The Arab Palestinian Minority Within a Diverse, Multiethnic, Militarized Society in Israel

Chapter 1 is an introductory chapter that outlines the importance and context of the research and describes the content of the book. The chapter presents the questions the book asks: to what extent is the existing literature on minority representation suitable for the study of minority members of a parliament in bi- or multi-national settings in regional zones of conflict? And, do legislators with intersectional representation lose their multiple identities and concentrate on the one they think is most relevant? The chapter also presents the aims of the book: first, the book presents a fresh and more comprehensive framework of the concept of intersectional representation. The second aim of the book is to present a new way to measure intersectional representation by introducing the intersectional representation index. The third aim is to use the results of this analysis to assess their intersectional representation of their constituents. The rest of the chapter describes the characteristics of the Israeli parliament—the Knesset, the Arab Palestinians’ political behavior, the Arab Palestinian voter turnout, the five periods of voting behavior among Arab Palestinians.