Joint List condemns campaign to discredit Arab vote as Netanyahu faces post-election deadlock

After the votes were counted, Netanyahu’s bloc stood at 53 seats, while the principal opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot had 48. The Joint List was projected to win 12 seats and the United Arab List (Ra’am) seven, giving the two lists a combined 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset. Neither of the two main blocs could reach the 61 seats required for a parliamentary majority without support from the two List's representatives.

Netanyahu accused Arab parties of benefiting from voter fraud, bribery and intimidation, and Likud called for investigations by the police and the Shin Bet. The allegations were rejected by Arab political leaders, who described them as an attempt to undermine the electoral gains of Arab citizens and discourage cooperation between the opposition and the Joint List. The Central Elections Committee stated that there was no basis for claims of systematic damage to the integrity of the vote. The Shin Bet also stressed that its investigation into possible interference concerned individuals and should not cast suspicion on an entire community that had voted legally.

The Joint List strongly condemned the organised campaign to delegitimise Arab political participation. In a statement published by Al-Ittihad on 29 October, the alliance said that Arab citizens had responded to the government's policies of war, home demolitions, displacement, discrimination and incitement by turning out in large numbers. It argued that this mobilisation had helped prevent Netanyahu's bloc from securing a parliamentary majority. The alliance also called on opposition leaders not to echo Netanyahu's rhetoric, insisting that those seeking to replace his government could not simultaneously question the legitimacy of the voters whose participation had made such a change possible.

The controversy has sharpened the question of whether the opposition will cooperate with the Joint List. Although the 19 seats held by the two lists could provide a parliamentary route to an alternative government, Eisenkot and several other opposition figures have previously ruled out including Arab parties in a governing coalition. The Joint List, led by Hadash chairman Yousef Jabareen, has reiterated its readiness for political cooperation to remove Netanyahu, but has made clear that its support cannot be taken for granted.

Jabareen has indicated that the list could support an alternative government from outside the coalition, while ruling out joining an Eisenkot-led government. He has argued that any political understanding must include concrete commitments to the rights and needs of Arab citizens, including action against organised crime, greater investment in Arab localities and the resumption of negotiations towards a Palestinian state. Hadash and the Communist Party of Israel have likewise stressed that replacing Netanyahu must be accompanied by a substantive change in government policy, rather than simply a change of leadership.

Hadash MK and Communist Party member Ofer Cassif had already challenged the opposition to act on the election results, describing the moment as “now or never” for removing the current government and beginning a process of political change. For Maki, Hadash and the Joint List, the immediate task is therefore twofold: to prevent Netanyahu from remaining in power and to ensure that the electoral mobilisation of Arab citizens leads to concrete advances in equality, peace and Jewish-Arab partnership.