Now that the newly elected Knesset has been dissolved due to Prime Minister Netanyahu's inability to form a government, Israelis, including Israeli Arabs, will be going back to the voting booths on Sept. 17, 2019.
The September election will once again prove wrong the Palestinian Authority's claim that Israel is an "apartheid state"; Israeli Arabs will exercise their voting rights on equal terms with Israel's Jewish citizens.
Responding to the results of Israel's April 9 election, PLO chief negotiator and Fatah Central Committee member Saeb Erekat said the vote showed Israel has a "policy of apartheid and racial segregation."
"The preliminary results of the Israeli elections have clearly shown that the Israeli voters have voted to keep the situation as it is. They have voted to continue the occupation. They have voted to continue the apartheid and the racial segregation. In reality, the competition during the election campaign was over who on the Israeli side could continue the status quo, the policy of apartheid and racial segregation, but at a reduced cost," he said (Official PA TV News, April 10, 2019).
A comparison focusing on the rights of Israeli Arabs compared to the rights of black South Africans under the apartheid regime shows that the reality could not be more different.
Examination of the voting patterns of Israeli Arabs living in Arab towns and villages shows that an abyss separates the PA's claims about Israel and the reality. According to statistics published by the Central Election Committee, among Israeli Arab voters who live in exclusively Arab towns (constituting 13.1% of the electorate), 49.6% chose to vote. Of these, 27.2% voted for Zionist parties.
The actual numbers are likely much higher; many Israeli Arabs live in mixed Jewish-Arab cities, such as Haifa, Lod and Jerusalem. It is impossible to determine which parties these Israeli Arabs voted for because balloting is secret and Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs in mixed cities use the same polling stations.
Read more at Palestinian Media Watch.
This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
