Arab-led Joint List urges opposition to cooperate for a majority coalition
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Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen said Arab parties hold the balance of power after Israel's election and called on opposition groups to work with them to form a government.
Yousef Jabareen, head of the Joint List, said the Arab parties that won 19 seats in the recent Israeli election are essential for any opposition bloc to achieve a parliamentary majority. The pro-Netanyahu bloc secured 53 seats, while the opposition camp obtained 48, both short of the 61 seats needed to govern.
Jabareen told AFP that the Joint List and the allied Raam party, with 11 and eight seats respectively, can push the opposition over the threshold if they accept their support. He warned that the current parliamentary arithmetic makes it impossible to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu without coordination with the Joint List.
"Like everyone else in the political arena, Lieberman must deal with the political reality and the numbers in the Knesset," Jabareen said, referring to Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman, who has expressed reservations about a coalition that includes Arab parties.
President Isaac Herzog is set to meet party representatives this week to decide which leader will be given the first opportunity to form a government. Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot has not ruled out a coalition with Arab parties but has voiced concerns.
Jabareen met with Raam leader Mansour Abbas and planned a meeting with The Democrats' Yair Golan, the only opposition member publicly advocating a partnership with Arab-led parties. He said the Joint List is ready to support legislation that aligns with its political programme.
While the Joint List differs from most Jewish-majority opposition parties on issues such as a Palestinian state, Jabareen emphasized that his party focuses on the safety and rights of Arab-Israelis, including concerns about crime, house demolitions, discriminatory policies and budget allocations. He added that potential partners would need to oppose Netanyahu's policies, which he described as a "path of wars, destruction in Gaza and settler terrorism in the West Bank."
Jabareen also highlighted that his positions are grounded in human-rights standards and international law, and he rejected accusations of extremism as politically motivated.