Arab parties Ra'am, Joint List soar to 17-18 seats amid high turnout, election exit polls show

The projections would give the two parties combined either 18 or 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset, compared with their five seats each in the outgoing parliament.

Israel's two main Arab parties, Ra’am and the Joint List, were projected to win seven and 11 seats, respectively, according to exit polls published by Channel 12, and seven and 10 seats, respectively, according to both Channels 11 and 13.

The projections would give the two parties combined either 18 or 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset, compared with their five seats each in the outgoing parliament.

The Joint List this year comprises Hadash, a left-wing Arab-Jewish communist party, Ta'al, a secular Arab nationalist party, and Balad, a left-wing Palestinian nationalist party.

 Ra’am and the Joint List are unlikely to join a governing coalition, as parties allied with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, most notably the parties headed by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, as well as Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Liberman in the opposition, have ruled out including Arab parties in a government. However, Ra’am or the Joint List could still play a role in determining whether either bloc can secure the 61 seats needed for a Knesset majority, including by supporting a government from outside the coalition.

The Israeli-Arab turnout at this election was significantly higher than in previous years, according to the Central Elections Committee. The unrecognized Bedouin village of Atuana, for example, registered the highest turnout in the country by early noon, at 64%, and two other villages placed second and fourth, at 47.9% and 47.8% respectively.

Israeli-Arab vote under scrutiny

The Israeli-Arab vote in Israel on Tuesday drew significant attention, with Likud's election integrity headquarters claiming that it had received 620 reports of unusual incidents and suspected irregularities at polling stations in the Arab sector, collected through a network of over 1,500 representatives across the country.

 About one-third of the reports concern the recording of voters' personal information and the transmission of information outside polling stations. Some 66 reports concern irregularities involving ballot papers and envelopes, 26 involve difficulties verifying voters' identities and exercising polling station committee members' authority, and 17  concern violence and threats.

The remaining reports involve staffing deficiencies, election campaigning, and documentation issues.

“We categorically reject attempts by elements within the police to link Ra’am to the compromising of electoral integrity,” the Ra’am party said in response to the incident. “The activists were arrested at their homes hours before the polls opened, not in the vicinity of polling stations or voters.

“These are baseless arrests intended to undermine Ra’am and suppress voter turnout within Arab society, as part of [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir’s political exploitation of Israel Police.”