Arab political parties in Israel have signalled their willingness to support a Jewish-led opposition alliance to end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long rule, although major political differences could complicate any such partnership.
Ahmad Tibi, a senior lawmaker from the Arab Joint List, said his bloc was ready to break with past practice and support an anti-Netanyahu government without joining it.
“We want to do things that we did not do in the past in order to remove this criminal government,” Tibi told The Associated Press.
Such support could prove crucial after the latest election left Netanyahu’s coalition short of a parliamentary majority. The opposition, led by former general Gadi Eisenkot, won 48 seats in the 120-member Knesset, against 53 for Netanyahu’s coalition. The Joint List secured 11 seats, while the more moderate Arab party Ra’am won eight.
The Joint List could help the opposition form a government by voting in its favour or abstaining, without becoming part of the administration. However, cooperation would be politically sensitive for both sides.
For Arab lawmakers, supporting a government that may continue Israel’s wars and settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank would be difficult. Meanwhile, some Jewish-led opposition parties are reluctant to cooperate with the Joint List because of its criticism of Israel’s policies and rejection of the country’s identity as a Jewish state.
Tibi said rejecting Arab parties’ support would show that Israel was “an ethnocracy, not an absolute democracy for all citizens”.
Palestinian citizens and their descendants make up around 20 percent of Israel’s population. Although they have citizenship and voting rights, Arab-led parties have historically faced distrust among many Jewish Israelis.
The Joint List, a coalition of three left-wing and nationalist parties, calls for equal rights for all citizens and supports a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. It rejects what it describes as Israel’s “racist Zionist consensus”.
Only one Arab party, Ra’am, has previously joined an Israeli government, in 2021. It is more conciliatory than the Joint List and has also expressed willingness to support another anti-Netanyahu administration.
Eisenkot’s allies remain divided over cooperation with Arab parties. Some welcome their support, while others cite statements by Joint List leaders that they believe challenge Israel’s legitimacy.
Eisenkot has said Arab parties must meet certain conditions, including describing Hamas as a terrorist group that should be destroyed. Tibi, however, said such conditions did not apply to parties seeking only to support a government from outside.
Both the Joint List and Ra’am have condemned the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack and violence against civilians but have refused to label Hamas a terrorist group or call for its destruction, arguing that such a position would justify Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Tibi said he did not expect a partnership to end the wars or establish a Palestinian state but believed a change of government could improve the lives of Palestinian citizens, including by addressing violent crime in Arab communities.
He also said the strong participation of Arab voters in the election had changed the political narrative surrounding his role.
In 2019, Netanyahu campaigned under the slogan “Bibi or Tibi?” to warn voters against relying on Arab parties to form a government.
“When he said ‘Bibi or Tibi,’ he incited against Arabs,” Tibi said. “Now, it’s ‘Tibi,’ because Arab voters went in a very massive way to take part in the elections. It’s definitely our story this time.”