A big disappointment for Ehud Barak is the very low Israeli-Arab voting rate: Currently hovering around the 10% mark, it is not expected to pass 25-30%. In many Arab areas, groups of residents stood outside polling booths, trying to convince others not to vote. The voting rate in Judea and Samaria started out slowly, but stands now at 55%, well over the national average.
Michael Widlanski, a Hebrew University lecturer and an expert on Palestinian broadcast media, talked to Arutz-7\'s Yosef Zalmanson today about the low Arab voting rate: \"There are two possible reasons. One is that since they saw that Sharon was clearly going to win, they saw no reason to go out of their way on a losing campaign to work for Barak, who they hate... Or, it could be that because the Islamic Jihad waged an active campaign to boycott the Israeli election - pushing people not to vote with a blank slip, but to actually boycott - the Palestinian Authority didn\'t want to come out against the Islamic Jihad, even though the PA certainly wants Barak to win...\"
Michael Widlanski, a Hebrew University lecturer and an expert on Palestinian broadcast media, talked to Arutz-7\'s Yosef Zalmanson today about the low Arab voting rate: \"There are two possible reasons. One is that since they saw that Sharon was clearly going to win, they saw no reason to go out of their way on a losing campaign to work for Barak, who they hate... Or, it could be that because the Islamic Jihad waged an active campaign to boycott the Israeli election - pushing people not to vote with a blank slip, but to actually boycott - the Palestinian Authority didn\'t want to come out against the Islamic Jihad, even though the PA certainly wants Barak to win...\"