Palestinian Citizens of Israel's Voting Patterns: Platforms, Mechanisms and Evolution of Political Expression
Caceres, Exequiel F.
2020
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Submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Comprising over 20% of Israel’s population, Palestinian citizens of Israel have historically faced a multitude of barriers to political expression and representation within Israel’s political system. Examining voting patterns at the local and national levels, one ... read morecan discern that Palestinian citizens consistently vote at a higher level in municipal elections than in parliamentary elections. The central role of the hamula, or extended family, in local affairs creates a mutually reinforcing push for the Palestinians living in relatively homogenous towns and municipalities to go out and cast their vote consistently in high numbers. While at the national level, voting turnouts have historically fluctuated in reaction to attacks on Palestinians in Israel, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and neighboring Arab countries as a whole. As a result, the Palestinian vote in Israel has become highly elastic in response to internal and external events. This issue has been compounded by legislation designed to silence Palestinian voices in Israel’s Knesset, or parliament, and right-wing policies working actively and passively to suppress voting turnout in national elections. These factors combined raise questions about whether the political regime in Israel can be most accurately characterized as a democracy, as a hybrid regime, or as something in between an ethnic democracy and an ethnocracy. Exploring the platforms, mechanisms, evolution of Palestinian citizen’s voting in Israel provides a lens through which one can more accurately assess regime type in Israel.read less - ID:
- vt150x96q
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