Israel’s parliamentary elections have concluded without a clear mandate, leaving the nation’s political future in flux. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party remains the largest single entity, his governing coalition has failed to secure the necessary majority to remain in power. Simultaneously, the diverse opposition camp, which identifies as Zionist, has also fallen short of the threshold needed to form a government, highlighting a deepening fragmentation within the Israeli political landscape.
Amid this uncertainty, a significant shift has occurred within the electorate. Palestinian citizens of Israel, who comprise roughly 21 percent of the population, participated in the recent vote at an estimated 80 percent turnout rate. This historic surge in engagement has provided the two primary Palestinian electoral lists—the United Arab List (Ra’am) and the Joint List—with a combined total of 19 seats in the 120-member parliament. This bloc now theoretically holds the power to determine the formation of the next government. Marking a surge in participation by a community that accounts for about 21 percent of the population, an estimated 80 percent of eligible Palestinian voters in Israel turned out for Tuesday’s election.
Analysts and participants attribute this massive mobilization to widespread frustration over the ongoing war in Gaza and the perceived intensification of state-sanctioned racism. For many, the vote served as a defense of their remaining civil rights. Orly Noy, a representative of the Balad party, remarked that Palestinians saw their vote as a final tool to protect themselves against systemic issues, including rampant crime and the policies of far-right figures like National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. And what analysts have described as the overt racism of its governing coalition helped drive Palestinian citizens of Israel to the polls in large numbers, anger over Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. “What few rights Palestinians had have been slipping away since October 7. So they used that in massive numbers, but even that now seems to be being undermined and delegitimised,” she said, the last tool they had in their toolbox – the only thing they had that was equal to everyone else – was their vote. “There are very different ideas at play of what it means to be a citizen of Israel and of how Israel should be governed and for whose benefit,” he said. “These are fundamental differences, of course they are, but they ca. Because the voice of the Arabs do not count as the voice of the Jews, we cannot talk about a victory.”, but only in Israel.
Instead of acknowledging this democratic expression, major Israeli political figures have moved to discredit the results. Netanyahu’s Likud party has framed the Palestinian turnout as an “attempt to steal the election” and a bid for the “Islamisation of Israel.” The party has even called upon the internal security service, the Shin Bet, to investigate claims of foreign election interference, a move that critics argue further delegitimizes the Arab vote and complicates any potential opposition alliance. In doing so, they appear to have thrown the legitimacy of the Arab vote into question and tainted any future attempt by the opposition to ally with the Arab parties. “Why are the opposition and the press even thinking of this as a three-way split.
Resistance to including Palestinian voices is pervasive across the mainstream opposition.
While the left-wing Democrats have shown some openness to cooperation, prominent figures have firmly rejected such alliances. Former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid have publicly ruled out sitting with Palestinian parties, despite previously relying on their support during the 2021–22 legislative term. Similarly, Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of Yisrael Beytenu, declared he would align with “neither Bibi nor Tibi,” using the names of the Prime Minister and Ahmad Tibi of the Ta’al party to signify his refusal to work with either camp.
This exclusionary stance has drawn sharp criticism from political figures and observers who argue that the refusal to form a majority with Arab parties exposes the underlying racism of the Israeli political establishment. Orly Noy noted that in any functional democracy, these results would be viewed as a clear victory for the opposition and a definitive rejection of Netanyahu, yet the political elite continues to favor potential coalitions with the current government over inclusive governance. When they won’t align with Arabs to form a majority, as well as how profoundly undemocratic they are,” she said, that’s both a measure of how racist these parties are.
Political analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg suggests that this friction stems from fundamentally different visions for the country’s future. He argues that since the 2018 Nation State Law, which enshrined national self-determination exclusively for Jewish people, mainstream politics has operated on an assumption of Jewish supremacy. Consequently, the active participation of Palestinian citizens is perceived as a challenge to this state policy.
With the final tally showing 53 seats for the pro-Netanyahu bloc and 48 for the Jewish-led opposition, the 19 seats held by Palestinian parties represent the only path to a non-Netanyahu majority. Despite this, the political class remains deeply reluctant to integrate these voices. Mauricio Lapchik, the Hebrew campaign director for the Joint List, summarized the situation by stating that the current leadership insists on forming a government consisting solely of Jewish voices, disregarding the democratic mandate exercised by a substantial portion of the citizenry.
