Knesset member Dr. Azmi Bishara leads the National Democratic Assembly party. (Maan News)

What the Israeli Elections mean for the Palestinians

Israeli voters will elect the 120 members of the national parliament, or Knesset, on March 28, 2006. The number of Knesset seats each party receives is proportional to the number of votes the party wins. Parties must pass a qualifying threshold of two percent of the vote in order to be represented.

According to the official Knesset web site, 31 parties are running in these elections. Palestinian-led parties occupy eight of the 120 seats in the current Knesset and are expected to win roughly the same number in this week's elections.

Roughly five million Israelis - including 600,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel (endnote 1) -- are eligible to vote. A poll released last week (endnote 2) shows that the Palestinians may vote in slightly higher proportions - a projected 69% turnout -- than their Jewish counterparts.

(The 3.5 million Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza, who have lived under Israeli military occupation for 39 years, are not eligible to vote in Israeli elections, even though the elections have a direct impact on them because Israel controls most aspects of their daily lives.)

Most Palestinian citizens of Israel are concerned about:

1. Institutional discrimination in almost all aspects of their daily lives, including education, employment, housing and land ownership. Since 1948, Israel has taken more than 70% of Arab lands (endnote 3), devastating Palestinian families and communities.
2. Increasing support for "transfer," or forced expulsion of Palestinians from Israel.
3. Issues common to the roughly nine million Palestinians worldwide: ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, permitting Palestinian refugees and internally displaced people to return to their homes and resolving the issue of Palestinian statehood.

Eight parties are of greatest relevance to the Palestinians. The five most significant Zionist parties, which hold the Jewish character of Israel as their central value, are Kadima, Labor-Meimad, Likud, Ichud Leumi - Mafdal and Yisrael Beitenu. The three major Palestinian-led parties, projected to garner 80 percent of the Palestinian vote, (endnote 4) are National Democratic Assembly, Hadash and The United Arab List - Arab Renewal. Each is described briefly below.

The Zionist Parties

Kadima. Official website.

Acting Party Chairman: Ehud Olmert

Kadima's platform indicates an acceptance of the Roadmap for Peace, the need for territorial compromise and a negotiated agreement to establish an independent Palestinian state. However, recent statements suggest intentions to emulate Ariel Sharon's unilateral approach. In interviews with Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post, Olmert outlined plans to unilaterally redraw Israel's border over the next four years.

The new border would roughly follow the route of Israel's separation wall, about 80 percent of which lies on occupied Palestinian land. The major settlement blocs, housing roughly 87 percent of Israel's settler population, would be annexed to Israel, as would the Jordan Valley, which comprises 28.5 percent of the West Bank. (endnote 5) The municipal borders of Jerusalem would be redrawn so that many of the city's Palestinian neighborhoods would be transferred to the West Bank. Jewish settlements in the West Bank would be incorporated into Jerusalem or annexed to Israel.

With these unilaterally-defined borders, Israel would control 46 percent of West Bank land and much of its water resources. (endnote 6) Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank would be divided into three isolated cantons, or economically-unviable pockets of territory to call a "state."

The political and military histories of many of Kadima's key candidates are cause for concern among Palestinians.

Ehud Olmert. Official bio. A candidate for Prime Minister, he is currently the Acting Prime Minister. As mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 - 2003, Olmert had an official policy of keeping the city's population in a ratio of 72 percent Jews to 28 percent "non-Jews" (i.e., Palestinians). Planning schemes limited the organic growth of Palestinian neighborhoods while expediting growth of Israeli settlements. Palestinians were subjected to home demolitions, land confiscation and discrimination in the provision of municipal services.

Shimon Peres. Official bio. A candidate for Knesset, he is the former leader of the Labor party and an architect of the 1993 Oslo Accords under which Israeli settlements in the West Bank doubled over ten years. As Acting Prime Minister in April 1996, Peres ordered the bombing of southern Lebanon. In the 10-day offensive, Israeli forces shelled a United Nations compound near the village of Qana, killing more than 100 Lebanese civilian refugees and wounding more than 300. (endnote 7)

Shaul Mofaz. Official bio. A candidate for Knesset, he is currently the Minister of Defense. As chief of staff of the Israeli army, Mofaz directed Israel's reoccupation of West Bank cities, including the invasion and destruction of the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002. Human rights organizations documented a number of Israeli war crimes, including unlawful killings, summary executions and the use of human shields. (endnote 8) In July 2002, Mofaz authorized the dropping of a one-ton bomb on a Gaza residential apartment block, killing 14 Palestinian civilians, including at least ten children.

Avi Dichter. Official bio.(pdf) A candidate for Knesset, he is the former head of Shin Bet, Israel's general security service. Under Dichter's command, Israel escalated the policy of "targeted assassinations" which extra-judicially killed Palestinian militants, leaders and many civilians. A case for war crimes is pending against him in US District Court in the Southern District of New York.

