Israel’s recent parliamentary elections have produced a fractured legislature with no immediate governing majority, highlighted by a sharp surge in electoral participation among Palestinian citizens of Israel. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party leads the largest single faction, its coalition remains short of the threshold needed to govern. At the same time, the diverse alliance of Zionist opposition parties has failed to secure an outright majority on its own.
Driving the high engagement—which saw an estimated 80 percent of eligible Palestinian voters cast ballots—was widespread anger over the war in Gaza and concerns regarding the policies of the governing coalition. Palestinian citizens account for approximately 21 percent of Israel’s population. The surge propelled the two main electoral lists representing the community, the United Arab List (Ra’am) and the Joint List, to a combined 19 seats in the 120-member parliament, positioning them as a potential kingmaker bloc.
Despite holding the numbers that could determine the next government, Palestinian parties have faced immediate pushback from political leaders. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party framed the outcome as an attempt to secure the Islamisation of Israel and called on the Shin Bet internal security service to investigate whether foreign actors interfered to boost turnout. That call has cast a shadow over the legitimacy of the vote and complicated any prospective cooperation with the opposition.
Mainstream Jewish-led opposition figures have shown deep reluctance to embrace Palestinian parties to unseat Netanyahu. While the left-wing Democrats have signaled a willingness to cooperate, other prominent opposition figures have resisted alliances or declined to challenge allegations of foreign meddling. Former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid ruled out sitting alongside Palestinian parties in government on election night, despite having relied on their backing during their 2021–22 administration. Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party, also rejected a coalition, stating he would sit alongside neither Netanyahu nor Ahmad Tibi, leader of the Ta’al party within the Joint List.
Orly Noy, a candidate for the Balad party, noted that voters turned out because they felt their remaining civic tools were slipping away amid soaring crime and far-right leadership in the police force. With final results giving the pro-Netanyahu bloc 53 seats and the anti-Netanyahu Jewish opposition 48 seats, the numerical majority against the incumbent government relies entirely on the 19 seats held by Palestinian factions. Noy criticized the political establishment for failing to recognize this as a victory for the opposition, pointing instead to discussions within the opposition about joining Netanyahu in a national unity government.
Political analysts suggest the resistance runs deeper than traditional partisan divides, touching on foundational questions about citizenship and governance. Nimrod Flaschenberg noted that mainstream Israeli politics often rests on assumptions of Jewish supremacy, a dynamic reinforced by the 2018 Nation State Law enshrining self-determination exclusively for Jewish citizens. Mauricio Lapchik, Hebrew campaign director for the Joint List, argued that the marginalization of the Arab vote reflects a systemic refusal to grant Palestinian citizens equal political weight.
