ABSTRACT
The elections for the Eighteenth Israeli Knesset were held immediately after Israel's war on Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, and they were the first elections after Israel's Second Lebanon War. The two wars, as well as additional developments across the region and within Israeli and Palestinian societies in Israel, reinforced processes that intensified the already complex and thorny system of relations between the State of Israel and Palestinian citizens. The consensus was expressed clearly in the publication of three Vision Documents at the end of 2006 and beginning of 2007, in which the Palestinian population for the first time presented its political demands to the State and advanced the conception of a historic compromise between Palestinians who are citizens of Israel and the State. The participation of Palestinian women in Israel in political activity in general, and in party activity in particular, is very low.