Gideon Ezra. Official bio. A candidate for Knesset, he is the former deputy head of Shin Bet, Israel's general security service, and current Minister for Internal Security and the Environment. As Deputy Minister for Internal Security in 2001, Ezra openly called for the murder of family members of potential Palestinian suicide bombers. (endnote 9) He also noted the benefits to Israel of a brutal U.S. war on Iraq: "The more aggressive the attack is, the more it will help Israel against the Palestinians. The understanding would be that what is good to do in Iraq, is also good for here." (endnote 10)

Labor-Meimad. Official Labor website. Official Meimad website.

Party Chairman: Amir Peretz

On the issue of relations with the Palestinians, Labor's platform closely resembles that of Kadima. Labor also mentions the need for a return to the Roadmap for Peace and a negotiated agreement to establish a Palestinian state. Labor goes farther than Kadima by stating that the final status would be near the pre-1967 borders. Yet, Labor's platform also indicates a willingness to act unilaterally, calling for completion of the separation wall, and retaining main settlement blocs and Jerusalem. This would, in fact, stray far from the pre-1967 borders by leaving Israel in control of 46 percent of West Bank land, allowing it to retain 87 percent of its settler population, dooming the prospects for a viable Palestinian state. In the 2003 elections Labor won 19 seats.

Amir Peretz. Official bio. A candidate for Prime Minister, he is currently a member of Knesset. A prominent union leader who was born in Morocco, Peretz enjoys some standing among Palestinian citizens of Israel. While a recent poll found that about 80 percent of likely Arab voters plan to vote for one of the Arab parties, nine percent plan to vote for Labor. (endnote 11)

Ami Ayalon. A candidate for Knesset, he is the former head of Shin Bet, Israel's general security services. In July 2003, Ayalon and Palestinian academic Sari Nusseibeh signed a statement of principles for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which would effectively nullify the Palestinian right of return to their homes and perpetuate second class citizenship for Palestinians inside Israel. Ayalon is not opposed to possible negotiations with a Hamas-led Palestinian government, saying in a recent interview "I killed many Arabs, probably more than Hamas fighters killed Jews, and more than anyone else, but all in order to secure Israeli lives."


Likud. Official website.

Party Chairman: Benjamin Netanyahu

Devastated by the loss of Ariel Sharon and key senior party figures who defected to Kadima, Likud is expected to fare poorly in this week's elections. Pollsters predict it will win between 11 and 13 Knesset seats. (endnote 12) Regarding Palestinians, Likud rejects the idea of unilateral redeployments and a return to the pre-1967 border. Like Kadima and Labor, Likud insists on completing the separation wall and maintaining Israeli control over Jerusalem and the main settlement blocs. In the 2003 elections Likud won 38 seats.

The political and military histories of many of Likud's key candidates are cause for concern among Palestinians.

Benjamin Netanyahu. Official bio. A candidate for Prime Minister, he is currently a member of Knesset. Netanyahu advocates mass expulsions of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories. During a 1989 lecture at Bar-Ilan University, he said: "Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions of the Arabs of the territories." (endnote 13) Months later, he stated, "I still believe that there are opportunities to expel many people." (endnote 14) In 1996, he was elected Prime Minister by a margin of less than 1%. During his tenure which lasted until 1999, Netanyahu signed the Hebron protocol which gave Jewish settlers in Hebron (0.3% of the population) control of 20% of the city, including the commercial center.

Silvan Shalom. Official bio. A candidate for Knesset, he is currently a member of Knesset. Shalom sponsored a bill in March 2000 requiring a majority of registered voters to approve any peace agreement with Israel, in effect making uncast votes automatic "no" votes. He openly acknowledged that he was trying to block a withdrawal from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights; the bill would have made any decision to withdraw a decision of Jewish voters, who make up the majority of registered voters. On April 16, 2000, when asked what he would recommend to then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Shalom told Israeli Arutz-7 news service, "He must say unambiguously that he is against the formation of a Palestinian state."

Uzi Landau. Official bio. A candidate for Knesset, he is currently a member of Knesset. Landau stated in 1996 that "If we really want peace, no Palestinian state here." (endnote 15) In February 2002, he implied that Israel should use chemical weapons against the Palestinians by stating that Israel should do to the Palestinians "what the Iraqis did to the Kurds." (endnote 16)

Natan Sharansky. Official bio. A candidate for Knesset, Sharansky enjoys a reputation as an advocate for human rights. Yet he has consistently opposed returning any occupied territory to the Palestinians in exchange for peace, and in 1995 he formed the Yisrael B'Aliyah Party which explicitly opposed a Palestinian state. Sharansky also opposed the Oslo Accords, the Roadmap for Peace and the Gaza disengagement. In November 2002, he called for the full re-occupation of Hebron: "Just as Hebron was the last city we gave up because of the Jewish community there, it should be the first city to be taken back." (endnote 17) He wrote in a 2003 Jerusalem Post opinion piece, "It was not for the sake of peace that the State of Israel was established�" (endnote 18)

