THE CHANGING POLITICAL ORIENTATION OF A NATIONAL MINORITY: THE PALESTINIAN-ISRAELIS IN THE ISRAELI POLITICAL CRISIS, 2019-2022

Abstract

This dissertation explores the background and events that led to the formation of Israel’s first binational government, comprising both Zionist parties and, for the first time ever, an Arab party that identifies as Palestinian, the “Ra’am” party. This first Jewish-Palestinian government was formed in June 2021, at the height of the Israeli political crisis of 2019-2022. Between April 2019 and November 2022, Israel held five general elections, two Knesset sessions that failed toform a majority, and two additional Knesset sessions that were unable to produce a functioning government for more than a year. This unforeseen crisis necessitated a recalibration of positions among a multitude of actors within the Israeli political sphere, with the overarching objective of mitigating the situation. The Ra’am party, a moderate Islamist party, surprised observers when it began campaigning ahead of the March 2021 elections in favor of joining a coalition, and subsequently succeeded in doing so. In this dissertation, I examine the forces that led to the political crisis, the developments that occurred during each of the five elections of the crisis, and how these developments ultimately created an atmosphere conducive to Jewish-Arab cooperation in government. I also present a theoretical paradigm to explain the shift in behavior among key elements in the Zionist establishment, from completely ignoring Arab parties to supporting conditional cooperation with them. I refer to this paradigm as the “Incomplete Citizenship” framework, which I believe best explains the narrative, mechanisms, and apparatus behind forming a partnership between an Arab party and centrist-liberal-Zionist parties in the post-2019 world. The Incomplete Citizenship framework also includes a set of prerequisites that I have identified and argue are necessary for an Arab party to acquiesce to in order to be accepted by its liberal Zionist peers into a coalition. This dissertation also provides novel data on public opinion in the Palestinian-Israeli community, as well as the views of Palestinian-Israeli elites who took part in setting the agenda, campaigning, and negotiating during the political crisis.