Will populists sideline liberals in Israel's Likud?
Three Likud ministers advance equal rights for the Israeli-Arab population, whereas other ministers and many Knesset members opt for a populist, discriminating discourse.
A television and social network campaign scheduled to start at the beginning of November will encourage young Israeli Arabs to join the police. Orchestrated by Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan, the campaign will feature promotional videos in which three prominent Arab police officers call on young people to join the organization. Considerable money and effort were invested in these clips.
It was also Erdan who promoted Arab police officer Jamal Hakrush to the rank of deputy commissioner six months ago, making him the first Muslim deputy commissioner in the Israeli police force. Hakrush was appointed to head a new division intended to improve police services in the country’s Arab localities. Erdan declared at the promotion ceremony, “This event bears genuine news, which took almost 70 years to be fulfilled. Until now, we failed to enforce the law equally within the Arab sector. If we are to be honest with ourselves, we cannot look at Arab society in Israel, with its violence and crime, and wash our hands of it as if we bear no responsibility.”
Erdan’s investment in the Arab sector will not help him politically within the Likud primaries, in which candidates for the next election list are ranked. Some will say that it will actually hurt him, given the rise of extremists within the party and the campaign that they are waging to delegitimize Israel’s Arab population, all for the sake of gaining political benefits.
Like Minister of Social Equality Gila Gamliel and Minister of Transportation Yisrael Katz, Erdan belongs to a dwindling group of Likud leaders who remain loyal to the party’s foundational values in all matters concerning equality for Israel’s Arab population. The party’s agenda has been taken over by Minister of Culture Miri Regev, who breaks new popularity records within the party every time she goes after Arab artists and lashes out at minorities. Even the chairman of the Likud himself, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has no qualms about making racist statements about the Arab sector if these comments serve his political interests. Nor does it help one bit if he apologizes after the fact, which was the case with his comment about Arabs voting in droves last election day.
