BE'INEH, March 23, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Battling apathy and frustration among voters, Arab Israeli parties are struggling to secure enough Arab votes in the general elections to keep their toehold in the coming Israeli Knesset.

"Our campaigns are focused on increasing the voter turnout and on the importance of voting for Arab parties," Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli Arab lawmaker campaigning for re-election, told Reuters on Thursday, March 23.

"Vote for us or for any other Arab party," Azmi Bishara, another Israeli Arab legislator, told a small audience in the northern village of Be'ineh-Njeidat.

Over five million Israelis will cast their ballot on March 28 to elect members of the 120-seat parliament.

No less than 31 parties are battling for seats in the legislature, although only half of them are expected to enter parliament.

Every party running for the March 28 polls is now required to gain 2 percent of the total vote, compared to only 1.5 percent before, making it more difficult for Arab lawmakers to keep seats.

Arab candidates reckon they need at least 60 percent of registered Arabs to vote if they are to stand a chance.

Although Israeli Arabs (Palestinians living inside what is now Israel) make up a fifth of Israel's six million population, Arab parties hold only eight seats in the outgoing parliament.

But many Israeli Arabs still feel dissatisfied with the performance of the Arab lawmakers as well as with the state discrimination and stereotypes against their community.

"People are in a dilemma; if they vote, they don't make a difference, if they don't vote, they lack representation," said building worker Mahmoud Khatib, 38.

Israeli Arabs complain of institutional discrimination, demanding more employment in state bodies and better funding for their municipalities.

"There is discrimination between Arabs and Jews in everything, you will be shooting yourselves in the foot if you boycott," Tibi said.

A recent poll showed that about 68 percent of Israeli Jews said they wouldn't live in the same building as Israeli Arabs.

The survey, conducted by Geocartographia and analyzed in the "Index of Racism Towards Arab Palestinian Citizens of the State of Israel", showed that 46 percent of Jews would not allow an Arab into their homes, Haaretz said.

Some 41 percent said Jews and Arabs should be segregated in recreational areas.