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February 9, 2001/Shevet 16, 5761, Vol. 53, No.19
Arabs reject Barak, Sharon
GIL SEDAN
Arabs reject Barak, Sharon
JERUSALEM - Wisam Jamal stood defiantly at the entrance to the family bakery in Wadi Nisnas, the Arab neighborhood of downtown Haifa.
"I do not intend to waste any gasoline driving to the polling station," he said.
Jamal was not alone in deciding to boycott the Feb. 6 election for prime minister.
Only some 13 percent of Israeli Arabs went to the polls, and many of them cast blank ballots to underscore their dissatisfaction with both candidates.
A few Arab Knesset members urged voters to go to the polls to cast white protest ballots. More effective, however, were the multiple calls to boycott the elections - backed up with threats against those who voted.
On election day, a convoy of cars bearing black flags and Palestinian flags, calling for a boycott and protesting the killing of 13 Israeli Arabs by police during pro-Palestinian riots last October, made its way through a predominantly Arab area in the lower Galilee.
At some polling stations, members of the Israeli Arab community - looking intimidating - formed patrols to enforce the boycott.
Israeli Arabs make up about 12 percent of the voting public, and they overwhelmingly supported Prime Minister Ehud Barak in the last election.
Their boycott this time was a major factor in Barak's crushing loss to Likud leader Ariel Sharon.
In the waning days of the campaign, as one poll after another predicted his defeat, Barak knew the Arab vote was crucial.
On Feb. 4, he apologized for the deaths of the 13 Israeli Arabs.
"In my name and in the name of the government, I express sorrow over the death of Arab citizens," Barak said Feb. 4, in what was widely viewed as an appeal for Israeli Arab votes. "As prime minister, I hold general responsibility for everything that happens in the country during my term, and also for these incidents."
The Israeli Arabs' boycott reflected dissatisfaction on a number of issues, including the long-standing feeling that they suffer discrimination in receiving government services and civil service jobs.
But the boycott also carried a message of indifference, even defiance, toward both candidates.
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