Israel's Arab voters break turnout record as exit polls show historic seat gain

Exit polls from Tuesday's vote indicate that Israel's Arab-led parties will secure 18 seats in the Knesset.

The Central Elections Committee reported that overall turnout reached 77.7 percent, the highest level since 1999. Channel 12 reported that participation among Palestinian citizens of Israel was approximately 80 percent, breaking the previous record from that same year. This group constitutes about 21 percent of the country's 10 million residents. Historically, these voters have participated at lower rates than their Jewish counterparts.

The Joint List and Ra'am, the two primary Arab-led parties, are projected to hold this record number of seats in the 120-member parliament. The race for the prime minister's office remains tight. Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party leads the opposition bloc, which is tied at 51 seats with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud-led bloc.

Mansour Abbas, leader of Ra'am, stated that his party hopes the final results will allow the anti-Netanyahu coalition to reach the 61 seats necessary to form a government. He told Channel 12, "With the numbers we have now, there is no government." Abbas noted that both major blocs approached his party before and after the election. Ra'am currently holds five seats and served in the governing coalition from 2021 to 2022.

Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador, cautioned that coalition building could prove difficult. Eisenkot's bloc pledged during the campaign not to join forces with Arab parties. Pinkas explained, "There's a price to pay," adding that Arab parties will make demands that Jewish-led coalitions might reject.

Netanyahu and his far-right allies made final appeals to their base on Tuesday, citing the high Arab turnout. They shared images of long lines in Arab communities on social media. Netanyahu warned, "If we don't wake up now, we'll find ourselves with a government of Mansour Abbas and Ahmad Tibi." Arab politicians criticized the strategy as inflammatory. Witnesses in Jerusalem described cars carrying Likud flags playing the Islamic call to prayer through loudspeakers to urge voting.

Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, described the election as an existential moment for Palestinian-Israelis. She noted that the turnout included voters who typically boycott elections due to doubts about the impact of their votes. The Knesset has passed more than 100 laws affecting the rights of Palestinian citizens, who also face challenges in receiving state funds.