On October 27, the day Israel went to the polls, the first election since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, the country recorded its highest voter turnout since 1999, at 77.7% But this was not the only story about the turnout.
This mobilisation seems to have paid off. Arab parties have emerged as the third bloc after the elections. Part of the credit goes to the Arab parties, which have actively mobilised their communities to vote. But much of it also goes to Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right government, whose policies and rhetoric, including the war on Gaza and escalating violence in the occupied West Bank, have heightened fears among Arab citizens. they’ve also borne the brunt of racism and violence While Arab citizens are affected like any other Israelis when it comes to national security. While leaders of Arab parties have called Mr. Netanyahu’s attempts racist, they, too, have borne the brunt of discrimination. The surge in voter turnout has helped them gain a significant number of seats, which would have made them kingmakers in a hung Parliament where no bloc has a clear majority. But neither side has expressed any willingness to form a government with Arab parties. This reluctance is not new. Ra’am broke off from the Joint List. However, this experiment was short-lived as the coalition collapsed within a year. Ra’am returned to the opposition fold after Mr.
The Joint List and the United Arab List (Ra’am) have secured a combined 19 seats in the 120-member Parliament, their highest-ever tally. The Ra’am party, led by Mansour Abbas, became the first Arab party in nearly 44 years to be part of a government in 2021 when they backed the Bennett-Yair Lapid government. Netanyahu’s coalition won the elections in 2022.
For the far-right coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , the election was a “war for our home”, but for Arab parties, the political mobilisation meant meaningful representation in the Knesset , the Israeli parliament. A party’s position related to crime in Arab society was one of the most important factors determining their vote, according to polls by the Israeli Democracy Institute.
Like in the cases of previous elections, an attempt was made for disqualification of the Ra’am party and the Joint List (an alliance of Balad, Hadash and Ta’al) before the polls. Arab parties had previously supported governments from outside, especially under Labour Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Fear, as many experts have pointed out, has been their prime motivation, which Arab parties have been able to mobilise given the divisive campaigns launched by Mr. Netanyahu’s bloc. During the campaign, the Netanyahu camp put up billboards, saying it was ‘either the right or Palestine’.
Even on the day of polling, the Prime Minister urged his supporters to go and vote, pointing to an Arab voter surge and calling it a matter of “life and death”.
