Low participation of Palestinians inside the occupied territories in the elections of municipalities and city councils of the Zionist regime

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, yesterday Tuesday municipal elections, City councils and regional and regional councils were held in occupied Palestine. In this election, 7,190,920 eligible voters could go to the polls to elect 197 mayors and city councils and 45 regional and regional assemblies. The participation rate in this election is 49%, which is a decrease of 7.2% compared to the previous elections in 2018. This decrease in participation among the Palestinians inside is highlighted.

This election was supposed to be held 4 months ago, but due to the Zionist regime’s encroachment on Gaza and the war conditions in the occupied territories, it was held four months ago. The month was postponed. In addition, yesterday’s elections were not held in 11 occupied cities in the south and north of the occupied territories! Elections are scheduled to be held in these 11 cities on November 19 (9 months later).

Among about 7.2 million people who have the right to vote, more than one million people are citizens. The Arabs living in the occupied territories of 1948 are the ones who have the right to vote and call themselves “Palestinians inside”; But the western media insists on removing the Palestinian adjective and calling them “48 Arabs”!

Participation in the elections of this period was low and among the Palestinians inside are the right to vote) reached its lowest level in recent decades. Meanwhile, a number of Arab candidates have been pressured by the occupiers. For example, in the city of “Umm al-Fahm”, the first person on the coalition list between the two parties “Al-Balad” and “Al-Tajam al-Watani” is a famous Muslim lawyer named “Ahmed Khalifa” who was imprisoned by the invaders in his house in the city of “Haifa”!

The participation of Arab citizens in this election is reported to be very low. For example, in the city of Umm al-Fahm, less than 20% was reported until 7:00 p.m. local time, while in the previous elections in 2018, the participation rate – until this time – in this city was more than 40%. . Or in the city of “Mississa” – until 7 o’clock local time – participation was very low and it was expected to reach 50% at most by the end of the voting; This is despite the fact that in the previous elections, about 80 percent of eligible people participated in the elections.

After the end of the voting and the counting of the votes, the participation rate of Arab citizens (Palestinians inside) was announced separately. not done; But it can be estimated relatively from the voting areas. The most populated Arab cities are Al-Nasra, Umm al-Fahm and Al-Rahat, where the participation statistics are 40%, 50%, respectively, and only in Al-Rahat with 72.1% participation. In the same way, in the 2018 elections, public participation was 84.2%, which this time decreased by 12.1%.

The decrease in participation is also quite noticeable among cities with a common Arab-Jewish population. Tel Aviv and Jaffa are joint constituencies to significantly increase the proportion of Jews. But in this constituency, the participation rate is only 40%. In Haifa and in Jerusalem, this ratio reaches 38.7 and 30.8%.

In general, Palestinians in the interior have a stronger participation in local elections than in Knesset elections. In the 2018 elections, the participation ratio of Palestinians inside and Arab citizens with the right to vote reached 84%; While this ratio between Jews and settlers was only 55%. For comparison, it is enough to know that in the Knesset elections, the participation rate of Arab citizens was 53% and Jewish settlers were 75%.

At the same time, the threats of the extreme right caused a part of the Arab citizens, feel threatened for their survival. In this case, during the last week, there were extensive disputes among the Palestinians inside, the description of which is not included in this article.

Palestinians inside

Internal Palestinians or Arab-speaking natives living in the occupied territories in 1948 are those Palestinians who refused to leave their homeland during the Zionist invasion in 1948, and at the time of the establishment of the Zionist regime, as an ethnic minority living in this territory by the then government. recognized and received citizenship papers. These people – generally – call themselves “Palestinians inside”; But in the official (legal) literature, they are called “Arab minority” and in the western media they are called “Arab 48”. The majority of these people – while they have lived in the occupied territories for three generations – call themselves “Palestinian” and speak Arabic.

The majority of Palestinians inside are Muslims, mostly from Tradition and part of the Druze religion. A minority of them are also Christians. In addition, there are some other sects and religions among them.

According to the official census in 2019, Arab citizens have a population of about one million and nine hundred thousand people; In other words, nearly 21% of the population are citizens of the Zionist regime. The majority of these people live in cities and Arab-inhabited areas.

