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Arab politicians and community leaders hoped to put out the message Thursday morning to 40 foreign diplomats, whom they met in Tel Aviv, that the "day of revenge for the Zionist parties will be on February 10 (elections day)."
The Tel Aviv meeting was organized by the Mossawa Center on the backdrop of increasing radicalization of Israeli political opinions as the elections draw near.
According to statistics presented at the meeting, there has been a continuing downward trend in Arab voter turnout. Surveys carried out in recent weeks show that 56% of the Arab public went to the ballot box in 2006, while only 50% are projected to show up for the upcoming February elections.
The survey also revealed that Arab votes for Zionist parties, including Labor, Likud, Meretz, and Kadima are shrinking in number.
United Arab List-Ta'al Chairman MK Ahmad Tibi told Israeli electronic site Ynet, "In recent days, I have actually heard from more and more people who plan on voting. Just yesterday I was at a large campaign event at someone's house when a religious man who has never voted in his life stood up and said that not voting this time will only serve Lieberman's agenda. The Arab voters will avenge the massacre in Gaza."
MK Ibrahim Sarsur (United Arab List-Ta'al) commented, "Our statistics show that while some 40,000 voters voted for Zionist parties, this time they won't receive more than 10,000 votes. I have never in my life seen such readiness within the Arab population to take revenge on the Zionist parties and to tell them a resounding 'No' because they brought about deterioration and the bloodbath in Gaza."
The war in Gaza has created increasing interest in the international community about the stance of Arab Israelis, both on the war and on the elections. During the offensive, representatives of the Arab population met with a number of foreign ambassadors and diplomats.
Mossawa Center's director, Jafar Farah, explained the decision to meet with foreign diplomats, "The international community is concerned about the complication of the Middle East situation resulting from the clashes between Jews and Arabs in Israel. We will ask that attention be give to the trend of incitement against the Arab minority, and that the issue of the Arab population in Israel be integrated in the dialogue with the Israeli administration.
"In addition, we will present the foreign diplomats with statistics showing the growing trend toward boycotting the elections and the deepening chasm between the Arab population and the Zionist parties as a result of what happened in Gaza," he concluded.
The Mossawa Center will explain to the foreign diplomats Israel's attempt to disqualify the Arab parties from the upcoming elections and will ask for international intervention.
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