{"id":11904,"date":"2026-10-28T00:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T00:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=11904"},"modified":"2026-10-28T00:55:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T00:55:15","slug":"arab-parties-could-win-18-seats-in-israeli-elections-exit-polls-suggest-israel-election-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=11904","title":{"rendered":"Arab parties could win 18 seats in Israeli elections, exit polls suggest | Israel Election 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Record-breaking voter turnout in Palestinian-Israeli communities around 80 percent, early indications show.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Israel\u2019s Arab parties are projected to win 18 seats in the Israeli parliament, exit polls indicate, after voting among Palestinian citizens of Israel surged to their highest levels in decades.<\/p>\n

Exit polling data from Tuesday\u2019s vote suggested that the leading Arab-led parties, the Joint List and Ra\u2019am, are set to hold a record number of seats in the 120-member Knesset. Updated exit polling indicated that the opposition bloc led by former Israeli military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot\u2019s Yashar party and the bloc led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s Likud party were tied at 51 seats each.<\/p>\n

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Early indications put voter turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel at around 80 percent, historic numbers that break 1999 records, Israel\u2019s Channel 12 reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The leader of Ra\u2019am, or the United Arab List, Mansour Abbas, said he hopes the final election results will allow the anti-Netanyahu bloc, including his party, to win the 61 seats required to form a government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the numbers we have now, there is no government,\u201d Abbas told Israel\u2019s Channel 12.<\/p>\n

Abbas, whose Ra\u2019am party currently holds five seats in the Knesset and joined the coalition that governed Israel from 2021 to 2022, added that both main blocs reached out to his party before and after the election.<\/p>\n

\u2018Arabs can\u2019t be kept outside\u2019<\/h2>\n

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador, said creating a government might prove difficult for parties such as Eisenkot\u2019s \u2013 which earlier exit polls had put narrowly ahead \u2013 because they promised not to form coalitions with Arab parties during the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a price to pay,\u201d Pinkas said, because the \u201cArabs can\u2019t be kept outside and only being considered and co-opted when you need their votes\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that the Arab-led lists will make demands that a Jewish-led coalition government may not support.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu and his far-right coalition made last-ditch efforts on Tuesday to get their supporters to the polls, warning of surging voter turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel<\/a>, a tactic Arab politicians denounced as racist and inflammatory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cars flying Netanyahu\u2019s Likud party flags drove through Jerusalem blaring the Islamic call to prayer and urging supporters to cast their ballots because \u201cArabs are voting\u201d, witnesses said.<\/p>\n

In social media posts, the embattled prime minister highlighted long queues at polling stations in Arab communities and published an image that he said showed Arab voters, including women wearing the niqab, a veil that covers the lower half of the face, waiting to vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t wake up now, we\u2019ll find ourselves with a government of Mansour Abbas and Ahmad Tibi,\u201d he said, referring to two leading Palestinian members of the Knesset.<\/p>\n

Overall voter turnout was also historic, reaching its highest level since 1999 with 77.7 percent casting ballots in Tuesday\u2019s election, the Central Elections Committee reported. Palestinian citizens of Israel make up about 21 percent of the country\u2019s population of 10 million and have traditionally voted at lower rates than Jewish Israelis.<\/p>\n

\u2018Existential moment\u2019<\/h2>\n

Al Jazeera\u2019s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, called the election \u201can existential moment for Palestinian-Israelis\u201d.<\/p>\n

She noted the record turnout among what has emerged as a key voting bloc, which drew \u201ceven [voters] who would usually boycott elections, who didn\u2019t believe it would amount to any kind of influence, that it would change their reality, that it would alter the systemic discrimination that they face\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Knesset has passed more than 100 laws discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel, who also face discrimination in receiving state funds, Odeh said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Record-breaking voter turnout in Palestinian-Israeli communities around 80 percent, early indications show. Israel\u2019s Arab parties are projected to win 18 seats in the Israeli parliament, exit polls indicate, after voting among Palestinian citizens of Israel surged to their highest levels in decades. Exit polling data from Tuesday\u2019s vote suggested that the leading Arab-led parties, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t