Political trends in the Israeli Arab population and its vote in parliamentary elections Alexander Bligh* Department of Political Science, Ariel University Centre of Samaria, Ariel, Israel Full Arab Israeli involvement in the national political system is disappearing from the Israeli political scene. A parallel system is being developed by the community’s political leaders. Within this new structure, national elections and the Knesset are viewed as marginal; they serve mainly as a PR arena intended to bring the Arab Israeli message to Jewish/Zionist awareness. Judging from the evidence of recent election results among Arab voters, it is possible to cautiously conclude that the Israeli Arab political stance is less and less a part of the general Israeli political culture. Keywords: Israeli Arabs; voting patterns; political participation; elections; Israel; political culture In 1977 the Israeli political system experienced a change which brought new parties to power. However, that change also contributed to an inherent systemic lack of stability which in turn led to more frequent election campaigns than envisioned by Israeli law. Instead of every four years, elections take place almost once every three years. This increased frequency gives the researcher a more accurate tool in verifying the political behaviour of the Arab/Palestinian citizens of Israel. For most citizens throughout the democratic world, a routine electoral process provides an opportunity to manifest solidarity and confidence in the national political system and its values. Thus, measuring rates of electoral participation may often indicate the robustness of a political system and the true interests of the voters and their confidence in their ability to bring about a change through elections. Moreover, it is a common paradigm that modernizing societies usually develop increased political awareness and consequently tend to upgrade their participation in choosing nationally elected political bodies. 1 These paradigms will be analysed in the following pages in relation to the Arab citizens of the State of Israel. 2 This article mainly explores the Arab political behaviour as far as national elections are concerned. Although most, if not all writers today include the Druze community within their research frame, this is a mistake since the Druze have their own voting patterns that are dissimilar from the Arab minority, yet also q 2013 Taylor & Francis *Email: director@ariel.ac.il Israel Affairs, 2013 Vol. 19, No. 1, 21–50, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13537121.2013.748286