The Economist UK - 07.09.2019

The EconomistSeptember 7th 2019 Middle East & Africa 47

I

t is easyto spot the Jewish and Arab

neighbourhoods in Ramle, one of Israel’s

few “mixed” cities. The Jewish ones consist

mainly of tall, fairly new apartment build-

ings, with neat pavements. Arab areas,

clustered around the city’s old centre, are

haphazard and dilapidated. Naif Abu-

Swiss, an independent city councillor, in-

sists that things are changing. After being

elected last year, he joined the municipal

ruling coalition, headed by a mayor from

the right-wing Likud party, and has been

put in charge of urban renewal.

“A Likudnik mayor is best for us,” says

Mr Abu-Swiss. “He’s close to the govern-

ment and gets funds for Ramle. He’s not

prejudiced and is investing in planning

and renewal in the Arab neighbourhoods.”

Even so, the councillor hopes the long-

serving Likud prime minister, Binyamin

Netanyahu, loses the parliamentary elec-

tion on September 17th, Israel’s second this

year (Mr Netanyahu failed to form a co-

alition after the first, in April). “He needs to

be replaced, so Israel won’t be like an Arab

dictatorship,” says Mr Abu-Swiss. Arab vot-

ers could be key to turfing him out.

Mr Abu-Swiss, a property developer, is

one of a new wave of Arab-Israeli politi-

cians who advocate a change of political

strategy for Israel’s main minority. A fifth

of Israeli citizens are Arabs. They have had

the right to vote in every Israeli election

since the country was founded in 1948. But

their main parties have never joined a na-

tional coalition government. This is partly

because of the ruling parties’ refusal to in-

clude them, but it also reflects the reluc-

tance of Arab politicians themselves. Join-

ing an Israeli government, many have

argued, would make them complicit in

mistreatment of their fellow Arabs.

In recent years, though, a big shift has

been under way. In a poll in March, 87% of

Israeli Arabs said they would like to see an

Arab party join the ruling coalition. The

same poll found that those who considered

themselves “Arab-Israeli” outnumbered

those who preferred to identify themselves

as “Palestinian” or “Palestinian-Israeli”.

Though the broader Israeli-Palestinian

conflict is far from being solved, Israel’s

Palestinian citizens (unlike their brothers

living without political rights under mili-

tary occupation in the West Bank) have

more to gain from integration. And though

inequality and discrimination are still part

of their daily lives, some advances have oc-

curred. The improvement in education and

health has been dramatic. Arab citizens

have almost closed the gap with Jews in life

expectancy and years of schooling, though

they are a lot less rich. Israeli Jews on aver-

age earn over 50% more than Arabs. Half of

Arab families fall below Israel’s official

poverty line.

In 2015 the Likud government passed a

five-year plan to spend an extra 15bn shek-

els ($4.25bn) in ways that might help Arabs.

This was meant mainly to help Arab local

authorities which were planning new

neighbourhoods and industrial zones in

their jurisdiction and to improve educa-

tion and job prospects. Arab politicians

grumble that these projects are happening

too slowly, but admit that the money is

making a difference.

The political climate matters, too, how-

ever. “It’s like eating in a fine restaurant,

where the waitress says: ‘I hope you choke

on your food,’” says Issawi Frej, an Arab

member of parliament. “Netanyahu is cor-

rect when he says that under his govern-

ment more money than ever went to the

Arab community. But it was also a period of

peak incitement against Arab citizens.” Mr

Netanyahu has periodically accused Arab

citizens of lawlessness and disloyalty. On

election day in 2015 he warned that “Arab

voters are moving in droves to the polling

stations.” In 2018 he pushed through a “na-

tion state law” declaring that Israel is the

exclusive homeland of the Jewish people

and downgrading Arabic from the status of

an official national language.

Despite this, Mr Frej, a member of a pre-

dominantly Jewish left-wing party, Meretz,

insists that “to serve the interests of the

Arab community, we need to be in co-

alitions and government. I’m prepared to

sit with anyone, except outright racists, to

achieve that.” However, Mr Netanyahu’s

propaganda works. Even Benny Gantz,

leader of Blue and White, the main opposi-

tion party, will not say in public that he is

prepared to include Arab parties in his co-

alition if he wins.

“How can we endorse as prime minister

someone who won’t even talk to us?” asks

Ayman Odeh, Israel’s most prominent Arab

politician and leader of the Joint List, an

electoral alliance of four Arab parties.

Nonetheless, in an interview less than four

weeks before the election, Mr Odeh said he

would be prepared under certain condi-

tions to join a government under Mr Gantz.

That suggestion did not go down well. Blue

and White, anxious not to anger its Jewish

voters, gave Mr Odeh the cold shoulder.

Some of his more nationalist Arab col-

leagues huffily insisted that he was speak-

ing only for himself.

In this year’s first election in April the

turnout of Arab voters plunged to 49%,

from 64% in 2015. This has been ascribed

partly to a feeling among Arabs that their

votes have no influence, partly to Arab poli-

ticians’ focus on nationalist issues at the

expense of their constituents’ domestic

concerns, and partly to Jewish hostility. At-

titudes on the Arab side are beginning to

change. But the Jewish side, including

most of the centre-left opposition, is still

loth to accept Arabs as equal citizens. 7

RAMLE

Israel’s biggest minority could hold the key to political change

Israel’s Arab citizens

Arab-Israelis or Palestinians?

A veiled threat to Netanyahu