Palestinian leaders in Israel are urging Arab citizens to vote in large numbers in the October 27 election, hoping to help unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and end what they describe as the most right-wing government in the country’s history. Higher turnout among the Arab minority could prove decisive in determining whether an opposition bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot can secure enough parliamentary support to form a government.
Arab citizens, who account for 21% of Israel’s population, are Palestinian by heritage and Israeli by citizenship. Opinion polls suggest that Eisenkot’s alliance of centrist, right-wing and left-wing parties could win the most seats but fall short of a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, making support from Arab parties potentially crucial.
“We can ensure the formation of a new government of change,” Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List, told Reuters at his office in Nazareth, Israel’s most populous Arab city. Abbas said his party wanted to replace the current government, end the wars and existing policies, halt settlement expansion and address the failure to stop settler attacks. He also called for a government capable of delivering “shared security and peace for Palestinians and Israelis”.
Polls indicate that Eisenkot’s bloc would win 52 seats if elections were held today, compared with 50 for Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist alliance. Abbas’ party is projected to secure five seats, while the Joint List, a coalition of three Arab parties, is expected to win eight. The combined 13 seats projected for the Arab parties could give them substantial influence if neither major bloc reaches the 61 seats required for a parliamentary majority.
Eisenkot, however, has so far ruled out forming a government with Arab parties, citing a lack of shared values. In a podcast this month, he said, “I will not align myself with any Arab party,” pointing, among other issues, to their refusal to designate Hamas a terrorist organisation.
Abbas believes the arithmetic of the election could eventually force a reconsideration of that position. He has sought to make his party more acceptable to Jewish political groups, giving the second position on its electoral list to Yoav Segalovitz, a Jewish former police official. “It sends a message of partnership with the Jewish community and with Jewish citizens,” Abbas said.
Abbas previously joined an Israeli governing coalition in 2021, becoming the first Arab Muslim to serve as a minister in such an arrangement. The government, led by Naftali Bennett, collapsed after 18 months, partly because of disagreements over the occupied West Bank. Bennett is now a right-wing member of Eisenkot’s political bloc.
The election is Israel’s first since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, and is widely viewed as a test of Netanyahu’s leadership. His campaign has circulated doctored images and AI-generated videos depicting opposition figures embracing Arab leaders, including a fabricated video showing Eisenkot running towards Abbas in a meadow.
Arab campaign organisers are seeking to capitalise on anger towards Netanyahu, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Smotrich recently proposed a plan to “Judaize” areas around Nazareth and in southern Israel where many Arab citizens live, comparing the initiative with settlement expansion in the West Bank. Frustration over rising crime in Arab communities has also become a campaign issue.
In Nazareth, Abbas’ supporters have been distributing leaflets urging residents to vote. Gassan Bsoul, a 74-year-old approached by canvassers near the Church of the Annunciation, said there was “a greater need this time than ever before to go out and vote in large numbers”, adding that “the danger is greater than in the past”.
The Stat-Net Research Institute, based in an Arab Druze town near Haifa, forecasts Arab voter turnout of 63%, up from 56% in 2022. Joint List leader Ahmad Tibi said his coalition was prepared to support an Eisenkot-led government from outside parliament’s governing coalition, including backing an official commission of inquiry into the October 7 attack.
“We are placing as our top priority getting rid of the extreme right-wing government of Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir,” Tibi said.
