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TEL AVIV, Israel: Israel’s two Arab parties are in a position to have a say in who the country’s next prime minister and government will be — but not if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has anything to do with it, after he alleged serious criminal activities took place during voting in the Arab areas of the nation.
The two parties were projected to win a combined 19 Knesset seats, according to preliminary results. With both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-led right-wing bloc and the opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot’s centrist bloc falling short of the 61 seats needed for a parliamentary majority.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote on X that Israel’s election had been “stolen by Arab parties that support terrorism and the elimination of the Jewish state,” alleging serious criminal offenses, including bribery, threats, violence, forgery and the use of prohibited software to mobilize voters.
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People cast their votes at a polling station during Israel’s legislative election in the Arab town of Taibe in northern Israel on Oct. 27, 2026. (Gil Cohen-Magen/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)
“The Likud party is transferring to the police, the Shin Bet, and the Central Elections Committee hundreds of testimonies and pieces of evidence regarding election theft in many Arab polling stations,” he wrote.
He cited allegations of thousands of envelopes containing cash and Ra’am ballot slips, threats and violence against polling station staff, multiple votes cast behind the voting curtain, voting under multiple identities, discrepancies between the number of ballot envelopes and the number of voters, the use of prohibited voter-mobilization software and other offenses.
“We demand from the police and the Shin Bet a thorough investigation into the election theft by the Arab parties and the full prosecution of the criminals. We demand from the Central Elections Committee an immediate response to investigate these criminal offenses that have severely damaged the integrity of the elections in Israel and the election results,” he added.
A boy sits on his bicycle next to a campaign banner of Netanyahu’s Likud party, ahead of the Israeli parliamentary election, in Bnei Brak, Israel, October 25, 2026. (Nir Elias/Reuters)
One Arab political alliance, the Joint List, brings together three parties: Hadash, a predominantly Arab-Jewish left-wing party rooted in Israel’s communist movement, and the Arab nationalist parties Ta’al and Balad. With over 90% of ballots counted, the alliance was projected to win 12 seats.
The other Arab party, the United Arab List (Ra’am), led by Mansour Abbas and affiliated with the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, was projected to win seven seats.
Arab citizens make up approximately 21% of Israel’s population. Turnout in this election reached a near record high between 75% to 80%.
“They are a political force to be reckoned with,” Dahlia Scheindlin, a former policy fellow at the Mitvim Institute and a senior analyst at Haaretz, told Digital.
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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacts after filling out his ballot before voting at a polling station in Jerusalem on Oct. 27, 2026, on the day of Israel’s legislative election. (Yonatan Sindel/Pool via Reuters)
Scheindlin said that Netanyahu framed his campaign around the claim that the opposition is prepared to form a government dependent on Arab parties’ support, which he argues would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state that would become a terror state and ultimately bring about Israel’s destruction.
“This is the most consistent message, and he never stopped saying it, including on election day,” she said.
Scheindlin said that the issue had become politically sensitive, prompting leading Zionist opposition parties to pledge not to cooperate with the Arab parties.
“They have sworn they would not build a coalition that depends on Arab votes, either from within the coalition or from outside it. If they receive any help, they will have to break that promise,” she added.
It is not inconceivable, though highly unlikely, that Netanyahu could reach out to one of the Arab parties to explore the possibility of cooperation, Scheindlin said.
People gather near a pre-election campaign banner featuring leaders of the Joint List, ahead of Israel’s national election, in Nazareth, Israel Oct. 10, 2026. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)
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Dr. Arik Rudnitzky, a researcher in the Israel Democracy Institute’s Arab Society in Israel Program, said that Arab parties had historically remained in the opposition and had not joined governing coalitions.
During the governments of Yitzhak Rabin and, later, Shimon Peres in the 1990s, Arab parties provided a parliamentary safety net from outside the coalition. This enabled the government to remain in office and complete its term even after it effectively became a minority government amid opposition to the Oslo Accords, as the Haredi Shas party left the government.
“Historically, Arab parties were always in the opposition for many reasons. It was quite uncommon to believe Arab parties could [support] the government. It’s a novelty of recent years, plus the fact that their political strength in terms of the number of seats was not as significant as it is today,” Rudnitzky said.
Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar (“Straight”) party, waves an Israeli flag onstage following the release of the first exit poll results in Israel’s general election in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (Ariel Schalit/AP Photo)
Demographic changes alone do not explain the Arab parties’ growing political strength, Rudnitzky said; shifting voting patterns have also played a role.
“In the past, Arab voters supported both Arab and Jewish parties. In the 1980s and 1990s, approximately half voted for Jewish parties,” he continued.
Rudnitzky said historical developments, the impact of the Oslo Accords and the entry of new Arab representatives into the Knesset contributed to a gradual shift away from Jewish parties, with more Arab voters turning to Arab parties.
“Today, we can say that between 85% and 90% of Arab voters support Arab parties. This is the main reason for their increased political strength,” he added.
Any support Arab parties might provide to a prospective coalition would come in exchange for political concessions, Rudnitzky said. Their demands would likely include a government decision and a plan to combat crime in Arab communities, as well as a new socioeconomic development plan for the Arab sector involving budget allocations.
Ultimately, he said, such arrangements would involve allocating public goods and resources in exchange for political support. “There is no free lunch in politics. Every collaboration, either within a coalition or from the outside, has its political price.”
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Mansour Abbas, leader of the Ra’am party, speaks at the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, July 13, 2026 (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
Scheindlin noted that while the Joint List would not be invited to join a governing coalition — and its members would not want to do so anyway — Mansour Abbas and his United Arab List have pursued a different, more controversial approach. The party has accepted Israel as a Jewish state and seeks to improve the lives of Arab citizens within that framework, she said.
“They are expecting equality as citizens. They accepted Israel’s identity and are willing to work within that framework to improve the lives of their citizens. They are the only ones who have a chance of being invited into a coalition, as they were in 2021,” she said.
In September, the Central Elections Committee (CEC) voted to disqualify the Joint List and the United Arab list from competing in the Oct. 27 elections. On Oct. 2, Israel’s Supreme Court overturned the CEC’s decisions against both parties.
Section 7A of the Basic Law: The Knesset bars candidates who deny Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, incite to racism, or support the armed struggle of an enemy state or terrorist organization against Israel from participating in Knesset elections.
Martin Sherman, founder and executive director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies, told Digital that Arab parties in Israel are essentially illegal and should be barred from participating in elections.
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A man walks by an election campaign billboard showing Sami Abu Shehadeh, head of the nationalist Balad party, in the northern Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm, Friday, Oct. 21, 2022. (Mahmoud Illean/AP Photo.)
“They have different social agendas, perhaps, but on the political level, they all oppose Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. One can only hope that politicians in Israel will realize that and that political ambitions and animosity toward Netanyahu will not prevail,” he said.
One former Israeli diplomat noted the irony and said it was a good teaching moment for those who don’t understand the country. “Arab Israelis voted in huge numbers and, according to the exit polls, won more Knesset seats than ever before. That is the answer to the ridiculously ignorant accusation that Israel is a supposed ‘apartheid’ state,” Shahar Azani, veteran israeli diplomat and former spokesperson of Israel’s consulate in New York, told Digital.
He added, “Arab citizens are shaping the government and taking part in the Jewish state’s democratic celebration, and we welcome it. But with great power comes great responsibility: they must now take the next step and reject the extremist positions some voiced as soon as the results came in, that would alienate them from Israel’s Jewish majority.”
