Few Arab politicians in Israeli history have openly entered with the country’s right wing, let alone supported the main candidate for prime minister.
But Nazareth’s sovereign Ali Salam says he sees no “better option” for Israel’s 21% Arab minority than former incumbent Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu.
In the run-up to a fourth election in two years, Salam has hosted Netanyahu in Israel’s largest Arab city, raised protests against him and chewed separatism in a major coalition. Israeli Arab consortium, the Joint List.
“Bibi, if you ask me, is the best one to follow for another five years,” Salam, 69, told reporters in Nazareth, the city where Jesus grew up, according to Christian tradition.
For Netanyahu, the adoption of Salam and divisions among so far united Arab parties could help divide opposition and encourage Israeli coalition arithmetic a fraction of the lead, ahead of the March 23 election that accounts- thought of as a tight race.
The mayor’s astronomy is different from other Arab leaders, who have accused Netanyahu of disrespecting Arabs.
5 צפייה בגלריה
A woman walks past an old campaign poster showing Ali Salam, the supreme ruler of Nazareth, in the Old City of Nazareth
(Photo: Reuters)
On election day in 2015, Netanyahu urged his voters to turn out, warning that Arabs were going to the polls “in droves”.
In 2019 his party sent surveillance devices equipped with body cameras to polling stations in Arab cities, inciting allegations of voter harassment.
And many Arabs were tainted by a law in 2018 that stated that Israel is the native home of the Jewish people “and has a special right to national autonomy there.”
But as a city leader without national political ambitions, Salam says his job is to deliver the best for its 110,000 residents.
And it cites an Arab political establishment which, he says, has failed to deliver government investment to Arab communities.
“Speaking honestly and clearly: Bibi’s occupation has brought about the strongest development of the economic situation of Arab society, ever,” Salam said.
Salam said he planned to vote for the United Arab Emirates, an Islamic party that split from the Allied List last week after its leader unsuccessfully claimed that it worked and Netanyahu.
Israel’s Arab minority – Palestine by tradition, Israel by citizenship – is largely descended from Palestinians who lived under Ottoman and then British colonial rule before settling in Israel after creation of nation 1948.
Ahmad Tibi, co-chair of the list, said Arab leaders who embraced Netanyahu were a “joke”.
“It may be Stockholm Syndrome, to sympathize with that person who kidnapped you, or harassed you,” Tibi said. He believes that Netanyanu will not get “many votes (even) , even though he laughs and laughs again. “
The debate about working with Netanyahu involves real harassment by the existing Arab parties, said Asad Ghanem, a professor of political science at Haifa University.
“The fact that the leader of Israel’s largest Arab city supports Netanyahu, without fear of being said, is taking Arab society into a political crisis without an agenda to resolve to overcome its challenges, (especially) crime and violence, “Ghanem said.
Netanyahu has also tried to arouse Arab voters by pledging 100 million shekels ($ 30.7 million) to counter violence in Arab cities, and promising to send an Arab minister into the area. his next government.
Only 25% of Arabs believe they should cooperate with Netanyahu, according to one poll. But few see a reasonable alternative, according to Arik Rudnitzky, of the Israeli Institute for Democracy.
“Are you ready to cooperate with any government to meet your needs, or would you like to wait your whole life against it?” Rudnitzky said.