Mohammad Darawshe in JTA on Israeli Arab Vote Success

Givat Haviva Director of Strategy Mohammad Darawshe was quoted extensively in a JTA article on the large Arab voter turnout in the October 17 elections that led to Arab parties winning 19 out of 120 Knesset seats, setting up the potential for an Arab party to be included in the next
Israeli coalition government

Darawshe said that if after the massive turnout on Election Day the Arab parties were not included in a change government, there would be great “disappointment.”

“If they are blocked from the right wing, that is understandable. But if their natural partners in Jewish society block them, they will end up turning their back on the whole political scene,” he said.  

Darawshe said such a scenario would make Arab society unlikely to participate in such numbers in future elections. “It will be like a vote of no confidence in the Israeli political system and complete disbelief in the promise that Israel can offer political equality as promised in the
Declaration of Independence,” he said.

Political equality, Darawshe pointed out, is “not just allowing Arab citizens to exercise their equal rights on the day of the elections, but also to exercise their rights the day after the election, meaning allowing them to be part of the coalition and not to create a glass ceiling at representation in parliament.”

Read the full JTA article: Arab parties are kingmakers, but will Israel’s Jewish leaders accept them?