The Arab Israeli rapper Tamer Nafar released a new song on April 4, five days before Israelis head to the polls. Called Nafar hopes the song, “Tamer Must Vote,” will get Arab voters to surge to the polls. “Either we vote / Or end up/ Outside of the homeland,” he sings.
In October 2016, Culture Minister Miri Regev had demanded the cancellation of an appearance by Nafar at the Haifa Festival on the ground that he rejects Israel as the state of the Jewish people. The month before, she had boycotted an appearance because he would sing lines from a song by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.