Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
cannot vote by absentee ballot, but voting provisions are made for all IDF personnel as well as
for merchant seamen on ships on that day, members of the diplomatic corps stationed abroad,
hospital patients, and prisoners. Voting turnout among both Jews and Arabs has traditionally
been very high, with 65 percent of all voters casting ballots in 2009, up 2.5 percent from the
percentage three years earlier.
Party loyalty has decreased, however, with the exception of supporters of the Haredi par-
ties, and voting on issues has increased. Voting analysis shows that gender has never played a
role in political preference and that the correlation between income and political preference is
weak. Degree of religiosity is also still a strong factor in voting preference.
Of the twelve parties winning seats in the 2009 elections, seven of them appeal to specifi c
constituencies: there were three Arab parties, three Jewish religious parties (including the Na-
tional Union), and an FSU immigrant-oriented party.
The politicans themselves are mostly male. For many decades, Israel's political elite were
men of Eastern European origin, members of the Mapai (later Labor) Party, and residents of
a big city or a kibbutz. The composition of the elite has steadily changed as more and more
Jews of Mizrahi background and a few women have come to hold powerful positions. Breaking
into politics from places other than through party or army hierarchies has also become easier.
Israelis express their political views through a very large number of nongovernmental orga-
nizations, not just through political parties. These include groups lobbying on everything from
environmental issues to child welfare, human rights, and government reform. Their public
interests are wide-ranging. Voluntary membership groups use all sorts of methods to try to
persuade people to support them, including demonstrations, interviews with the media, and
educational activities.
While voluntary groups addressing social issues tend to be durable, their size and infl uence
rises or falls depending on public views and the importance of issues at any particular time.
For example, Peace Now on the left and Gush Emunim on the right were major organizations
during the 1980s, but both faded into insignifi cance within a few years. Other temporary but
infl uential protest movements include the Four Mothers group, urging a withdrawal from
southern Lebanon, and the “orange” movement, opposing withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
In 2011, a large social protest movement began in Israel, creating tent cities and holding
demonstrations that drew many tens of thousands of people who opposed high consumer and
housing prices. The movement's leaders included those focused on these specifi c issues and
others seeking to use the protest to rebuild the political left.
POLITICAL CORRUPTION AND SCANDAL
In the 2009 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, Israel tied with Spain
for number 32 of 180 countries (1 being the least corrupt), ranking ahead of all Middle Eastern
countries except for Qatar (22) and the United Arab Emirates (30) and such European coun-
tries as Portugal (35), Poland (49), and Italy (63). The United States is number 17, the United
Kingdom 15, and Canada 8.
Polls show that Israelis, whose resentment of corruption is very high, tend to overrate its
level in their country. The most notorious scandals in Israel have involved politicians from all
