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Will the Shift in Israeli Arab Politics Change the Palestinian Discourse?

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Dan Diker and Khaled Abu Toameh - Dr. Mansour Abbas, 46, an Israeli Arab dentist and chairman of the southern branch of the Islamist Movement in Israel, secured four seats in Israel's March 2021 Knesset elections for his Ra'am party on a platform of cooperation, integration, and normalization, in order to advance the socio-economic agenda of Israel's Arab population. Abbas' campaign avoided incendiary statements on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that had for decades characterized the Israeli Arab political leadership's nationalist and Islamist rejectionist rhetoric. His unilateral reset mirrors the spirit of the Abraham Accords, creating an internal "Abraham Effect" on Israeli Arab politics. Yet some in Israel were concerned that he was employing a recognized strategy of political Islam to penetrate a state's political system to achieve Islamic ideological goals, comparing him to Turkish President Erdogan, Hamas in Gaza, and Iran's Hizbullah in Lebanon. Ra'am's electoral success reflects a societal shift in the Israeli Arab sector. Two polls in early 2020 indicated a growing Israeli identity as opposed to a Palestinian identity that had more commonly characterized Arab citizens of Israel. Dan Diker is Director of the Project to Counter BDS and Political Warfare at the Jerusalem Center. Khaled Abu Toameh is a veteran journalist who has been covering Palestinian affairs for three decades. Both are Fellows of the Jerusalem Center.
2021-04-22 00:00:00
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