The 2021 election campaign officially kicked off in the Arab sector this week, pitting the Joint Arab List, an alliance comprising the Arab or mostly Arab parties Balad, Ta'al, and Hadash, against former ally Ra'am, which opted to run independently in the March 23 elections.
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Being the bigger – and the richer – of the two, the Joint Arab List has naturally mounted a more aggressive campaign. The party is the dominate political player in the Arab Israeli sector, and unlike Ra'am and the Islamic Movement, the JAL has focused its campaign on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his somewhat successful attempt to see it dissolve.
The campaign presents Netanyahu's policies as the root cause for all that ails the Arab sector rather than the solutions to them. This tactic may derive from internal polls suggesting that Likud and other Zionist parties could bite into JAL's electoral base to the tune of snatching away four Knesset seats.
The fear of Netanyahu and the overall panic over the prospect that come election day the Joint Arab List would crash in the polls have made many thinking about "the day after."
There is an overall sense that anything less than 10 Knesset seats would bring the alliance to its end, especially if Ra'am crosses the four-seat electoral threshold on which it has been tottering since splitting from JAL.
Focusing on Netanyahu, however, could backfire, as the prime minister, who pulled no punches against JAL ahead of the previous is now taking great care not to mention the party at all.
When meeting with potential Arab voters, Netanyahu takes care not to be confrontational, focusing instead on stressing that the issues they care about the most are on his political agenda.
There is no ideological debate between the Joint Arab List and Ra'am. The two are engaged in a smear campaign of the ugliest nature, rife with lies, manipulated facts, and an abundance of fake news.
Finger pointing with respect to who is responsible for the "breakup" is at the center of it all, and just like with the Jewish parties on the Left and the Right, every past remark, photo and video are being dragged out of the archives, taken out of context and used.
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Even the sector's own "ethnic demon" – the dormant resentment between Christians and Muslims – has been rattled out of its slumber.
This toxic atmosphere may take its toll on voter turnout in the Arab sector. The rage and frustration felt toward both parties may see many voters simply stay home. Rather than working together to increase voter turnout, the Joint Arab List and Ra'am are only hurting themselves.
Jalal Bana is a media adviser and journalist.
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