Arab parties gain record seats as Israel confronts pressure in coalition talks
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Arab parties won 19 Knesset seats and the change bloc secured a majority, forcing negotiations over a coalition as voters signal deep frustration and a volatile political realignment.
President Isaac Herzog has tasked Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the change bloc, with forming a government after the election gave the bloc 48 seats and Arab parties 19, together holding a majority of 67 out of 120 seats in the Knesset. Arab voter turnout rose to about 77 percent, up from 53 percent in 2022, with the Ra’am party and the Joint List achieving significant gains that could give outsized leverage to parties with complicated and potentially destabilizing positions.
Eisenkot has outlined four conditions for coalition partners: recognition of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, acceptance of the Declaration of Independence, support for national service for all citizens, and designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization. Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas, who previously served in the Bennett-Lapid coalition, has acknowledged Israel’s Jewish character and condemned the October 7 attacks, though he has not formally labeled Hamas a terrorist group, leaving serious questions about whether such a party can be trusted in a governing alliance.
Former senior police commander Yoav Segalovitz, who ran second on Ra’am’s list, said, ">I am going to an Arab party. They are not coming to me," highlighting cross-community cooperation. Segalovitz, a former IDF officer and head of the national crime unit, has been mentioned as a potential candidate for the national security ministry, a development that many will view as part of the unsettling political churn surrounding this election.
Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, chair of the Central Elections Committee, affirmed the election results and warned against undermining confidence in the democratic process, noting no evidence of irregularities sufficient to invalidate the outcome.
A Tel Aviv University Moshe Dayan Center survey found that over 77 percent of Arab respondents supported an Arab party joining the next government, 76 percent favored voluntary civilian national service, and 64 percent favored Arab-Jewish political partnership. The Joint List has indicated willingness to support an Eisenkot government without formally joining it, while Ra’am remains a potential coalition partner pending resolution of its policy conditions, keeping alive the prospect of a fragile arrangement dependent on concessions.
The new Knesset is set to be sworn in this week, and the change bloc’s majority could influence the selection of the Speaker of the Knesset and the legislative agenda on issues such as military service, judicial reforms, and an inquiry into the October 7 events.