahu’s expected governing coalition.

Palestinian leaders in Israel need to take a good look at what has happened and learn the right lessons. Unity should be paramount above all other selfish ideas. While caring for domestic issues and calls for equality cannot be pushed under the rug, it is clear that the true poison in all politics in the state of Israel is rooted in the illegal occupation and colonization of Palestine.

It is high time for all anti-occupation forces in Israel and around the world to make it clear where they stand and what needs to be done in order not to reward occupation and colonialism — two concepts that the world community rejects in 2022 all over the planet, except for Israel. Now that racism and discriminatory policy is front and center in Israel, will such an anti-occupation and pro-freedom coalition be found?

• Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist from Jerusalem. He is a former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. Twitter: @daoudkuttab

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source https://www.arabnews.com/node/2195821