By Benjamin Raab
TEL AVIV, July 29 (Reuters) - A new Jewish-Arab political party is courting young voters ahead of Israel's October election. But critics say it risks weakening the bid by the already underrepresented Arab minority to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rightist government.
Israeli by citizenship and Palestinian by heritage, Israel's Arabs make up a fifth of the population but historically have voted at lower rates than Jewish Israelis.
With many identifying with or as Palestinian,
members of the minority have long pondered their place in politics, balancing their heritage with Israeli nationality.
A Place for Us All was founded by leaders of a small left-wing protest movement, Standing Together, that advocates for peace and social equality. The party was launched in June, hoping to enter parliament in the October 27 election.
In the first national ballot since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack and the Gaza war, which have strained Jewish-Arab relations in Israel, it is running under a banner of unity in a bid to unseat the country's most right-wing government ever.
"We want to speak directly to today's young voters that stay at home, those who look at the political system and feel unseen," said Alon-Lee Green, co-leader of the party, whose list is divided equally between Arabs and Jews.
Members of Israel's Arab minority have long complained of second-class treatment, grievances they say have only deepened under the current government, whose far-right members include National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, convicted of anti-Arab racist incitement, who oversees the police.
They point to underfunded towns and a wave of violent crime that has reached new records in recent years.
NEW PARTY JOINS THE RACE AT CRITICAL MOMENT
Just 53.2% of Arab voters cast ballots in 2022, against roughly 75% of Jewish voters — a gap that helped return Netanyahu to power and unseat the first government in Israel’s history to include an Arab party.
Israel's Arab minority has long accused Netanyahu of fear-mongering.
On election day in 2015 Netanyahu urged his right-wing base to rush out and vote, warning that Arabs were flocking to the polls "in droves." In this campaign, he says that if his rivals win, they will again form a government with Arab parties.
A Place for Us All's launch comes as those four main Arab parties are trying to revive an alliance intended to maximize Arab voter turnout. In Israel's parliamentary election system, a party must pass a 3.25% threshold of votes to win seats.
Small parties risk soaking up votes that yield no seats. So, analysts say A Place for Us All risks further disempowering an already underrepresented minority, whose leaders have long demanded better treatment by the government for their community.
"Any vote given to such a party would simply be a waste of votes that the Arab societies cannot afford," said Arik Rudnitzky, an Israel Democracy Institute expert on Arab society.
Green says they intend to expand the electorate rather than fragment it, by attracting brand new voters to the ballot. Gender is also a priority for the party that comprises women and men equally.
"We're young people, we come from the ground," Green said. "It was difficult to decide this is the time to compete over votes, but I look at the existing parties, and I see it's mostly men, it's very old."
Green said the party is confident it can clear the electoral threshold and is in talks with existing parties about a possible merger. But he acknowledged it would not run if it concluded it could not pass the threshold.
Arab political leaders have mostly dismissed the newcomers. "I don't see chances for them or other new parties to pass the threshold," said Yousef Jabareen, leader of Arab-Jewish Hadash party. "I think it's time for them to recalculate."
The Arab parties today hold 10 of the Knesset's 120 seats. In some recent elections, an alliance of all four parties running on a single ticket, The Joint List, has been the sector's most effective tool for boosting its vote.
The Joint List first ran in 2015, winning 13 seats on roughly 64% Arab turnout and becoming the Knesset’s third-largest faction. In the March 2020 election, the alliance hit its peak, drawing nearly 65% Arab turnout and winning 15 seats.
The Arab bid to unify has so far stalled with only three of the parties pulling together. A new fringe party joining the race isn't helping, said Ahmad Tibi, leader of Ta'al party. "Meanwhile, we're trying to do our utmost to unify all our parties for one joint list," said Tibi.
(Reporting by Benjamin Raab and Andreea Popescu; Editing by Maayan Lubell and Toby Chopra)
