ABSTRACT
In the elections for the Fourth Knesset on the third of November 1959, out of a total of 120 elected, 7 were Arabs. They were apportioned as follows:
This results from an interesting pattern of participation by the Arab population in Israel, as well as from the impact of the Jewish parties on that population. A study of the modalities of this participation may permit us to look at the political preoccupations and attitudes of the Arab minority in Israel. Because the ballot is secret, opportunities for pressure on, or control of, voters are reduced, and both the socio-economic conditions and the political attitudes of that minority are quite clearly reflected in their voting. Each member of a minority is able in some way to influence the result of an Israeli general election, because the electoral system adopted by Israel uses proportional representation and the whole country forms one electoral district. 2
Each group represented in the outgoing Knesset, and any party which has obtained the signatures of 750 supporters before the
ELECI'IONS TO THE FOURTH KNESSET 199 elections to the new Knesset are held, may present a list of candidates and is awarded a symbol composed of one or several letters. This symbol will appear on its voting cards in all the polling stations throughout the country. On election day all Israeli citizens, of both sexes, who have passed their eighteenth birthday by the preceding 31 December, have the right to vote. Vote casting is organized very simply: the elector presents his identity card, a stamp is put on it to insure that the elector votes only once during the election and his name is crossed off the register of voters in the polling station (this register is the copy of a section of the National Electoral Register). The voter receives an opaque envelope from the official in charge of the polling station, goes into a polling booth, where he puts into the envelope a card bearing the symbol of one of the parties standing for election, seals the envelope, and places it in the ballot box within sight of the officials of the polling station. The seats are then apportioned as follows: after the votes from the whole country are counted, any parties which have less than one per cent of the total valid votes are dropped; then a quotient is arrived at, by dividing the total number of valid ballots by the number of seats in the Knesset (120); the total number of valid votes obtained by each party is then divided by this quotient to establish how many seats each party is entitled to obtain, and the remaining seats are allotted, in sequence, to the parties with the largest fraction of votes remaining over. 3
Thus, the Arab minority in Israel can influence considerably the result of a national election to the Knesset. Each time, the Arabs have a choice between voting for groups whose allegiance is to their religious community groups-lists of candidates composed of Arab Muslims, Christians and Druzes-or for the Jewish or mixed parties. In other words, they can give their support to a list of candidates based on the local community or to one whose programme is determined by a social and political ideology.
