Arab parties in Israel on track to win a record number of seats

Bangla Press Desk: Arab citizens of Israel participated enthusiastically in the country’s elections. Exit polls suggest that Arab parties are on track to secure a record 19 seats, reports Al Jazeera.

Exit polls, based on preliminary results from the elections held on Tuesday (October 27), indicate that the two main Arab-led political alliances—the Joint List and Ra’am—could collectively win 19 seats.

According to The Times of Israel, with 84.5 percent of the votes counted, the Joint List has secured 11 seats, while Ra’am has won 6. A report by Israel’s Channel 12 notes that voter turnout among Arab citizens reached approximately 80 percent—surpassing the historic record set in 1999.

Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List (Ra’am), expressed hope that his party’s seats would help the anti-Netanyahu bloc reach the 61-seat threshold required to form a government.

Speaking to Channel 12 before the initial vote count began, Abbas stated, "Based on the numbers we have so far, no single side is in a position to form a government on its own."

Abbas mentioned that both major rival blocs had reached out to his party—both before and after the election. It is worth noting that Ra’am currently holds five seats in the Knesset.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, former Israeli ambassador Alon Pinkas suggested that forming a government could prove difficult for the anti-Netanyahu bloc, as they had pledged during the campaign not to form an alliance with Arab parties.

"In politics, such stances come at a price," Pinkas remarked. "One can no longer exclude Arab parties while simultaneously expecting to rely on their votes when the need arises." He added that the demands likely to be put forward by Arab-led alliances might prove difficult for a Jewish-led coalition government to accept. Meanwhile, on election day, Netanyahu and the leaders of his far-right coalition made a desperate last-minute effort to drive Jewish voters to the polls. In doing so, they sought to stoke fear by highlighting the high turnout among Arab voters.

Eyewitnesses reported that in Jerusalem, vehicles flying Likud party flags used loudspeakers to broadcast the *adhan* (Islamic call to prayer) while urging supporters to cast their votes quickly, with the repeated refrain: "The Arabs are voting."

On social media, Netanyahu shared images showing long queues of voters in Arab-majority areas, including women wearing *niqabs*. Accompanying the images, he wrote: "If we don't wake up now, we will end up with a government led by Mansour Abbas and Ahmad Tibi."

According to the Central Elections Committee, the overall voter turnout reached a record 77.7 percent—the highest since 1999. Although Palestinian citizens make up 21 percent of Israel’s population of nearly 10 million, they have traditionally participated in elections at lower rates than Jewish citizens.

Bp/Sp