https://arab.news/8f8az
The next general election in Israel is due no later than October next year, though it may be held earlier to suit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s craving to ensure the best possible chance of him forming the next coalition government. Opinion polls are consistent in forecasting that the parties currently in opposition, or those expected to form before the next election, are likely to win more seats than those in the current government.
However, there is a sting in the tail: the disturbing anomaly that the parties that almost exclusively represent the Palestinian citizens of Israel are not included in the calculations of Zionist parties in forming the next coalition government, leaving them and their voters as political pariahs in their own country.
Except for the short-lived Bennett-Lapid government, which included one of the Palestinian parties, Palestinian ministers have served in the Cabinet only if they were elected on the list of a Zionist party. This discriminatory approach perpetuates the marginalization of the 2.1 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 21 percent of the total population.
The vast majority of Jewish Israelis would even refuse to acknowledge them as Palestinian, only referring to them as “Arab-Israelis.” To recognize the Palestinian identity of their fellow citizens would equate, for the majority of Israeli Jews, to recognizing that they also have the same rights as Jewish people in this piece of land. Moreover, if they are Palestinian, the tag of being disloyal is automatically added. This approach reflects a paradox: utter paranoia combined with a sense of supremacy.
