Published: 19 March 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
IT’S LUNCHTIME AT the University of Haifa and on a stretch of fake grass, students take in the warm winter sun and look toward the bay shimmering below. But talk to the Arab students on campus about Israel’s upcoming general election and the conversation turns to despair.
“We keep hearing that we’re the enemy, that Israel as a country needs to be strong, a place only for the Jews,” says Shadi Nassar, 22, of the anti-Arab campaign rhetoric on Israel’s right wing.
Israeli Arabs, both young and older, express bewilderment at how to proceed as the April 9 election approaches. Two major developments have collided: Their trustworthiness is being questioned from on high; and disappointment is rife because the Joint List — the alliance of Arab parties that became the third largest bloc in the most recent Knesset — has collapsed amid infighting.
“We need a voice in the Knesset, but I don’t know who will represent me,” says Christina Abu Ram, a 23-year-old sociology student. At the moment Abu Ram is considering not voting at all, saying the opinion that Israeli Arabs should boycott the election speaks to her: The notion that supporting a system that will never support you is futile at best, she says.
FULL STORY Painted as ‘the enemy,’ young Israeli Arabs struggle to see the point of voting (Haaretz)
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Photo: Christina Abu Ram, who's considering not voting at all in the general election (Rami Shllush)
