Taybeh, Israel —
For decades, many of Israel’s Palestinian citizens have stayed away from the polls, refusing to delegitimize a system that they say has oppressed them, set aside their concerns and failed to represent them.
But this time felt different. After four years under the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, hundreds of thousands of Arab voters decided they could no longer stand by.
A record number of voters, nearly 80%, voted on Tuesday, compared with 53% in the previous election, according to the Mosawa Center, a civil society group that promotes equality for Palestinians in Israel. This turnout gave Israel’s Arab parties unprecedented political influence, giving them 19 seats in the 120-member parliament.
This surge was caused by several interlocking reasons. First, the rise in violent crime in Arab communities is seen as a result of police inaction. Second, there is a desperate desire to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and end his right-wing coalition, which includes hardline ministers such as Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Especially on Tuesday night, when chants of “Go home, Ben Gvir” erupted at the campaign headquarters of the Joint List, the main Arab political alliance, it became clear just how well the party had fought, leaving no one in doubt about the strength of sentiment against Israel’s national security minister.
Netanyahu’s coalition has overseen Israel’s devastating three-year war in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of people, and years of settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
“Our community wanted to overthrow this criminal regime in order to change the serious realities caused by the policies of Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Smotrich and Mr. Ben Gvir,” said Dr. Ahmad Tibi, leader of the Joint List.
Tibi has spent nearly 30 years encouraging the Arab community to exercise their right to vote. He said the current high turnout is already having the effect of preventing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from forming a new right-wing government.
Israel’s Palestinian citizens (20% of the population) are descendants of Palestinians who were not expelled or forced from their homes when Israel was founded in 1948. They were granted citizenship but lived under military rule until 1966. However, many feel that discrimination within Israeli society continues to this day.
They include Palestinians born before 1948, like Mohammed Abdelhay’s 80-year-old aunt.
On Tuesday, she became a voter for the first time in the central Israeli town of Tirah at the urging of her nephew.
“I said I had to vote for her,” Abdelhaj said. “The previous government was very aggressive against us, so this time we need every vote,” he said.
The most important issue to him, he said, is the racism that pervades Israel and the lack of equality between Arabs and Jews.
“If you can change, you can. Why not? Why stay in the same place?”
The strength of the Arab vote also means that neither Netanyahu’s coalition nor the opposition coalition is likely to win an outright majority.
Mr. Tibi’s Joint List now appears to be in the balance of power, along with Mr. Ra’am, another Arab majority party.
Tibi said the Joint List was ready to help the rebels, led by former military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, form a minority government. The Joint List will not participate in the government and will not seek ministerial appointments in return, committing only to fighting crimes affecting Arab societies and stopping the destruction of Bedouin homes during the Netanyahu uprising.
“If they want us to help, we will be there to help…We want to support opposition candidates,” Tibi said.
But to do so, he said Eisenkot and his coalition would need to be “brave” in the face of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s condemnation of his attempts to form a government with the support of Israel’s Arab parties.
The idea of forming a government with the support of Arab parties is politically toxic in Israel, where a majority of Jewish voters oppose it. Several opposition parties had also previously ruled out such a deal.
It remains unclear to what extent Eisenkot intends to rely on support from Arab parties. The only opposition party that supports it is the left-wing Democratic Party, led by Yair Golan.
“We have an opportunity to work with the Arab people of Israel to form a transformative government,” Golan said Wednesday. “Right now we need courage. We need leadership. We need to stop being afraid and start taking action.”
For Tibi, it’s more than just the fear holding back some political leaders.
“This is pure racism against 20% of the population, the Arab people. We are legitimate members of parliament. We are a legitimate part of the people.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently sought to delegitimize Arab voters and has repeatedly used the possibility of MPs from the Arab community coming to power as a way to encourage his constituents to vote.
In September, the CEC approved a motion to bar Arab parties from running in elections, but this decision was overturned by the High Court.
On Wednesday, as it became clear how well Arab parties were doing in the polls, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud issued a statement accusing them of “stealing the election.”
This was followed on Thursday by the head of Israel’s Central Elections Commission (CEC), who sent a letter to the head of Israel’s security agency, Shin Bet, requesting an investigation into allegations of foreign interference in elections aimed at increasing turnout among Arab voters.
CEC Chairman Noam Solberg acknowledged in the letter that he could not testify to any allegations, but Israeli police said they had not received anything to substantiate the allegations.
Arab party leaders called Likud’s attack an incitement and vowed to protect the election results. Ra’am party leader Mansour Abbas said he would cooperate with any investigation, while Joint List chairman Youssef Jabareen said Netanyahu had “defeated” and “refuses to accept the decision of the voters.”
Many of the policies plaguing Israel’s Palestinian population were enacted under Ben Gvir, the minister of national security who was previously convicted of supporting terrorism and inciting anti-Arab racism.
On Tuesday, some residents of the Arab-majority town told CNN they left the polling place without voting because of intimidation from men who support far-right Israeli parties like Ben Gvir.
“People are facing high pressure. There were old women who couldn’t handle the pressure, there were pregnant women who couldn’t handle the situation and left…This is all because of racism,” said Ulfat, a Taybe resident who requested anonymity by using only her first name.
From Tibi’s perspective, the high turnout of Arab voters compared to the Jewish majority shows that Palestinians are “willing to influence and participate” in Israeli politics.
“We are blocked by the right and sometimes by the opposition. This is not democracy. It is ethnic democracy. It is democracy for the Jewish people,” he said.
That sense of exclusion resonated with voters across the Arab community, many of whom said it was a driving force behind voting this time.
Thira resident Munsur Mansour, 60, has voted in the past, but this time he feels he has a real chance to make his vote count.
“We’ve never been interested in elections before, but the level of racism and changes in daily life have forced people to go out and exercise their rights,” he said.
“We are part of this country, we are part of this country, so we have to exercise this right.”
