Arab-led parties win record seats in Israel

Voters in Israel’s northern city of Sakhnin packed polling stations on Tuesday to cast ballots in what local officials described as an emergency measure.

Mazen Ghnaim, the mayor of Sakhnin and a supporter of the Ra’am party, said high turnout was a response to rising violent crime and political incitement. He stated he wanted to protect his constituents from attacks in universities and hospitals.

More than 800,000 people voted for Ra’am and the Joint List, a coalition of three parties with Arab leadership. The Central Election Committee recorded a more than 60 percent increase in support compared to the 2022 elections.

These parties secured 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset, surpassing their previous record of 15. Mansour Abbas, leader of Ra’am, declared to cheering supporters in a wedding hall that his community was no longer on the margins.

The surge in support has made these parties a central factor in post-election coalition negotiations. Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s main rival, could use their seats to form a government that would remove the Prime Minister from power.

Netanyahu has intensified anti-Arab rhetoric, claiming in a post on X that allying with these parties would lead to the Islamization of Israel. His allies, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, urged supporters to vote to keep the country Jewish and Zionist.

Palestinian citizens in Israel make up more than 20 percent of the population and have held citizenship since the state’s founding in 1948. Many had boycotted previous elections, feeling ignored by political leaders.

This cycle, community organizers held meetings in villages often skipped by Jewish-led parties. Volunteers knocked on doors in Bedouin settlements to encourage women to vote. In the Bedouin village of Tarabin, where Netanyahu’s party won the last two elections, turnout nearly doubled and Ra’am received 93 percent of the vote.

Ra’am and the Joint List offer different approaches to the conflict with Gaza and the West Bank. Ra’am emphasized integration and placed a former Jewish police official second on its list. The Joint List called the Gaza campaign a genocide and compared the West Bank occupation to apartheid, views that most Jewish Israelis reject.

Tamar Hermann, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, said Israel is moving toward an ethnic democracy. Eisenkot has set conditions for alliance, requiring parties to recognize Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and declare Hamas a terrorist organization that must be dismantled. Yousef Jabareen, leader of the Joint List, said he was ready to talk but had not yet agreed on final terms.