Israel elections: Arab coalition leader says country has 'historic' chance to change course

Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen says Israel has a chance to change direction after an election in which Arab turnout more than doubled and Netanyahu lost his majority.

Yousef Jabareen, the leader of Israel's main Arab coalition, says he is ready to join the opposition "Change" bloc to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after last week's election. He told The Guardian that Israel has a chance to change direction.

Netanyahu's coalition lost its majority and fell from 68 to 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. The Change bloc, led by retired general Gadi Eisenkot, won 48 seats. Arab parties won a record 19 seats, which gives them the balance of power.

Turnout among Arab Israelis, who are Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and make up 20% of the population, more than doubled to about 80%. Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, is due to meet party leaders as early as Wednesday to hear who they want to see get the first chance to form a government. Jabareen, 54, a former law professor who leads the Hadash party, spoke at his family home in Umm al-Fahm, in northern Israel.

Who voted, and why does it matter?

About 840,000 Palestinian Israelis voted. Jabareen said their first demand was to remove the Netanyahu government, in particular two far-right ministers: Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza had no vote.

He said the past four years were hard for Arab communities. He pointed to house demolitions, criminal gangs that the police do not tackle, a lack of money for Arab towns, schools and young people, and attacks on Arabs. "This is really a historic moment," he said.

What will the Joint List do?

Eisenkot has said he will not form a unity government with Netanyahu. He has set conditions for any deal with Arab parties: they must accept that Israel is a Jewish state, accept compulsory national service, which can be civil or military, and call Hamas a terrorist group.

Ra'am, a more conservative Islamist party with eight seats, and its leader Mansour Abbas have said they are ready to join an Eisenkot coalition. The Joint List, with 11 seats, will not. Jabareen said the conditions apply to parties that join a coalition, and that his party will stay out while the occupation of the West Bank continues. It could, he said, back a new government from outside by voting with it on key issues.

How could the opposition act before a government forms?

The Change bloc must agree on a candidate for prime minister and accept Arab parties as partners, either inside the coalition or from outside. Right-wing opposition leader Avigdor Lieberman is seen as the most against it. Joint List officials said it is unclear if working with Palestinians is a firm limit for him, or if he is holding out for a senior cabinet job.

Jabareen said the 67 members of the new Knesset who oppose Netanyahu could use their majority to take control of parliament before a government is formed. That could begin with replacing the speaker and taking over the committee that sets the legislative agenda. He said one early task should be to repeal laws passed by the outgoing majority that weakened the independence of the courts.

Why is Jabareen worried about Netanyahu?

Jabareen said any government that relies on Arab votes must also deal with unequal treatment in Israeli society. He also called for an end to the war and a restart of talks with Palestinian leaders.

He said he is worried about what Netanyahu might do to stay in power. The prime minister has claimed, without evidence, that Arab parties used Qatari funds illegally in the campaign. Jabareen rejected the claim and called it an attempt to undermine Arab citizens' political weight. He also fears Netanyahu could join Donald Trump in restarting a war with Iran as a reason to delay a change of government.