Israel’s Arab citizens could hold the key to political change
Sep 5th 2019RAMLEIT IS EASY to spot the Jewish and Arab neighbourhoods in Ramle, one of Israel’s few “mixed” cities. The Jewish ones consist mainly of tall, fairly new apartment buildings, with neat pavements. Arab areas, clustered around the city’s old centre, are haphazard and dilapidated. Naif Abu-Swiss, an independent city councillor, insists that things are changing. After being elected last year, he joined the municipal ruling coalition, headed by a mayor from the right-wing Likud party, and has been put in charge of urban renewal.“A Likudnik mayor is best for us,” says Mr Abu-Swiss. “He’s close to the government and gets funds for Ramle. He’s not prejudiced and is investing in planning and renewal in the Arab neighbourhoods.” Even so, the councillor hopes the long-serving Likud prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, loses the parliamentary election on September 17th, Israel’s second this year (Mr Netanyahu failed to form a coalition after the first, in April). “He needs to be replaced, so Israel won’t be like an Arab dictatorship,” says Mr Abu-Swiss. Arab voters could be key to turfing him out.Choose us for news analysis that respects your time and intelligenceSubscribe to The EconomistWe filter out the noise of the daily news cycle and analyse the trends that matterWe give you rigorous, deeply researched and fact-checked journalism. That’s why Americans named us their most trusted news source in 2017Available wherever you are—in print, digital and, uniquely, in audio, fully narrated by professional broadcastersThis website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard‘s standards of credibility and transparency.ORContinue reading this articleRegister with an email address