Arab Participation in Israel’s 2026 Elections

As Israel heads toward national elections, scheduled for late October 2026, discussion of Arab representation, turnout, and Jewish-Arab political cooperation, is gaining momentum. Efforts to mobilize Arab voters are ramping up amid significant concerns that divisive politics and deeply polarized Jewish-Arab relations will stymie Arab influence and political cooperation on the national stage.

While Arab citizens are the largest minority in Israel and represent a potentially decisive voting bloc, Arab voter turnout has historically been far lower than Jewish voters. Low levels of trust in state institutions along with a limited sense of belonging or efficacy are often cited as longstanding deterrents to voting. However, growing frustration over state inaction on crime and violence, along with concerns about backtracking on socio-economic investment in Arab society, has fueled civic action and renewed demand for political influence and in particular, unification of Arab parties. In January, Arab civic engagement ramped up through demonstrations and strikes that pushed the four Arab parties to pledge to run together.

Among Jewish parties, politicians across the political spectrum have been taking strong stances against Jewish-Arab political partnership, in part calculating that mainstream Jewish resistance to such partnership outweighs the potential electoral gains. In parallel, legislative efforts are underway to make it easier to disqualify Arab political leaders. raised serious concerns about delegitimization of Arab political participation, and its potential to undermine the integrity and even safety of the democratic process.

Arab voter priorities meanwhile are clear:  73% emphasize the importance of their party focusing on crime and public safety, nearly half  (49%) cite the high cost of living as a central concern ahead of the elections, 82% favor one unified list of Arab parties, and more than 75% of Arab citizens now support their parties joining a future government.

Unity and Influence

In recent weeks, large scale demonstrations of Arab citizens in protest helped push Arab political parties to pledge publicly that they will once again run as a Joint List. An overwhelming majority of Arab voters favor re-establishing the Joint List that will pursue the Arab communities’ shared needs, rather than weaken its electoral power over internal differences or disputes.

Ahmad Tibi of Ta’al said the parties’ shared ground is “far greater and broader than what divides us.” Balad’s Sami Abu Shehadeh described the Joint List as a serious attempt to confront shared challenges. Ayman Odeh, Hadash, framed unity as both a political and civic imperative, noting that “it is possible to find a minimum agreement formula that will allow the four parties to run as a single bloc, ensure a high voter turnout, which is our central interest, secure a significant number of Knesset seats to block the Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben-Gvir government, and present strong, united leadership for the Arab public.”

While the agreement remains preliminary and details like candidate selection are still pending, it is seen as an important response to the “bottom to top” calls for unity, with the potential to influence turnout and Arab representation in the 2026 elections. Recent projections suggest this list can win 10-17 seats in 120-seat Knesset.

Jewish-Arab Political Partnership

Since 2021, when Mansour Abbas’ Ra’am party joined the Bennet-Lapid governing coalition, Arab voters have expressed much greater interest in this level of political influence and partnership. Likewise, Arab leaders are signaling openness to the possibility. Mansour Abbas announced that Ra’am will open its ranks to Jewish candidates. Both Ayman Odeh (Hadash) and Ahmad Tibi (Ta’al) have expressed readiness for serious concessions, including the possibility of supporting, or under certain conditions even joining, a governing coalition.

This openness is not mirrored by Jewish voters and leaders, however. Majority of Jewish voters (71%) remain reluctant or opposed to cooperating with Arab parties, with voters on the Left expressing more openness. Aside from a few senior Jewish opposition such as Yair Golan of the Democrats and Gadi Eisenkot of Yashar, most Jewish party leaders across the political spectrum have thus ruled out cooperation with Arab parties. Though there is little chance of securing a majority capable of winning the election without such cooperation, campaign ads and rhetoric are largely reinforcing perceptions of Arab citizens as a security threat.

Benny Gantz’ new Blue and White campaign ad casts such cooperation as crossing a red line. Tapping into Jewish Israelis fear and trauma, his ad blames Ra’am for limiting in Israel’s security cabinet capacities and ends with the lines: “Our children’s safety first. No relying on Arab parties. National consensus government without Ben Gvir and without Ra’am.”

Naftali Bennett has promised to establish a unity, Zionist government “based on an alliance of those who serve,” reassuring his base that he will not return to forming a coalition with an Arab party. Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman has similarly stated that his party would refuse to sit in a government that includes Arab parties, asserting that non‑Zionist elements have no place in a future cabinet. Television news broadcasts default to projecting polls showing potential coalition blocs, opposition blocs, and Arab blocs separately, representing the assumption that Arab parties are not perceived as partners in either capacity.

With Arab voters seeking greater influence and legitimacy on the national stage, hostile rhetoric raises concerns about the impact on public discourse, Jewish-Arab relations in general, and specifically on potential Arab voter turnout and desire to uphold Israeli democracy.

Prominent Arab journalist, Lucy Aharish, was slandered on right-wing media outlets and faced threats on social media after using part of her Friday night news broadcast on Channel 13 to encourage Arab citizens to go vote in order to elect officials committed to addressing rampant crime and who do not equate all Arabs with terrorism. “What this [monologue] brought out of people – their racism, a fear of Arabs, or a fear that an Arab will actualize their democratic right,” she said in a subsequent Channel 13 interview, “it just shows what direction the country is going.”

In an IPF column on the issue, Michael Koplow wrote that delegitimizing Arab parties and deterring the Arab vote “is not only potentially going to cost the opposition an opportunity to replace Netanyahu and the government, but it will also cost an opportunity to integrate Israeli Arabs into Israel in a more meaningful and durable way. Bennett, Gantz, and others are being guided by what they are hearing from their Jewish constituents when they should make sure to listen just as closely to what they are hearing from their Arab countrymen.”

In addition to campaigning, right-wing lawmakers are promoting policies that make it easier to disqualify or prevent Arab parties from running. These include proposals to expand grounds for disqualifying candidates or party lists and to weaken judicial oversight that has protected Arab candidates from such measures in the past.