Labour to pay the price for turning its back on Arab voters

Three days before elections, Amram Mitzna's opposition Labour Party has failed to mobilise some of its most important potential supporters: Israel's Arab voters. Campaigning on a promise to resume peace negotiations with Yasser Arafat, Mr Mitzna is trailing badly in the polls. Part of the explanation may lie in cities such as Nazareth.

Under the shadow of the church that marks the spot where the angel Gabriel is believed to have announced to the Virgin Mary that she would bear a son, the people of Nazareth explained why they would not be voting Labour.

Although Nazareth is in Israel, not the Occupied Territories, the people here are Palestinians. This is one of the few towns where they were allowed to stay in 1948, when they were forced out of much of the rest of the new state. Unlike the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, they hold Israeli citizenship and can vote in elections.

Out of a total Israeli population of 6.5 million, the "Israeli Arabs", as they are known, account for 1.2 million. They are a formidable bloc. When Ehud Barak was elected Prime Minister in 1999, he won about 90 per cent of their votes.

But this time, the Palestinians of Nazareth say they are not voting for Mr Mitzna. Part of the reason lies in disillusionment. "We voted for Barak and what did he do? Straight away he killed 13 Israeli Arabs," said Abd al-Raziq Mahmud. Two years ago, Israeli police were ordered to clamp down on Israeli Arabs involved in a peaceful protests against the army's actions in the Occupied Territories. Thirteen citizens of Israel were shot dead by their own police.

"We supported Peres and in Lebanon he made a massacre in Qana," said Mr Mahmud. "It's up to the Israeli people to elect Likud or Labour. I'm voting for one of the Arab parties."

There are five parties made up of Israeli Arabs, which compete fiercely for the Palestinian vote. Though they have never been part of a government, they regularly win a few seats in the Knesset. Many in Nazareth say they are voting for Arab parties (at one point a huge column of cars passes waving the green party flags of the Arab United List) while others say they are boycotting the elections altogether on principle.

Another reason Mr Mitzna does not appear to be galvanising the vote here is the disenchantment of the Arabs with their own place in Israeli society. Mervet Deeb is one of Nazareth's Christian population. "I don't feel well represented by any of those in the Knesset," she said. "I don't feel like a citizen with equal rights, I can't get the same job as a Jewish Israeli. There is better funding for Jewish schools."

In the winding streets of the old market, the people said that Labour party politicians had not been to Nazareth to canvass the vote. "In the past they all came. I shook their hands," one man said. "No one came from Labour this time. Maybe they don't need us," he laughed. If the opinion polls are right, Labour needs every vote it can get.

The opposition party has also been a victim of something beyond its control here – a change in the electoral system. When Mr Barak won almost all the Arab votes, there were two separate elections, one for the Knesset and a second direct election for prime minister. Arabs voted their own parties into the Knesset – but backed Mr Barak as premier.

This year, the direct vote for prime minister has been scrapped and the leader of the party that wins the most votes will be asked to form a government, as in Britain. Yet there is little sign of a shift to tactical voting.

But Mr Mitzna can take heart from one thing. As one young Palestinian here put it: "You can't believe the polls."