Politics

Arab Parties’ Strong Showing May Influence Israel’s Next Government

AI SUMMARY

An unusually strong voter turnout for Arab parties in Israel's Tuesday election could give them a decisive role in forming the next government.

Israel held parliamentary elections on Tuesday featuring an unusually strong voter turnout by the country's Arab population.
Exit polls indicate that two leading Arab parties—the socially conservative United Arab List, or Raam, and the left-wing Joint List—won a historically large number of seats.
Mansour Abbas, the leader of Raam, stated that Arab voters channeled their frustration into hope and aimed to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
Arab citizens comprise approximately 20 percent of Israel’s population and mostly descend from Palestinians who remained during the 1948 Arab-Israel war.
Arab voters expressed anger over Mr. Netanyahu's treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and within Israel.
Raam previously joined a short-lived anti-Netanyahu coalition government led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in 2021.
Building a governing coalition with Arab participation remains politically fraught in Israel, as many right-wing Jewish voters oppose relying on Arab lawmakers.