The Abraham Fund Initiatives launched a broad-based, non-partisan action plan to increase Arab voter turnout in the upcoming Knesset elections. The goal is to enhance the involvement and representation of the Arab minority in the political system. The Abraham Fund’s plan focuses on a number of areas including conferences for Arab college and university students and launching a media and advertising campaign to persuade the Arab public to participate in the democratic process and vote in the elections. In preparation for the campaign, an attitudinal poll has been carried out among Arab citizens to help shape the messages that will encourage turnout.
Due to the particularly low voter turnout rate (45.7%) among the Bedouin population in the Negev (lower still for residents of unrecognized villages (30.1%)), another area of focus will be increasing access to polling booths for Bedouin citizens, especially those residing in the unrecognized villages. Dr. Thabet Abu Rass, Co-Director of the Abraham Fund and an expert in Arab-Bedouin society notes, “The habit of low political participation is a manifestation of the alienation that the Bedouin community feels from the State. Our aim is to help enhance their sense of belonging to the State as citizens.”
The overall goal, says Dr. Rass, is “to enhance the influence of Arab citizens on the political system in order to improve the situation of the Arab minority and encourage its integration in Israeli public life. As a non-partisan body, the Abraham Fund is not interested in which party Arab voters choose. We simply want them to exercise their fundamental democratic right to vote.”
Read Abraham Fund‘s press release, here.