From Challenge # 66
Israeli Elections:The Blank Ballot and the BoycottRoni Ben EfratA NEW PATTERN emerged in the recent elections for Prime Minister.
On the Israeli Left many called to cast blank ballots; although in the
end some wavered, it appears that a large number simply chose to avoid
the polls. Overall voter participation dropped from 75% in 1999 to 59%.
The Arabs boycotted the election, accounting for half this drop:
only 18% voted, compared with 76% last time. Thus Ariel Sharon received
13% more votes than Benjamin Netanyahu did in defeat two years ago, but
Ehud Barak's support fell by 46%.
In 1999, the Left and the Arab parties gave Barak automatic, knee-jerk support. For this they paid a price. Having hauled in 95% of the big Arab vote, Barak turned his back, setting up a right-wing government. He did not even meet with the Arab parties, much less carry through on budgetary promises or attack double-digit unemployment. Then came the Intifada of October. When the Arab citizens of Israel poured into the streets, they were protesting not only the killing of children in the Territories, but also the discrimination and degradation they themselves have suffered from the very party they lifted to power. Barak's response was to approve the use of live ammunition. Thirteen fell. This gunfire ended any remaining Arab illusions about a bond with the Labor Party. The movement to boycott the polls began on the street, imposing its will on the Arab parties. At the last moment, PA leaders such as Yasser Abed Rabbo and oppositionists like Na'if Hawatmeh called on Arab voters not to lend a hand to the rise of Sharon, but the people ignored them. The Arab street united behind a new consensus: that Barak and Sharon amount, for it, to the same. The Labor-Meretz circle responded with anger. The liberal camp in Israel
refuses to see itself through Arab eyes. It will not understand that for
an Arab worker, unemployed, futureless, shorn of civil rights, there is
really no difference between Labor and Likud.
The Jewish LeftSince blank ballots aren't counted, many people saw no point in going to the polls to cast one when they could achieve the same result by staying home. Yet an important and lively exchange did develop on an e-mail list known as Aleph. Many leftist academics took part. The discussion was important, because it broke an old taboo: in the elections of 1996 and 1999, this writer and her colleagues in the ODA (Organization for Democratic Action) called on people to cast blank ballots, and the rest of the Left denounced us. Now there were signs of change. Irit Katriel, a peace activist, led off by saying there was no difference between Barak and Sharon. Later, in an article entitled, "Apartheid is in the Heart" (published on IMC/Israel at www.indymedia.org , she urged the Left to listen to the Arabs, who had decided on their boycott:"In the election campaign of 2001, Palestinian citizens find themselves in a crisis of confidence with regard to the government, the Jewish Left and the state. This crisis is taking the form of a massive election boycott. They have reached this decision all by themselves – without consulting us. As for us Jews, stuck on our side of the heart's barricade, we held our discussion, each took a decision, all without listening to them – without remembering that the future we are trying to create here is a future we'll share with them. This revolution, this struggle against institutionalized, public, commonplace racism is one they are leading – let whoever wants join in." The e-mail discussion focussed on the question of the lesser evil: Is it permissible to aid, even indirectly, the election of Ariel Sharon? The balance of the exchange tipped toward the blank ballot. Among the proponents was Uri Avneri of Gush Shalom (the Peace Bloc): "I don't like to be blackmailed. When Ehud Barak decided to commit the coup d'état against himself, he assumed that he has my vote in his pocket. My vote and the votes of all the members of the peace camp, both Jewish and Arab. If so, I would like to tell him with all due respect: Please, Mr. Prime Minister, don't count on me. All my life I have objected to a white ballot (i.e., a blank one – RBE).
I continue to object. But if the only choice is between the man who went
to the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) causing hundreds of fatalities, and
the man who sent him there accompanied by 2000 policemen, a white ballot
seems the only way out." (Alef list, December 10.)
The Jewish Left wavers while the Arabs hold firmThe blank-ballot movement had the form of an academic discussion within the Jewish Left. The boycott in the Arab sector was a spontaneous street-based movement. Neither presumed to put forth a long-range alternative. Both arose in order to punish Barak and demonstrate that they were no longer to be taken for granted. The Arab street carried through all the way. The Jewish Left, however, fell into confusion, when key figures who had started with principled positions suddenly got cold feet.As the elections neared, leftists as well as key journalists began softening their criticisms of Barak, supporting him "in spite of everything." They opened the files on Sharon's bloody history, from Kibya to Sabra and Shatila, and spread it over the newspapers. Among these was the above-quoted Uri Avneri, who not only revised his position but himself resorted to a kind of emotional "blackmail": Recalling the rise of Nazism, he compared the blank-balloters to the German Communists, who failed to support the Social Democrats against Hitler. Likewise, on January 26, Women's Rights activist Gila Svirsky published an open letter, "after much heart searching," calling on people to vote 'Barak'. At the beginning of the new Intifada, Ha'aretz journalist Gideon Levi – among the most consistent chroniclers of abuse in the Territories during the Barak term – promised on television that he would "never vote 'Barak'." As Election Day neared, though, Levi let himself be swayed by the noises coming from the PA and Hawatmeh: if Barak was good enough for them, who were we on the Left to argue? Now the elections have taken place. Because they concerned the prime ministry only, the composition of the 120-seat Knesset has not been affected. With only 19 Likud mandates, Sharon might barely achieve a majority, but he would be subject to constant extortion from the religious parties. His only hope for longevity lies in forming a coalition with Labor. As of this writing, Labor is seriously considering the offer. If it accepts, all those leftists who rallied around Barak, shouting "Anyone but Sharon!", may eat the blank ballots they didn't cast. Having supported the Labor candidate, they will be responsible for the deeds of the government that Labor preserves in power: a government under a man that some of them consider a war criminal. Why did the Left falter while the Arabs stayed firm? The Arabs are not part of the Israeli establishment. In punishing Barak, they did not punish themselves, because in any case they could not expect anything from Labor. The Israeli Jewish Left, on the other hand, gets plenty – in the form of jobs and support for its institutions. It cannot therefore afford to let Labor fail in an election – not even once. In these elections, the Arab population was able at last to realize its electoral clout. Yet its preoccupation with Barak as an individual, rather than with Labor in general as a Zionist party, may later undermine the achievement. Next time Labor will likely present a more palatable candidate, and the argument for the "lesser evil" will again be bruited in the land. Irit Katriel was correct in calling on the Left to heed the new Arab
voice. But it is not the Arab-ness of the voice that promises an alternative,
rather the direction the voice signifies. The uniqueness of the Arab voice
consists in its independence from the Zionist establishment. True, it has
taken shape as a result of familial solidarity with the Arabs in the Territories
and those in the wider Arab world. To establish a new alternative will
require a wider, class-based solidarity with the oppressed everywhere.
Only a long-winded view of the forces at work in the world will equip us
to resist the "less-ness" of evil on Election Day.
This article was originally written as an Information Brief for the
Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine, located in Washington DC.
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