Politics
Arab Voters Drive Highest Turnout Since 1999, Securing Record Seats for Ra’am and Joint List
On October 27, the day Israel went to the polls for the first election since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, the country recorded its highest voter turnout since 1999, at 77.7%. Arab citizens, who make up about 20% of the population, turned out in massive numbers, with Channel 12 exit polls estimating their turnout at nearly 80%—the highest in at least a decade. For the far‑right coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the election was framed as a “war for our home”; for Arab parties, the mobilisation meant meaningful representation in the Knesset. The result was that Arab parties emerged as the third bloc, with the Joint List and the United Arab List (Ra’am) securing a combined 19 seats in the 120‑member Parliament, their highest‑ever tally. The surge is attributed to active community mobilisation by the Arab parties and to heightened fears among Arab citizens caused by Netanyahu’s government policies, including the war on Gaza and escalating violence in the occupied West Bank. Polls by the Israeli Democracy Institute indicated that a party’s stance on crime in Arab society was a key factor in voters’ choices, with fear cited as a primary motivation. During the campaign, Netanyahu’s bloc ran billboards stating “it was either the right or Palestine” and urged supporters to vote, highlighting the Arab voter surge as a matter of “life and death.” Arab party leaders have called Netanyahu’s rhetoric racist, yet they too have faced discrimination. Prior to the polls, attempts were made to disqualify Ra’am and the Joint List. The high turnout helped them gain seats that could make them kingmakers in a hung Parliament, but neither side has shown willingness to form a government with Arab parties. Netanyahu has accused the Arab parties of “stealing” the elections and vowed to keep them out of power, while opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot has been reluctant to ally with them. Ra’am, led by Mansour Abbas, became the first Arab party in nearly 44 years to join a government in 2021 when it backed the Bennett‑Yair Lapid coalition, but that coalition collapsed within a year. Ra’am returned to opposition after Netanyahu’s coalition won the 2022 elections. Arab parties have historically supported governments from outside, notably under Labour Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Forming a coalition with Jewish parties is challenging because of divergent views on Palestine; most Jewish parties, including Likud and Yashar, oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state and support the occupation of the West Bank. The Joint List commits to ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders and lifting the siege on Gaza, while Ra’am also supports an end to the occupation and a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, though it prioritises immediate resources for Arab towns. The Joint List argues that true equality for Arab citizens inside Israel cannot be achieved without ending the military occupation of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.