It was a rare political triumph for Palestinian citizens of Israel: hundreds of thousands of Arab Israelis took part in the parliamentary election, and two Arab-led parties won more seats than ever before.
In the past, many Palestinian citizens had boycotted elections. But in protest against the right-wing, religious government, many people went to the polling stations. “We are here, and we are not just on the sidelines,” said Mansur Abbas, head of the Raam party, in front of cheering supporters when the first projections were announced on Tuesday evening.
The electoral success makes the Arab parties an important political force. They could cost Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu his power. It is unclear, however, whether his challenger Gadi Eisenkot and other opponents will form a coalition with them.
So far, an Arab-led party has only been involved in an Israeli government once: Raam in 2021, but only for a short time. During the election campaign, Netanyahu accused his rivals of planning a coalition with the Arab parties, which Eisenkot rejected.
According to official figures, 840,000 people vote for the Arab-led Raam party.
Now Netanyahu and his allies are stepping up their anti-Arab rhetoric. They claim, without evidence, that foreign powers paid voters for their votes in favor of Arab parties. Forming a coalition with them would lead to an “Islamization of Israel,” Netanyahu wrote on X on Thursday.
According to official figures, almost 840,000 people voted for Raam and the so-called United List, an alliance of three Arab-influenced parties. That was 64 percent more than in the 2022 election. Together they won 19 of the 120 Knesset seats, exceeding their previous high of 15 seats.
There were large crowds at polling stations in Arab communities from the Negev Desert to northern Galilee. In the Bedouin village of Tarabin in the Negev, Netanyahu's right-wing conservative Likud party achieved a majority in the last two elections. This time, voter turnout there was almost twice as high, and Raam won 93 percent of the vote.
Initiatives for higher voter turnout
Participation was highest nationwide in the northern Israeli city of Sakhnin at 87 percent. Mayor Masen Ghnaim sees the high turnout as an emergency measure against the incitement of Netanyahu's ultra-right allies and the increasing crime in Arab communities. “I want to protect my voters from being killed, my children from being attacked at their universities, and Arab doctors from being attacked in hospitals,” explains the Raam supporter, referring to recent cases of anti-Arab violence.
The parties made intensive efforts to bring Palestinian citizens, who had long felt neglected by politics, to the polls. They held town hall meetings in places that had previously received little attention. In addition, women in Bedouin villages were encouraged to vote.
The high turnout does not reflect trust in Israeli democracy, but rather a desperate desire to remove Netanyahu from power, voters and candidates said. The right-wing extremist security minister Itamar Ben Gvir called on his supporters in view of the high Arab voter turnout on election day: "If you want this country to remain Jewish and Zionist, then go vote!"
Challenging governance
The rhetoric that Netanyahu and the right-wing extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also used may have further mobilized Arab voters. “We see how the government is going further and further downhill,” said 52-year-old Auni Zoabi after casting his vote in Nazareth. "We want to live, we want a future for our children, and we want a future for ourselves."
Arab Israelis make up around 20 percent of the total population. They have Israeli citizenship and therefore the right to vote, but they also feel a strong connection to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The strong election result does not guarantee Raam and the United List participation in government. They could easily give Eisenkot the majority necessary to form a government and are open to any solution that leads to Netanyahu's removal from power. However, Eisenkot set conditions, including the recognition of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and a commitment to the stated goal of dissolving Hamas as a terrorist organization. The extent to which Raam and the United List will agree to this remains to be seen.
