Israeli Politicsupdated 1h ago3 min read
Mansour Abbas Urges Arab Voters To Unseat Benjamin Netanyahu In Israel Election
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Mansour Abbas urges Arab voters to turn out to unseat Netanyahu High Arab turnout could shift coalition arithmetic toward anti-Netanyahu bloc
7 outlets told this the same way.
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Arab turnout and Netanyahu
Israel’s Palestinian leaders urged the Arab community to vote in big numbers in the October 27 election as they seek to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and topple the most right-wing government in the country’s history. Mansour Abbas, an Islamist dentist-turned-politician who heads the United Arab List, told Reuters in his office in Nazareth, Israel’s most populous Arab city, “We can ensure the formation of a new government of change.” Gadi Eisenkot ruled out forming a government with Arab parties, saying, “I will not align myself with any Arab party,” and cited among other issues their refusal to label Hamas a terrorist organisation.
Polls show Eisenkot’s patchwork bloc would win 52 of the Knesset’s 120 seats if elections were held today, while Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist bloc would win 50 seats, leaving Abbas’ party projected to win five seats and the Joint List projected to win eight. The election is framed as a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership, with the vote described as the first since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
Coalition arithmetic and vetoes
The Economic Times described Israel’s elections as a contest in which parties negotiate coalition agreements to secure a majority in the 120-member Knesset, with a minimum of 61 seats required to form a government. The Economic Times said a party must secure at least 3.25% of the vote to enter parliament, and it described coalition arithmetic as central because no party has ever won an outright majority in Israel’s 78-year history. The Jerusalem Post reported that Eisenkot said, “I do not see an Arab party that accepts my principles,” and it linked his position to their refusal to label Hamas a terrorist organization.
The National reported that pollster Dahlia Scheindlin said, “We’re looking at 60 per cent, possibly more than that,” as activists tried to increase Arab turnout in Nazareth. The National also described how a high Arab vote could become decisive in Israel’s complicated electoral mathematics, where one seat in the 120-seat Knesset can make or break a coalition.
Stakes for Arab citizens
AFP reported that 55-year-old Said Kabat, a pharmacist from the Arab village of Majd al-Krum in northern Israel, said he would vote for the first time on October 27 because he fears a right-wing government returning would endanger Israel’s Arab minority. AFP said Kabat warned that a low turnout among Arab voters would embolden far-right elements of the current ruling coalition, and it described Arab Israelis as accounting for about 21 percent of the country’s population. AFP reported that activists in Majd al-Krum told residents that “They don’t want Arabs in this state at all… whether here or in Gaza or the West Bank,” and it quoted criminologist Walid Haddad saying, “The state has completely withdrawn from the scene.”
AFP said turnout among Arab and Druze voters was around 53% in the last election in November 2022, while the country’s overall figure stood at around 70%, and it said the Arab vote is expected to be split among four parties running on two lists. AFP added that since the start of 2026, at least 175 Arab citizens have been killed in violent crime incidents, according to the Abraham Initiatives coexistence organization, and it linked the violence to criminal gangs while Arab Israelis accused police of lax enforcement under Itamar Ben Gvir’s ministerial responsibility.