Israel’s ultra-Orthodox political Shas party said on Wednesday that it was launching a campaign to rally Arab voters, with a little over a month left before general elections in Israel.
Shas intends to reach Arab communities defined as particularly disadvantaged, and promise prepaid credit cards for food purchases, a move already in place for the party's traditional voter base.
Shas was even considering going door-to-door in certain areas to deliver a letter of commitment for the credit cards in the hope of mobilizing voters in areas where the turnout to polls was expected to be particularly low.
It is not the first time the ultra-Orthodox party, led by Aryeh Deri, is appealing to the Arab sector for votes. When Deri headed the Interior Ministry, Shas campaigned in Arab cities where Deri had a good working relationship with the mayors.
The leftist Meretz party meanwhile said it would launch an awareness campaign in the coming weeks to increase the voting rate in the Arab sector.
Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party has also been reaching out to Arab voters, including in Arab language social media platforms.
The predominately Arab Joint List alliance, which traditionally wins the largest share of Arab votes, will contest the next elections as two separate factions: Hadash-Ta'al and Balad. After the Balad party quit the alliance, a move which is expected to further diminish Arab voter participation in the elections.
According to polling, Balad will fail to win the minimum votes needed to cross the Knesset threshold.
A few weeks ahead of the November ballot, new polls show that opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing and religious block will win win 60 seats, still short of the 61 seat majority required to form a government.
Netanyahu has failed to establish a ruling coalition in the past four election cycles over three years.