Limor Livnat. Official bio. A candidate for Knesset, she is currently a member of Knesset. Livnat said in December 2001 that Israelis "must stop expressing any agreement for a Palestinian state in wide swaths of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. There must not be a state such as this, and therefore, there must not be any talk encouraging it. Local leaders with local autonomy, yes. But a state? No!" (endnote 19)

Yisrael Katz. Official bio. A candidate for Knesset, he is currently a member of Knesset. In 2001, Katz was quoted as describing Arab members of Knesset as "leaches who suck the blood of Israeli democracy" and saying "they should be eradicated using legal means." (endnote 20) In 1980, he was convicted of a chain-wielding attack on Arab students at Hebrew University. (endnote 21)

Ichud Leumi - Mafdal. Official Ichud Leumi website. Official Mafdal website (Hebrew only)

Ichud Leumi Party Chairman: Binyamin (Benny) Elon

Ichud Leumi - Mafdal's platform rejects the return of any of the Occupied Territories. It staunchly opposes the creation of a Palestinian state on territory between Israel and Jordan. Instead, the party promotes active Jewish settlement of all the Occupied Territories and mass expulsion of Palestinians. In the 2003 elections Ichud Leumi and Mafdal ran together with Yisrael Beitenu and won 13 seats.

The political and military histories of many of Ichud Leumi and Mafdal's key candidates are cause for concern among Palestinians.

Benny Elon. Official bio. A candidate for Prime Minister, he is currently a member of Knesset. Elon was first elected to the Knesset in 1996 as the head of the extreme right Moledet party which "embraces the idea of population transfer as an integral part of comprehensive plan to achieve real peace between the Jews and the Arabs living in the Land of Israel." (endnote 22) Elon has spearheaded the takeover of several Palestinian homes in Occupied East Jerusalem. Speaking before the Christian Coalition in Washington, DC in October 2002, Elon defended the policy of ethnic cleansing as biblically mandated, quoting from the Bible: "Ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you." (endnote 23)

Efraim Eitam. Official bio. A candidate for Knesset, he is currently a member of Knesset. Eitam said in March 2002 that Arab citizens of Israel "resemble a cancerous growth." (endnote 24) He recently described the Oslo peace process as "morally and militarily wrong" and has advocated for Israel's permanent control of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. (endnote 25) He has also suggested that Palestinian states should be established in the Sinai Peninsula and in Jordan and warns that Palestinians may find themselves stranded in Jordan as refugees in the event of another war. (endnote 26)

Yisrael Beitenu. Official website. (Hebrew only)

Party Chairman: Avigdor Liberman

Yisrael Beiteinu ("Israel is our home") enjoys strong support among recent immigrants from areas of the former Soviet Union. Its primary concern is the "demographic threat" posed by the Palestinian population of Israel and the Occupied Territories. Formerly united with parties that would have addressed this concern by transfer of Palestinians citizens outside of Israel's borders, Yisrael Beiteinu now supports an exchange of territory, whereby predominantly Palestinian areas of Israel would fall under Palestinian jurisdiction, while large Israeli settlements in the West Bank would fall under Israeli sovereignty. It proposes a new citizenship law that would require an oath of loyalty to Israel as a Zionist Jewish state. Those committed to making Israel a state of all its citizens, including the Palestinian minority, would be stripped of voting rights. It also supports economic development specifically geared to new immigrants. This would encourage Jewish immigration, thus offsetting the higher birthrate among Palestinian citizens of the state. In the 2003 elections Yirael Beitenu ran together with Ichud Leumi - Mafdal and won 13 seats.

Avigdor Liberman. Official bio. A candidate for Knesset, he is currently a member of Knesset. Liberman, an immigrant from Moldova, founded Yisrael Beiteinu in 1999. In a May 27, 2004 interview with the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, Liberman said that 90 per cent of Israel's 1.2 million Arabs would "have to find a new Arab entity" in which to live beyond Israel's borders. In a recent interview, he stated that democratic values were secondary to the goal of preserving Israel as an exclusively Jewish state. He added that he opposes co-existence with the Palestinians.

The Palestinian-Led Parties

National Democratic Assembly. Official website.

Party Chairman: Dr. Azmi Bishara. Official bio.

