Depends on what you mean by “Palestinians”. If you mean “residents of the West Bank & Gaza Strip”, then I believe that the answer is no; these areas were never formally annexed by Israel after the 1967 war, and so effectively remain under military occupation. Since the residents of these territories aren’t residents of “Israel proper”, they don’t have Israeli citizenship rights. I haven’t been able to specifically confirm this online, though, so I would welcome corrections.
Yes, if they’re citizens. Citizenship was conferred to all residents of Israel who remained after the 1948 war, and their descendants as well. Arab citizens of Israel form about 20% of the population. In addition, anyone living in Israel as a permanent resident for a certain amount of time can apply to be naturalized; however, such applications are not always granted.
Also note that residents of East Jerusalem have the option of accepting Israeli citizenship, since Israel claimed/annexed that area; however, IIRC to do so they must renounce all other citizenship, effectively renouncing Palestinian or Jordanian claims. Apparently doing so can result in reprisals from Palestinian activists, plus many view it as a coercive insult. As non-citizens they would not have a vote.
Arabs (1.69 million) are 20% of the Israeli population (8M) and growing; as most are citizens, they can vote.
Palestine is occupied territory, not part of Israel - it consists of the West Bank (2.7M) and Gaza (1.7M) and that population of course cannot vote in Israeli elections. They could vote in Palestinian elections, unfortunately the last time they did freely, the occupiers and the losers did not like the results.
From my poking around earlier, it appears that at least some residents of the West Bank are recognized by Jordan as its citizens, since Jordan formally annexed the West Bank after the 1948 war. However, residents of the West Bank are not represented in the Jordanian parliament, as Jordan renounced almost all claims to the West Bank in 1988.
Egypt, on the other hand, did not extend Egyptian citizenship to the residents of the Gaza Strip. Gazans without any other claim to citizenship are, so far as I can tell, stateless.
I thought I had read somewhere that Jordan would provide travel documents (citizenship not included) for West Bank residents if their Palestinian government documents were not acceptable in some countries.
The short version is that the UN resolution created 2 countries, Israel (predominantly Jewish) and Palestine (predominantly Arab). The Jordanians, Egypt, and Syria walked across Palestine to try to take on Israel in 1948 and when the dust settled, stayed occupying what was left of Palestine. In 1967 they ended up handing even that over to Israel as occupied territories.
Israel is not stupid (well, not that stupid) if they make Palestine part of Israel then eventually those occupants will be Israeli citizens and entitled to vote. At this point Arabs would almost equal the non-Arab population and their numbers are growing much faster. So they are maintained as occupied territories but not part of Israel.
The UN resolution provided for the creation of two states, Israel and Palestine. Israel quickly accepted the UN resolution and her statehood but the Arabs rejected it. Hence to this date there is no country named “Palestine.” Since then, they were given opportunities to become a nation in various accords but have rejected them.
The great (ok, one of the great) dilemma facing Israel is that it wants to be two things that are potentially incompatible: a democracy, and a homeland for the Jews. Having a 20% minority Arab population as citizens is fine; it shows that Israel is a secular democratic state, but one where Jews just happen to be the overwhelming majority. The question is what happens if that ever changes. The two equally ugly prospects are either becoming a minority again, which historically has not worked out well; or declaring that Israel exists for the Jews, and that people of other ethnicities will not have the same rights as the People in the People’s Land, which would be distressingly similar to a certain German nationalist movement of years past.
FWIW, Israel is hardly the only country with this problem; many European countries are wondering if waves of migration are swamping the ethnic character of their countries, which they had taken for granted for centuries.
Presumably Israeli citizens resident in the West Bank - settlers, in other words - get to vote in Israeli elections? Or, on the basis that the West Bank is not part of Israel, are they treated like other expatriate citizens, and denied the vote?
Israeli elections are hard to call and the winning the most seats does not mean you have a path to a ruling coalition. Often ruling coalitions are all about strange bedfellows and being handicapped by the deals made to form the alliance. In the past the Arab parties have stated they would not join a coalition if asked and asking would make other partners refuse to be part of the coalition anyway. But if more Arabs vote then a few other smaller parties might not cross the 3.25% threshold (and thus get no seats) - on the Right not only Yisrael Beiteinu but also Yachad+Otzma … and on the Left Meretz.
Unlike some other ethnic scare tactics in other countries, at least he stopped short of claiming they were voting illegally. But note, the suggestion is that the Arabs typically had a lower turn-out and this may change in this election.
Of note, the accords provided that the Palestinians would recognize the state of Israel and expunge from the PLO Charter all references to the destruction of Israel (of which there are many). The PLO announced to the world that it did so and showed the charter with all such provisions expunged; however, the Charter in Arabic still contained those provisions.
Having rejected the UN offer and several Israeli offers, the Palestinians again urge statehood, to which Netanyahu and many Israel factions are now opposed.
One possible solution could be for Israel to surrender ultimate sovereignty to a country that is democratic and likely to overwhelmingly support the Jewish people, e.g. they could ask the US Congress to admit them as a state. There’s a famous incident establishing that a US state cannot unilaterally throw off the Federal government even if a majority of people in the state want to. If the population changes and becomes majority Palestinian and Palestinian leaders start trying to pass laws to persecute Jews, the SCOTUS would just strike them down. Or, Israel could also try to go back and ask to become a British mandate again - not sure how likely the UK would be to go for it.
For sure the Israelis would not go for it. For many years they fought for independence until the Brits threw up their collective hands and handed it over to the UN. Moreover, the idea of relocating to the US occurred to many Jews, but they decided it was better to have their own state so they can be free of persecution, which is not guaranteed in any nation, even the USA. Even if they were admitted as a state, they would have to allow others to settle there under our Constitution. Soon, it might no longer be a Jewish state.
True, it’s a very politically unlikely idea. But it could be a theoretical alternative to preserve a land open to both Jews and non-Jews with peace enforced by a powerful government that is less likely to be swayed by changes in local demographics.
It’s perhaps worth noting that not all Arabs in the Knesset represent the “Arab” parties, and some represent the “Jewish” parties, including some of the right-with parties (e.g. Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu).