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<\/a><\/p>\nA protester holds a placard during a demonstration near the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem on October 31, 2026, calling for the formation of a Jewish-Arab coalition government. (Ahmad Gharabli\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
With all the votes now counted, Ra\u2019am has indeed grown from five to eight seats, while the other Arab party, the Joint List, has received 11. Their combined unprecedented 19 seats out of a total of 120 in Israel\u2019s parliament, the Knesset, now make the Arab parties a powerful force and one that could potentially break the political deadlock after neither the bloc led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot have enough seats to form a governing coalition.<\/p>\n
A record number of Arab-Israelis voted in last Tuesday\u2019s election, signaling for the first time in Israel\u2019s history that the country\u2019s Arab public, which makes up around 21% of the general population, is demanding to be counted in Israel\u2019s political process. <\/p>\n
The question, now, is whether Israel\u2019s Jewish political leaders \u2014 and the public they represent \u2014 are ready to accept them as legitimate partners in governing the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Arab parties managed to produce an historic turnout in the Arab community, a reflection of this population joining Israeli democracy and the democratic process, and their desire to see their issues being taken care of by the Israeli government and political system,\u201d Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut while they performed phenomenally and beyond any expectation, it\u2019s still too early to tell whether the massive expectations that led Israeli Arab voters to the streets will actually be met by a political system willing to respond to this desire,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The record voter turnout among Arab-Israeli citizens breaks with a decades-old tradition of shunning Israel\u2019s political institutions in protest over the conflict with the Palestinians \u2013 many themselves identify as Palestinian citizens of Israel \u2013 and a feeling that whoever is in power will not truly address their needs.<\/p>\n
After four years of a government dominated by far-right Israeli nationalists, however, Arab voters felt they had no choice but to step up, analysts told JTA. It was not only the inflammatory rhetoric and attacks on the Arab community by senior government ministers that drove up turnout to some 80% \u2013 compared to only 53.2% in the last election in 2022 \u2013 but also the outgoing government\u2019s policies. <\/p>\n
Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who prior to his political career was convicted for incitement to racism, has overseen mass demolitions of illegally built homes, especially in the Bedouin towns in Israel\u2019s Negev region, and failed to address soaring crime rates in Arab towns. <\/p>\n
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has threatened to force the Arab population in Israel out of the land, outlining in September a plan to Judaize Arab-majority areas in Israel\u2019s periphery. In one recent case, he even backed young Israeli Jews who set up an illegal outpost inside an Israeli-Arab town. <\/p>\n