For the majority of Israelis, the general election on October 27 is a choice between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the forces that oppose him, led by former general Gadi Eisenkot.
asserted
that → oppose → Eisenkot
But for the Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 20 percent of the population, the upcoming polls present a different dilemma.
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polls → make → dilemma
As the political mainstream in Israel continues to shift to the far right, Palestinian citizens face growing threats to their political and collective rights.
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citizens → continue → rights
Palestinian communities in Israel experience increased violence, while settlers are encroaching on their boundaries.
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settlers → experience → boundaries
The recent push to expand policing and militarisation of civilian life is another source of growing anxiety within the Palestinian population.
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push → expand → population
In this context, the anti-Netanyahu bloc does not seem to offer the prospect of policy reversal or change.
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bloc → seem → reversal
Therefore, the question on many Palestinian minds is whether voting in the Israeli elections can make any difference at all.
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voting → vote → difference
Recolonisation of 1948 Palestine
Since the Nakba of 1948, the Palestinians who managed to remain in their homes in what was declared as territory of the new State of Israel have had a different fate than the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
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what → manage → Bank
In 1952, they were granted Israeli citizenship, and in 1966, the martial law under which they were forced to live was lifted.
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they → grant → which
Although Palestinian citizens of Israel have the right to vote and participate in politics, citizenship has not shielded them from the broader system of dispossession and attempts to reshape their Palestinian identity and national belonging.
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citizenship → have → identity
Through land confiscation and the regulation of education and culture, the Israeli state has sought to detach Palestinians from their historical roots and collective past, promoting instead a model of the “Arab Israeli” as a citizen whose identity is separate from its Palestinian and Arab national context.
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identity → seek → context
Formal citizenship has not secured substantive equality for Palestinians as they face discriminatory laws, systemic underfunding of basic services, and political and socioeconomic marginalisation.
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they → secure → services
Instead of engaging in direct violence towards Palestinian citizens – as it has done in the West Bank and Gaza – the Israeli state has instead “outsourced” brutality to criminal networks.
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state → engage → networks
As a result, Palestinian communities have faced killings, shootings, bombings and arson while Israeli law enforcement has largely ignored the problem.
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enforcement → face → problem
More recently, this problem has escalated, as organised crime groups obtained advanced weapons reportedly stolen from Israeli army stockpiles or smuggled across borders.
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groups → escalate → borders
This growing militarisation of organised crime has claimed hundreds of lives.
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militarisation → grow → lives
In parallel, Israeli settlements next to Palestinian communities have expanded, accompanied by accelerated seizure of land.
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settlements → expand → land
This process of “recolonisation” began in mixed cities, such as Jaffa and Lydd, where religious-nationalist settler groups started establishing themselves in Palestinian neighbourhoods in 2021.
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groups → begin → 2021
Since October 2023, this process has accelerated.
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process → accelerate → October
In August, Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich unveiled his party’s plan to “Judaise” the Naqab and northern Israel.
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Minister → unveil → Naqab
He proposes to add one million Jewish residents to the two regions, establishing 40 new settlements and dozens of farms, expanding existing settlements, and creating hundreds of thousands of new housing units.
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He → propose → units
The idea is to extend the model of territorial control from the occupied West Bank into the Naqab and northern Israel, where Palestinian communities are concentrated.
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communities → extend → Naqab
There are also indications that the policing of Palestinian towns and villages could increasingly fall under the National Guard, established under National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
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policing → be → Gvir
The idea of creating the force was prompted by the May 2021 protests, known as the Dignity Uprising, which spread across Palestinian communities in Lydd, Haifa, Umm al-Fahm, and dozens of other towns and villages.
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which → create → towns
Ben-Gvir has advocated expanding the state’s capacity to suppress such unrest.
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Gvir → advocate → unrest
Although the National Guard’s precise role and operational framework remain under development, its potential deployment against mass protests raises serious concerns about the right to protest and the protection of democratic freedoms.
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deployment → remain → freedoms
The government has strengthened settler security squads and integrated them into a broader security framework, raising concerns about the growing role of armed civilian groups in enforcing control over Palestinian communities.
At the same time, Ben-Gvir has widened access to personal firearms, issuing 300,000 gun licences since taking office.
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Gvir → strengthen → office
Together, these measures normalise civilian policing and deepen the militarisation of everyday life, reinforcing the unequal distribution of coercive power in a society structured on the dispossession and subordination of Palestinians.
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measures → normalise → Palestinians
Parties seeking to represent Palestinian citizens of Israel, such as the United Arab List (Ra’am), led by Mansour Abbas, have long argued that parliamentary participation and support for the anti-Netanyahu camp can help remove the far right from power and halt its settler-colonial agenda.
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participation → seek → agenda
But the party’s own track record proves this premise wrong.
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premise → prove → ?
Ra’am joined the coalition government formed after the elections in 2021, which excluded Netanyahu, but it failed to bring about fundamental changes in the conditions of Palestinian citizens.
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it → join → citizens
The coalition was fragile and often rocked by deep ideological contradictions.
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coalition → rock → contradictions
In 2022, Mazen Ghnaim, a member of Ra’am, publicly acknowledged that he could not push through policies that would benefit the Palestinian population, despite his party being part of the ruling coalition and despite promises being made that such policies would be accepted.
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policies → acknowledge → promises
He also lamented the heavy criticism he faced whenever he was visiting Palestinian communities.
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he → lament → communities
Ra’am’s experience in that coalition illustrated the challenge of sustaining Palestinian political participation in a government whose other constituent parties uphold exclusionary nationalist policies.
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parties → illustrate → policies
The problem, therefore, extends beyond Netanyahu himself: Palestinian support for the anti-Netanyahu camp cannot translate into meaningful policies that challenge the broader structures of discrimination and dispossession Palestinian citizens of Israel face.
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citizens → extend → Israel
Voting may offer a way to slow down this project, but it cannot reverse the deeper transformation taking place within Israeli society.
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it → offer → society
The cultural shift towards fascism extends beyond the government and its political leadership, becoming increasingly embedded in social attitudes and everyday life.
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shift → extend → attitudes
That said, I believe another four years of far-right rule would pose an immediate threat to Palestinian communities and their rights.
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years → say → communities
Therefore, I will vote in Tuesday’s election.
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I → vote → election
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
