For a variety of reasons, Arab citizens of Israel don’t seem all that excited about voting in next week’s elections. And, for some reason, this strikes the New York Times‘ Jodi Rudoren as “apathy.” But the Arab sentiments she reports sure don’t sound like apathy.
Under the headline “As Israeli Vote Nears, Arab Apathy Is a Concern,” (1/17/13), Rudoren writes:
There are two distinct strains of voter apathy here in what is known as the Triangle, home to many of Israel’s 1.5 million Arab citizens.
The first is familiar to citizens in many democracies. “No one deserves my vote,” was how Fayez Najmi, who sells fresh fish from a sidewalk in this town of 20,000, put it. “We don’t see any progress or any achievement. We only see the politicians during campaigns.”
That doesn’t strike me as apathy, really–more like a loss of faith in the ability of the democratic process to represent your concerns. As for the second kind of apathy:
The second is more particular to this community. Nidal Jazmawi, who runs a dry cleaners in nearby Umm Al-Fahm and who has lived his entire life in Israel, said he was abstaining because as part of the Palestinian minority he feels his citizenship is meaningless. “This is not my country,” he said. “I don’t receive my rights in this state.”
That’s a more fundamental critique of the state of Israeli democracy, and the feeling that Arabs are not treated as full members of the state of Israel.
There are efforts to encourage more voting (“Several Israeli newspapers have run opinion pieces this week calling on Arabs to vote,” readers are told), but there is nonetheless a fear that Arab turnout could dip slightly below 50 percent.
University of Haifa political scientist As’ad Ghanem conducted a survey of Arab Israelis; as the Times reports:
In Professor Ghanem’s survey, 31 percent of those who did not plan to vote said it was because they had no one to vote for, 26 percent said they were not interested in politics and 8 percent each said it was a matter of conscience or their votes did not count. A majority of nonvoters said they would cast ballots if the Arab parties united in a single list. Ibrahim Sarsur, the leader of the United Arab List, said he had tried to join with his rivals for the campaign but decided “they are not mature enough.”
Again–that’s hard to call apathy. The real story here would seem to be the feeling among many Arabs that they are not welcome, and that the political process will do little to change that.
As Jaime Omar Yassin wrote in Extra! (3/09), Arabs are often erased from the coverage of Israel. His piece notes, for instance, that in 2009 the Israeli Knesset voted to ban Arab parties from a round of elections until Israeli had declared an end to its attacks on Gaza. That vote was not reported in the New York Times. And now, on the eve of another round of elections, the Newspaper of Record is telling readers that Arabs are apathetic. There’s probably a better word for it.
There is a better term for it.
Not “apathy”
“Apartheid lite”
Although the consequences for Arab Israelis are anything but diaphanous.
Strange that the Times could find it in their own interest to use the correct word: Disenfranchised – as in ‘the same thing happening to the Voters of America’.
Perhaps the NYT is unable to find enough fortitude to say it, since it would immediately ignite a firestorm due to the poor attitude of the Current crop of Politicians here at home.
Or perhaps the reality is that the N.Y.T. reporters are just to apathetic (and just plain too pathetic) to do their job; reporting the news not their ‘tudes.
Sorry that should read “Strange that the Times couldn’t find it in their own interest..”
What Ms. Rudoren neglected to mention were the petitions submitted to the Arab parties Balad (Haneen Zoabi) and Ta’al (Ahmed Tibi), signed by Arab voters in Israel, demanding that these two Knesset Members not be included on the party lists because they were “more involved in the agenda of the Palestinan Authority than they were in their own constituents’ benefit.
Because of such behavior by elected Arab Knesset members in the past, many of those Israeli Arabs who do vote, vote for other parties, often Labor or Likud.
Of course, the agendas of Ms. Rudoren and the NY Times preclude mentioning these “minor details”.
Padremellyrn, although I agree with your sentiment, disenfranchisement typically means the revocation of the the right to vote, or intimidation tactics (most often through threats of violence) to prevent individuals or groups from voting. Many people misapply the term. As far as I know, and I’m not super-familiar with the subject, that is not happening to Arab-Israelis. It is however happening in the US (e.g. voter ID laws, thrown out votes, and voter roll purges). I think what you mean is disillusioned, as in their illusions have been removed, and now they see that the electoral process is a sham, which seems to be what these Arab-Israelis are describing and what an increasing number of Americans are feeling.
