Israel election: Palestinian parties hold 19 seats as Jewish blocs refuse to work with them

Palestinian citizens of Israel voted in large numbers in Tuesday's parliamentary elections, giving the two main Arab-led lists a combined 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset and a potentially decisive role in choosing the next government. But Israel's leading Jewish politicians have ruled out governing with them, and some have questioned the legitimacy of their vote.

An estimated 80 percent of eligible Palestinian voters turned out, a surge for a community that makes up about 21 percent of Israel's population. The United Arab List (Ra'am) and the Joint List now hold 19 seats between them.

A majority against Netanyahu

With all ballots counted, the pro-Netanyahu bloc has 53 seats and the anti-Netanyahu Jewish opposition bloc has 48. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud appears to be the largest single party, but its bloc has not secured enough seats to form a government. The 19 Arab-held seats mean a majority in parliament opposes Netanyahu.

Anger over the war in Gaza and what analysts have described as the overt racism of the governing coalition helped drive Palestinian citizens to the polls.

Rather than acknowledge the turnout, leading politicians have sought to delegitimise it, attributing it to foreign interference or casting it as an attempt to "steal the election". Likud framed the result as a bid to secure the "Islamisation of Israel" and called on the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, to investigate possible foreign election interference.

Opposition rules out alliance

Much of Israel's Jewish-led opposition has denounced Netanyahu's government as corrupt and damaging to Israel's international standing, yet remains reluctant to rely on Palestinian parties to remove him.

On election night, former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid ruled out sitting alongside Palestinian parties in government, despite having depended on their support during their brief 2021-22 government. On Thursday, Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the hard-right Yisrael Beytenu, also ruled out a coalition with Palestinian parties, saying he would sit with "neither Bibi nor Tibi" - Netanyahu and Ahmad Tibi, leader of Ta'al, part of the Joint List.

Orly Noy, who stood for the Palestinian-dominated Balad party, said the governing coalition "had shown there were no red lines in Gaza and Palestinians in Israel sensed they might be next".

"What few rights Palestinians had have been slipping away since October 7. The last tool they had in their toolbox, the only thing they had that was equal to everyone else, was their vote, so they used that in massive numbers, but even that now seems to be being undermined and delegitimised," she said.

'The voice of the Arabs do not count'

Political analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg said much of Israel's mainstream politics rests on an assumption of Jewish supremacy, and pointed to the 2018 Nation State Law, which enshrined the right to national self-determination as exclusive to Jewish people. "These are fundamental differences, of course they are, but they can't disguise the racism underpinning all," he said.

Mauricio Lapchik, Hebrew campaign director for the Joint List, said: "They want to form a government with only Jewish voices ... But only in Israel, because the voice of the Arabs do not count as the voice of the Jews, we cannot talk about a victory."

Source: Al Jazeera.