Less than half of Israel’s Arabs, who represent a fifth of the population, are expected to vote in today’s election, in what pundits say could be their lowest-ever turnout.

Despite calls from all sides for them to get out and vote, many feel disenfranchised in reality, and are increasingly fed up with being excluded from political decision-making, which has for four years been dominated by rightwing nationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties.

In Nazareth, the city with the largest Arab population in the country, the election campaign has been largely discreet.

“The Arab parties don’t represent us well,” says Samih Taha, a 23-year-old student who voted in the last legislative election for the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, a Jewish-Arab socialist alliance better known as Hadash.

“I don’t believe in elections. Even if (the Arab parties) get 18 seats in the Knesset, what can they do or influence? What can we do to change Israeli decisions?” he asked.

Those involved in piecing together Israel’s multiple coalition governments have systematically excluded the Arab factions from executive power, often accusing them of having an anti-Zionist agenda.

According to a recent study by Haifa University, which has a number of Arab students, the percentage of Arab Israelis voting in the election was likely to reach its lowest ever, falling below 50 per cent for the first time, according to Professor Assad Ghanem.

And the figures are confirmed by another survey by the Nazareth-based Mazzawi Foundation.

“The latest surveys that we have conducted indicate that turnout among the Arab community would be around 44 per cent,” said its director Faddul Mazzawi.

The general turnout has reached over 60 per cent in the last few elections.

“People already know who will form the next Government and who will be part of it, that’s why they are not paying any attention to these elections,” Mazzawi explained.

Opinion polls have consistently shown that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose Likud is running on a joint ticket with the hardline nationalist Yisrael Beitenu of former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, is expected to win an easy victory.

This will hand him a fresh mandate to build what is expected to be another rightwing coalition.

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