MENA Minorities

Israel voted (again) on  March 23 so lets have a look at the Arab members of the new Knesset and possible successors: Likud (30 seats) Druze Fatin Mulla  from Yarka (28th slot) is currently deputy minister in the caretaker government and reenters the Knesset. Nael Zoabi , a former principal, was presented as the party's first ever Arab and Muslim candidate (39th slot). He and former Druze minister Ayub Qara (42nd slot) have only theoretical chances to become a MK's in the years to come due to resignations. Blue and White (8 seats) Mufid Marid (9th slot), a Druze military officer from Hurfaish on the Lebanese border has good chances to enter the Knesset in case his party makes it to government. The female Druze candidate of the last elections, outgoing MK Ghadir Mrih, switched over to Yesh Atid after  the coalition of Benny Gantz with Likud and recently announced a break from politics. Labor (7 seats) Controversial filmmaker ( "Lady Kul El-Arab" )  Ibtisam M...

The Knesset election took place already five month ago, but the traditional paper about the Arab voting behaviour from Tel Aviv University's Konrad Adenauer Center is a welcome opportunity for a supplement. The great thing about the paper is, that you don't have to compile the data of Arab villages from the election commission yourself (not fun at all if you are not literate in Hebrew). Bayan-The Arabs in Israel Issue no. 5, June 2015 (ed. by Itamar Radai & Arik Rudnizky) Let me just highlight a few numbers: The Joint (Arab) List led by Aymen Odeh reached 82.4% in the whole so called Arab sector (i.e. Arab villages and towns including Druze and Circassians - mixed cities with Jewish majority like Haifa or Akko not counted ). If we add the 0.8% of the minor Arab parties who were not part of the Joint List, the Arab parties achieved 83.2% in the Arab sector. This is a rise of 5% compared to the 2013 election. If we have a comparative look at the 2009 election, wh...

Elections are over and the 20th Knesset already assembled last week. We have discussed the non-Jewish candidates (some of the Druze won't categorize themselves as Arabs) of the Zionist parties before - the following have been elected: Ayoob Kara (LIKUD) Zouheir Bahloul (Zionist Union) Hamad Amar (Yisrael Beiteinu) Issawi Frej (Meretz) Since the Zionist Union only reached 24 seats Druze candidate Saleh Saad didn't make it into the Knesset for now, but he has good chances to enter on a partial tenure during the next years. For Akram Hassun, who is also two seats away from a mandate but in a way smaller party, I am not very optimistic. Again we see an overrepresentation of the Druze in the Zionist parties with two out of four MK's while they constitute only 10 per cent of the Arab-Israeli population. Let's have a closer look at the new Arab Joint List and its MK's. The list is composed of the following: The  HADASH gathering (which is dominated by the I...

Lets have a look at the possible members of the next Knesset from a MENA Minorities perspective. These are the non-Jewish canidates of the Zionist parties who have realistic chances for a Knesset seat. The candidates of the Joint Arab List will follow soon. Likud: Ayoob Kara 24th slot (realistic chances)   The only non-Jew on the Likud list who has realistic chances for a seat is former MK and vice minister Ayoob Kara. His term as vice minister (for the delelopment of the Negev and Galilee) from 2009-2013 earned him some criticism for conducting his own "foreign policy" like meeting european far-right politicians (some with an anti-semitic background) and sending his bureau chief to talks with Syrian opposition figures in Bulgeria, which caused an diplomatic incident. Anyhow, he has good chances for a comeback. His appointment to the slot reserved for non-Jews should also be seen as a signal of goodwill to the party-internal far-right opposition around Moshe Feiglin. W...

Recently the Israeli Druze have gained the attention of national and international media. This has mainly two reasons: The tragic death of two members of the community in the recent terror attacks in Jerusalem and  Muslim-Druze violence in the Galilee village of Abu Snan .  Jadan As'ad (who is related to former Knesset-member As'ad As'ad), a border policeman from the village of Bait Jann, was killed when a Palestinian driver slammed into a light rail station on November 5. The other, Zidan Saif a policofficer from the village of Yanuh, was killed while he tried to rescue the inmates of the synagogue in Har Hof during the terror attack on November 18. His funeral was that of a national hero with hundrets of Haredim and President Reuven Rivlin in attendence. Additionally, in the mixed village of Abu Snan (one of the few with a Muslim majority and a Druze minority) clashes between Muslim and Druze youth occured, which led to wounding 41 people. The Druze side was using l...

Interview with Basil Ghatas at Al Monitor , who represents the Arab-nationalist Balad-party and is one of two (the other being Hanna Swaid/Hadash) Christian MK's. Btw, I had no idea that he is related to Amzi Bishara, the controversal founder of Balad, who now lives in Qatar after he was investigated for spying on behalf of Hizballah .

Christian movement in Israel for closer ties with Jewish state Former Haaretz editor Adi Schwartz deals in an essay for the WSJ with the new movement among the Arab-Christian population, which advocates closer co-operation with the Jewish state including military service. In my opinion the significance of this movement is generally overstated but this is so far the best article on this phenomenon and a certain dynamic  undeniably exists . "Israel's Christian Awakening" by Adi Schwartz