The National Democratic Assembly party (at-Tajamu' ad-Dimuqrati al-Watani in Arabic; Balad is the Hebrew acronym) seeks to transform Israel into a democratic, secular state in which Christians, Muslims, and Jews enjoy equal rights. Balad aims to eliminate state institutions and laws that discriminate against Palestinian citizens in Israel, including discrimination in the national budget and land policies. It also maintains that Israel should recognize Palestinian national minority rights and grant cultural autonomy to Palestinians in education and other fields. NDA also demands recognition of the 100 unrecognized Palestinian villages -- inhabited by 70,000 residents -- that receive no government services whatsoever, and do not even appear on maps of the country.

Balad supports the withdrawal of Israel from all Arab territories seized in 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, and the dismantling of all Israeli settlements in those territories. It calls for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and supports the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and receive restitution for their losses. In the 2003 elections NDA won 3 seats.

Hadash. Official website. (Arabic and Hebrew only)

Party Chairman: Mohammad Barakeh. Official bio.

Hadash is a coalition of Arab and Jewish political groups based around the Communist Party. DFPE stresses social justice and equality, as well as recognition and cultural integration of the Palestinian minority. It urges investment in schools, urban rehabilitation, government transparency, freedom of information, and environmental protection. Hadash supports a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and maintains that all Israeli settlements outside the pre-1967 borders are illegal and should be evacuated, including East Jerusalem, the prospective capital of the Palestinian state. In the 2003 elections, Hadash ran together with the Arab Movement for Change and won 3 seats.

United Arab List - Arab Renewal.

Party Chairman: Ibrahim Sarsour.

Led by Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsour, the head of the southern branch of the Islamic movement in Israel, this is a coalition of three Arab parties: the southern branch of the Islamic movement, the Arab Democratic Party and the Arab Movement for Change. A coalition of Zionist parties attempted to ban the United Arab List from the elections based on misquoted statements allegedly calling for the creation of an Islamic regime in Israel. The effort to ban the UAL failed narrowly, earlier this month. The United Arab List - Arab Renewal calls for an end to the occupation, a halt to the expropriation of Palestinian land, equal rights for non-Jews in Israel, preservation and protection of Muslim religious sites, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. In the 2003 elections UAL won 2 seats.
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Endnotes

1. http://www.forbes.com/business/commerce/feeds/ap/2006/
03/21/ap2611239.html

2. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L- 3231708,00.html

3. http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/images/informationbrief.
php?ID=157

4. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3231708,00.html

5. http://www.nad-plo.org/inner.php?view=facts_wall_f19bp

6. Ibid.

7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qana_Massacre

8. Jenin: IDF Military Operations, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, May 2002, www.hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3

9. Interview on New Evening (Erev Hadash) TV with Geula Even, quoted by Akiva Eldar, Ask Clinton What He Thinks About Camp David, HA'ARETZ, August 21, 2001, reprinted at www.abunimah.org/features/010821ezra.html. The policy of punishing innocent family members was practiced by the Nazis under a policy called 'sippenhaft'. However, even the Nazis only punished family members after an act of resistance was committed, not before as Minister Ezra proposes.

10. Ben Lynfield, Israel Sees Opportunity in Possible US Strike on Iraq, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, August 30, 2002, www.csmonitor.com/2002/0830/p08s01-wome.htm.

11. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3231708,00.html

12. http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.
asp?no=268742&rel_no=1

13. Quoted in the Israeli journal Hotam, November 24, 1989.

14. Menachem Shalev, Use Political Opportunities' Netanyahu Recommends Large-Scale Expulsions, THE JERUSALEM POST, November 19, 1989

15. CNN NEWS, Israeli Election Draws Mixed Reactions, May 30, 1996, www.cnn.com/WORLD/9605/30/israel.reax

16. Quoted by Gideon Samet, The Beginning of the End, Perhaps, HA'ARETZ, February 20, 2002, reprinted at http://www.acj.org/Daily%20News/February/Feb_20.htm#2

17. Israeli Papers Split on Way Forward, BBC News, November 18, 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/not_in_
website/syndication/monitoring/media_reports/2488337.stm

18. http://www.amconmag.com/2005_03_28/cover.html

19. Now the 'Partner' is Gone, THE JERUSALEM POST, December 24, 2001

20. Haaretz, May 17, 2001.

21. Associated Press, February 27, 2003

22. Moledet Website, www.moledet.org.il/english/
moledet.html

23. Christians Hail Rightist's Call to Oust Arabs, FORWARD, October 18, 2002, http://www.forward.com/issues/
2002/02.10.18/news3.html

24. HA'ARETZ, March 22, 2002, quoted in Oren Yiftachel,, The Shrinking Space of Citizenship, MIDDLE EAST REPORT, Summer 2002, www.merip.org/mer/mer223/223_yiftachel.html

25. Sheldon Kirshner, Eradicating Terrorism Key for Israel: NRP Leader, THE CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS INTERNET EDITION, August 15, 2002, http://www.cjnews.com/pastissues/
02/aug15-02/front5.asp

26. Ibid.