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Golan calls for bloc to unite with : 'We have a majority of ...

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Golan calls for bloc to unite with Arab parties: ‘We have a majority of 65 seats. We must stop being afraid’

Democrats leader Yair Golan calls for the parties in the bloc led by Yashar’s Gadi Eisenkot to partner with the Arab parties and form a government, noting it would have a majority of seats.

“Netanyahu lost. I know how to count to 120. 65 is more than 55. That’s how Israeli democracy works. Period,” Golan writes on X.

“The reality must teach us one resounding lesson: We have no future here if we don’t stop being afraid. And if we don’t stop with the racism. We must no longer accept Netanyahu’s racist division between Jewish votes and Arab votes,” he says.

“And now let’s talk about Zionism. In Netanyahu’s bloc sit 16 Knesset members from non-Zionist Haredi parties, who promote mass draft evasion while our children are fighting and dying,” writes the former IDF deputy chief.

“If Netanyahu insists on counting only a Zionist majority, let him first subtract from his own bloc the 16 Knesset members from the non-Zionist Haredi parties. They won’t preach to us about Zionism,” he says.

“The change bloc has a Zionist majority: 49 against 39. The change bloc has an Israeli majority: 65 against 55,” Golan says.

“We have a majority. We have responsibility. And we have an opportunity to form a government of change in partnership with Israel’s Arab citizens. A government that will serve all Israeli citizens. Now we need courage. It takes leadership. It takes stopping the fear and starting to act,” he says.

Amid the ongoing count, Netanyahu’s bloc has 56 seats, Eisenkot’s has 48, and .

The Times of Israel Community.

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What we found (1)

The Times of Israel reports Yair Golan's call for the bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot to form a government with the Arab parties, quoting him at length and closing with the current seat count. In its own voice, in the headline and the closing tally, the outlet names these parties only as "Arab parties" and never uses the word Palestinian. That cuts Palestinian citizens of Israel off from their national identity in a story about whether their representatives can share power.

  1. Erases a people's national identity

    Serious

    “Arab parties”

    Why this matters
    The headline, in the outlet's own words, names the parties Golan wants as partners only as "Arab parties".
    The impression it gives
    A reader takes these parties and their voters to be an ethnic minority within Israel, with no national identity beyond that.
    The context
    Most Arab citizens of Israel describe themselves in terms that include Palestinian. In Smooha's 2019 survey 61.9% chose such a description. The article never uses the word Palestinian anywhere, so the headline's label is the only identity a reader is given.

    How we know

    • Our analysis“61.9% chose a description of themselves that included Palestinian”Palestinian citizens of Israel voted in record numbers
    • On the recordIn Sammy Smooha's April-June 2019 survey of 718 adult Arab citizens of Israel, including Druze and Bedouin, 61.9% chose a self-description containing Palestinian. This is historical survey evidence, not a 2026 percentage or proof of any individual's identity. Arab and Palestinian identities can coexist.newscord.org (opens in a new tab)
    • Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “Palestinian”.

    Show it in the article

    “the Arab parties are at 16 seats”

    Why this matters
    The outlet's closing tally, in its own voice, again reduces the 16 seats to "the Arab parties".
    The impression it gives
    The reader leaves the article with these 16 seats filed as an Arab sector bloc set apart from the two Israeli camps, not as the elected representatives of Palestinian citizens of Israel.
    The context
    The same survey evidence shows a majority of these citizens identify as Palestinian. Golan's own quoted words, "Arab votes" and "Israel's Arab citizens", are his and are not the problem. The outlet's own sentences add no other identity either.

    How we know

    • Our analysis“Smooha's 2019 survey of 718 adult Arab citizens of Israel”Palestinian citizens of Israel voted in record numbers
    • On the recordIn Sammy Smooha's April-June 2019 survey of 718 adult Arab citizens of Israel, including Druze and Bedouin, 61.9% chose a self-description containing Palestinian. This is historical survey evidence, not a 2026 percentage or proof of any individual's identity. Arab and Palestinian identities can coexist.newscord.org (opens in a new tab)

    Show it in the article

    Written straight

    Golan calls for bloc to unite with parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel. Amid the ongoing count, Netanyahu's bloc has 56 seats, Eisenkot's has 48, and the parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel have 16.

How other outlets reported it

Our analysisPalestinian citizens of Israel voted in record numbers

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