It should be noted that in addition to these people, there is still a significant population of native Arabs living in the occupied territories who have the citizenship of the Zionist regime. They did not know that these people mainly lived in the eastern part of Jerusalem and nearby cities such as Jaffa and only received “permanent residence cards”. Some of the citizens of the occupied Golan, as well as the Arab tribes living in the Negev desert, are also included in this category. “Safd”, “Acre” and…), “Triangle” (including the cities of “Kafr Qara”, “Umm al-Fahm”, “Al-Taiba” and…), “Golan”, “Beit al-Maqdis” and “Negab Desert” ». The most important cities mainly inhabited by Arabs are “Eastern part of Jerusalem”, “Al-Nasra”, “Rahat”, “Umm al-Fahm”, “Al-Rahta”, “Sukhnain”, “Kafr Qasim” and… in addition, 8 big cities of the occupied territories are also They have significant Arab minorities. These cities were Arab cities throughout history; But the crimes of the Zionists – especially in the 40s to 60s of the previous century – have caused a negative migration of Arabs, which, at the same time as the Zionists’ settlement, has practically changed the composition of the population in favor of the Jews. The most important of these cities are “Acre”, “Lead”, “Haifa”, “Jaffa” and “Be’er Sheba”.

Since occupying these areas, the Zionists have tried for more than two decades to force the natives of these areas to leave their homeland and migrate by committing crimes and killing Arab citizens. The “Great Kafr Qasim Massacre” is one of the clear examples of these crimes. As a result of these crimes, the majority of Arab citizens were forced to leave their homeland. However, a part of the Arab natives who remained in their areas convinced the Zionists that ” They should accept “Arab citizen” as a reality in their territory. Since then, one of the most important security programs of the occupiers was the “Alingi” or “self-identity alienation” of the Palestinians inside; So that they consider themselves “Israeli Arabs” or “Arab minority in Israel” and forget their Palestinian identity! This idea took hold, so that during it we witnessed the widespread solidarity of Arab citizens with the Palestinians of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. In fact, one of the important consequences of that operation was that all the four pillars of the Palestinian nation spoke together about the “unity of the fronts” and “common destiny” and took action against the occupiers with solidarity.

Severe clashes between the occupiers and the Palestinians inside

With the start of the Zionist regime’s encroachment on the Gaza Strip, strictures and attacks on the Palestinian Arab citizens inside the occupied territories have also intensified. So that the Hebrew media, in their reports from the courts of the Zionist regime, inform about the density and crowding of the cases of Arab citizens. and “Demand for the end of the war” which, from the legal point of view, has caused persecution and confrontation with the Palestinians inside for “supporting the enemy during the war”.

For example, Monday of this week May Younes, one of the famous Arab bloggers living in Arara, was sentenced to pay 25 thousand shekels and one year in prison for the crime of solidarity with Palestinian children. On the same day, 25-year-old Mohammad Kilani from Umm al-Fahm also received a new sentence from the court.

Only one day before, 26-year-old Rami Mahameed from the same city ( Umm al-Fahm) was also convicted on the charge of “contact with the enemy” and “supporting terrorism”; while his lawyer says that there is no such charge at all and only sympathy for the children of Gaza caused the issuance of these sentences. In another example, “Tareq Dawar”, a Palestinian activist from the city of Acre, was tried for the same charge. Tariq Dawar is one of the well-known Palestinian activists in the interior, who voluntarily appears in this holy place on some special days to protect the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque against the invasion of Jewish citizens.

Ahmed Yunus, a lawyer and another Arab citizen, also reports on “cruelty against Arab citizens”. He says that during the last 4 months, in many cases, Arab citizens are tried without any evidence and simply under the title of “committing crimes against national security”, and in some cases, the evidence of these accusations is hidden from the lawyers of the defendants – under the false pretext of “military classification”. They build!!

Intensification of racist attacks against Arab citizens

In parallel with these pressures, in recent weeks, Zionist extremists have been drumming up racist attacks against Arab citizens and Palestinians inside are beating. The peak of these attacks should be called the events related to “the holy month of Ramadan” or “prevention of the call to prayer in the mosques of the city of “Led”, which should be explained in another report.

Author : Alireza Majidi, regional issues expert

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