The Fourth Period: 2009–2015

Chapter 7 covers the fourth period of the Arab Palestinian legislators’ activities, 2009–2015 (the 18th Knesset through the 19th Knesset). The Israeli context as a Jewish and democratic state continued to challenge the Arab Palestinian legislators in the fourth period. Events such as bills proposed to delegitimize their rights as equal citizens in Israel, the government’s demand that the Arab Palestinian leaders recognize Israel as a Jewish state, the Arab Spring and its consequences for Arab countries and Israel’s policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict all posed challenges to Israel’s Arabs. In response, Arab Palestinian legislators continued to pay attention to the Arab within Israel identity, but less than during the first and second periods. Palestinian identity and religion identity attracted more policy attention compared to the first, second and third periods. The type of discourse was about the tension between national, civil and religious identities; the emergence of the “politics of faith”; the decline in the political salience of minority nationalism and a shift in focus to social and civic issues.