Arab Israeli voters are essential to Israel’s democratic future - opinion

I remember it well. In the 2015 Knesset elections, I came out of the voting booth in my kibbutz in the Galilee, Hanaton, and read on the news: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of the State of Israel (yes, then too), announced to the public: “The Arabs are flocking to the voting booths! Go out and vote!”

I was stunned and horrified. I had moved to Israel 20 years before, from the US. Back then, 10 years ago, before President Donald Trump’s rise to power, I could not imagine a US president saying something like, “The blacks are flocking to the voting booths! Go out and vote!” Even if a president was thinking that, he would not have dared to say it back in 2015. Maybe before then or after then, but not then.

What shocked me was that the prime minister, who is supposed to be the prime minister of all citizens of the state, would blatantly and unabashedly address one portion of the state and pit them against another, as if Arab Israelis were not citizens, too.

Moreover, it was clear that the country’s prime minister was upset they were exercising their democratic right to vote! I was truly shocked.

Since then, I have been participating in a state-wide group (with smaller groups across the country) that does voter encouragement work in Arab Israeli towns and cities before national elections. We are not affiliated with a specific party, nor do we encourage people to vote for one.

The idea is to encourage people to exercise their democratic right to vote – especially in Arab Israeli society, where the voting percentages in the national elections are so low.

In the 2022 Knesset elections, only 52% of Arab Israelis came out to vote. I admit that I feel extremely invested in defeating this government. I find our current coalition terrifyingly dangerous on many levels. And yes, if the Arab population comes out en masse to vote, that will help democratically remove this government from power.

But my involvement in this work began before this particular election, and it is only one example of my activism to create a shared society among Arab and Jewish Israelis in this country. In the Galilee, where the population is 50-50 Arab-Jewish, this is our way of life. Despite Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and MK Zvi Sukkot’s campaigns to create conflict among us, we live in peace, and often even friendship.

My children went to a Hand in Hand bilingual Arab-Jewish school, and I am heavily involved in my local chapter of the grassroots Arab-Jewish movement Standing Together, as well as in an interfaith group of spiritual leaders in the Galilee called Spirit of the Galilee. (To my delight, both groups are starting a youth program this year.)

Life in the Galilee could (and should) be much more integrated, and there is a lot of work to be done. But the work should be done in the direction of building more connections and bridges, not breaking those that have already been built and pitting our communities against each other.

I see in the news gangs of Jewish youth attacking Arab bus drivers in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh, and it shatters my heart. Or adults – police officers – beating up Arab security guard Qais Haddad outside Teddy Stadium a year ago.

I wept when I read of a gang of Jewish youth in my area, in Haifa’s bayside suburbs, who beat up high school senior Khalil Sabach from Shefa-Amr, an Arab town I frequent, only 15 minutes from my home.

I went with a group from Tag Meir to visit him. What a lovely and impressive young man he is. He told us this incident did not break his spirit or his belief in Arab-Jewish partnership and let me hug him.

Government failure on crime in Arab Israeli society

Since this government came into power, the homicide rate from organized crime in Arab Israeli society has skyrocketed. It was bad before, but at least the previous government, the Yair Lapid-Naftali Bennett “Government of Change,” had a plan in place to combat this crisis – and it was working!

In fact, Yoav Segalovitz, who is running alongside MK Mansour Abbas in the Ra’am party, was instrumental in applying this plan. He worked under Omer Bar Lev, the public security minister at the time.

When Itamar Ben-Gvir took over this position (and its title was changed to national security minister), he stopped the program, and the problem has intensified to the point that there is on average about one person killed every day in Arab (and mixed) cities and towns.

This is intolerable, and if not stopped, the next generation of Arab Israelis who can manage to leave will do so – which is, of course, Ben-Gvir’s goal. That, and to have them kill one another.

This goal of ethnic cleansing in the Galilee, just like Smotrich and Sukkot are doing, mimicking the flags at the entrances of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, trying to scare away Arab residents by recruiting Jewish youth to hang swarms of Israeli flags at the entrances to Jewish villages and along main roads in areas heavily populated by Arab Israelis – is meant to intimidate them and send the message: We are the landlords here!

I know because this happened in my own village of Hanaton, where youth hung two long rows of Israeli flags all along the road leading up to our front gate. And I see it in other areas – including the area around Karmiel, where a group of young men were planted on Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund land bordering on agricultural land of residents of the Muslim town of Majd el-Kurum, to intimidate farmers from the town going to work their land.

The Jewish youth were supposed to be shepherding, to keep the weeds under control; yet, they had no sheep. I know because I went there to protest until KKL-JNF said they would move them to a nearby location and make sure they do have sheep and are actually shepherding. Let’s see if they keep to their word.

Arab Israeli society has suffered terribly since October 7, when they, too, suffered. Thirty-four Arab Israelis (mostly, but not only, Bedouin) were killed on October 7, and more after (as soldiers and as victims of missiles from Gaza, Iran, the Houthis, and Hezbollah). There were also nine taken hostage to Gaza.

Hamas tried on October 7 to incite Arab Israelis to rise up against Israel from within, but they did not. Instead, they helped clean out shelters, treat the wounded in hospitals, collect supplies for and house the displaced, like the rest of us. They proved their loyalty to the state.

And when some did speak out against the war in Gaza – which is their democratic right – they were arrested, humiliated, and released with no charges (because there was no legal case against them). This was done to intimidate, silence, and frighten a big section of the population into either leaving or becoming passive citizens.

But we must not let the government get away with this. I understand why so many Arab Israelis are despairing. But when I go out into the streets of Nazareth, Shefa-Amr, Kafr Manda, Bir al-Maksur, and other Arab towns and cities around my kibbutz, I urge them not to give up hope, not to squander their democratic right to influence the direction of our shared country.

Being loyal but passive citizens is not enough. In order to put the country back on track, Arab Israelis must overcome their fear, anger, and depression, and come out and vote. If not out of a love for the country (although some do love the country, despite their complicated relationship with it), then out of self-interest – for the sake of their futures and the futures of their children and grandchildren.

Some can leave, but not all. And some will choose not to, even if they can. Like my own children. In the end, there will always be Arabs (some who identify as Palestinian and some who don’t) and Jews living in this country. I personally prefer it that way.

But even those who don’t, like most in the current coalition, must wake up to that reality and understand that for life here to be tolerable – let alone thriving, which is, ideally, what anyone sane wants – we must work to make it good for us all.

Organized crime, bigotry, never-ending war, Jewish terror in the West Bank – these are not our fate. If we get rid of this government, we could salvage our chances of living together here in peace and harmony.

Therefore, we all – proud Jewish Zionist Israelis included – must encourage this part of the population – full citizens of the Jewish State of Israel – to exercise not only their lawful right to vote but their lawful right to sit in the Knesset, be in the governing coalition, and serve as government ministers. And we must accept them with open arms when they “flock” to do so.

This is the only viable, sustainable, and livable future for this country.