17 Sep 2019; MEMO: Ahmed Tibi, Arab member of the Knesset, said yesterday that Arab voters have the power to oust incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Anadolu Agency reported.
Speaking to the new site, Tibi said: “The biggest upcoming challenge is to raise the rate of voting and participation in the elections.”
He added: “In the last elections of April 2019, the participation rate was almost 50 per cent, and we must all work together to raise it to 60 per cent or more.”
“This is possible and the energy is there. We are capable of achieving this, to send Netanyahu either home or to prison.”
More than 1.8 million Arabs live in Israel, and they make up 20 per cent of the total population.
Recent polls found that the Joint List, which includes four mainly Arab parties, could get 11 seats in Israel’s 120 seat Knesset.
“Netanyahu is afraid of the Arab votes,” Tibi said.
The Joint List held 13 seats following Israel’s 2015 election, however this dropped to ten in April’s election when the parties ran on two separate slates. In regrouping they hope to conjure greater support.
Netanyahu has been working to reduce the Arab turnout, promising to have cameras installed at Israeli voting stations in Arab neighbourhood in order to tackle what he says is election fraud.
