“Neither of the two peoples will go away”: in Israel, the political awakening of the Arab minority

On this October evening, summer lingers in Tel Aviv. So there are still many who came out to go to this large room of a cultural center in the city to listen to Yoav Segalovich.

Former senior official responsible in particular for investigations into corruption and organized crime, then Minister Delegate for Public Security, the man is known to Israelis. But this evening, he presents himself under a different banner. The former deputy from Yaïr Lapid's centrist Yesh Atid party joined Ra'am, the Arab and Islamist group led by Mansour Abbas, where he now occupies second place on the list.

A few weeks before high-risk legislative elections, after the massacres of October 7, 2023 and the war, he comes to defend this choice against the camp of Benyamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies. “I am Jewish, I am secular, and I am not Arab, as you can see. Ra’am is a traditional, conservative and religious party. This approach, he continues…