Seeing your fellow Arab homes bulldozed, olive trees torn down, prison like environments in gaza, land and water theft on a grand scale, not to mention depleted uranium and white phoporous used in Gaza; voting in Israel as an Arab would be one of the last things on my agenda.
So much of Israel is so racist and inhumane. These Jewish zionist in America, though a small minority in this country are a very nasty bunch who would stoop to nothing to get their way no matter their percieved behavior.
Living among a group of Jewish zionist who wouldn’t hesitate to assassinate, assault, steal, and break their own laws is hard to construct a workable strategy.
I guess this is the reason the powers of the universe limited this zionist criminal element to a limited parcel of land. I believe Israel will be marginalized even further for their obnoxious behavior. Hang in there Palestinians.
@ Tee:
One has to wonder if you actually believe the things you’ve written here, or if you have another agenda driven by a different reason.
You claim “So much of Israel is racist and inhumane”, but never give a thought to the inhumanity of Arabs, who murder their own fellow Arabs with little compunction and no remorse. While I admit that Israel is far from perfect, I ask you to answer these questions before you make comments about who is racist and who is inhumane:
1) In the PA, there is a law that selling land to a Jew is punishable by death or such less punishment as the court decides (there are presently two people waiting for Abbas to confirm their death sentences). Is there a similar law in Israel regarding Arabs?
2) Arabs in Gaza lynched 6 Arabs accused of “collaborating with Israel” (NOT tried or convicted, mind you, just accused), and their bodies dragged through the streets of Gaza. When was the last time something like this happened in Israel?
3) PA-supported Imams regularly preach in their Friday sermons that “Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs”. Can you find examples of Israeli government support for Rabbis who regularly speak of Arabs this way in the Shabbat messages?
4) When was the last time an Israeli blew up a shopping mall, coffee shop, discotheque, bus or other public place, purely for the purpose of killing Arab civilians? Now ask yourself when was the last time a Palestinian Arab did the same thing (and how many times it was done).
5) Since the withdrawal from Gaza in 2007, more than 8,000 unguided rockets were indiscriminately fired from Gaza into Israel with no concern for aiming at military targets. On the contrary, the declared targets were civilian establishments (towns, kibbutzim (collective farms) and moshavim (cooperative farms). Deliberately targeting civilians is a war crime AND a crime against humanity.
6) The Palestinian Authority has declared on more than one occasion that NO Jew will live in the state of Palestine. Where is a similar declaration from the Israeli government?
It just might seem, to an objective observer,
This is just a small selection of the things you ignore, either because of ignorance, bias or just plain laziness. There are two sides to this, and you have decided to invent “facts” to suit your narrative, rather than make the effort to learn the truth.
There is not, and never has been, any evidence that Israel used depleted uranium in Gaza. Lebanon, which accused Israel of using it in 2006 against Hizballah withdrew the accusation when they could find no evidence to back up the claim.
Even Hamas denies the claims of humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the “prison-like environment” hasn’t prevented the Gazans from building an Olympic-sized swimming pool, country clubs, luxury hotels, restaurants and shopping malls. How inhumane! How awful that bad old Israel prevents the import of luxury cars for Gaza residents and politicians, so they are forced to dig smuggling tunnels large enough to transport Mercedes and BMW cars through from Egypt to Gaza!
No one asks that you “love Israel” or even like us, but we DO ask for objectivity. Arabs have been murdering Jews in the Middle East for more than a millennium, purely because they are not Muslims, and were treated far worse than an Israeli Arab (or even a Palestinian Arab) is treated by the Israeli government. In 2011, more than 180,000 Palestinians were treated in Israeli medical facilities, many of them without payment. The “Save a Child’s Heart” foundation in Tel Aviv has saved the lives of over 2,000 Palestinian Arab children with heart diseases requiring surgery not available in the Arab world.
There’s a consistently lively debate among Israelis about politics, methods and government policies. No such dissent is seen in the Palestinian Authority, which jails local journalists who don’t toe the party line and rescind the credentials of foreign journalists who print “unfavorable” articles.
No, in light of those facts, it’s the Palestinians who are racist, murderous and obnoxious (your words).
Think about it.
No Knesset ever voted to ban Arab parties.
The Central Elections Committee has done so, and has also banned Jewish parties. So no apartheid and no parliamentary legislative process involved.
The Supreme Court, as the High Court of Justice, has always overturned these decisions.
Not apathy but ignorance here.