ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the contradictory policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toward Israel’s Arab Community and the reaction of Israel’s Arabs to them. On the one hand Netanyahu has called the Arabs “gun-toting criminals and potential terrorists” and warned – on election day in 2015 – that the Arabs were “coming out in droves” to vote. In addition, he pushed through the Nation-State Bill in 2018 that both denigrated the Arabic Language in Israel and downgraded the position of Israel’s Arab community by elevating Israel’s Jewish character over its democratic character. On the other hand, Netanyahu invested heavily in Arab towns to raise their standard of living. The chapter also analyzes the roles of the main Arab political parties in Israel: Hadash (Communist), Balad (Nationalist), Ta’al (Secularist) and the United Arab List (Islamist) and notes how they joined together in the 2015 Israeli election to form the Joint List to assure that they would cross the 3.25 percent electoral threshold to get Knesset seats in the 2015 election. The result was that the Joint List obtained thirteen seats in the Knesset.
