Arab Coalition Wins Historic Number of Seats in Jerusalem

Bellefonte — A new round of elections in Israel has seen the rise of a new wave of Arab politicians.

The Joint List, a coalition of several Arab Parties, won fifteen seats, a two-seat gain and the most seats taken in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, in the party’s history.

The election also saw an influx of Arab women taking office, including Israel’s youngest lawmaker in Sundus Salih. This gives them a large amount of influence with any leader who requires their support to form a new government.

That leader may very well be Benny Gantz, the former Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Force. He is currently the leader of the Blue and White Party — a centrist party which took the second-most votes, just behind current Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party.

Though Benny Gantz is not the typical ally for the Joint List, which is composed of a variety of ideologies ranging from Arab Nationalism to Socialism to Islamism, the Joint List is eager to get Netanyahu out of office.

All fifteen members of the Joint List who hold seats in the Knesset have recommended that Gantz form a government, giving him just enough support outside of his coalition to make this goal a reality, reaching the prerequisite of 61 out of 120 votes.

The Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel. Source — *The Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel.* *Source*

Their support, however, is conditional. The Joint List has made clear that they will not support a unity government being formed with Netanyahu, stating that they will directly oppose such a move.

The members of the Joint List also oppose the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan put forward by the Trump Administration, who is a strong ally of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Joint List’s leader, Ayman Odeh, has spoken out against the calls for population transfers, the continuation of settlement building in the West Bank, and the overall treatment of Palestinians and Arab-Israelis as second-class citizens.

These issues cited by Odeh likely pushed many Arab voters to the voting booth. The Joint List also saw success with Jewish voters, likely those disillusioned with Netanyahu’s administration.

There is no guarantee, however, that Gantz will form a new government. Recent rumors, perpetuated in part by Netanyahu himself, seem to indicate that Gantz will form a unity government with the current Prime Minister.

Netanyahu will serve for another year and a half before Gantz follows suit for the same amount of time if it proves to be true. This plan would likely go forward even without the approval of the Arab coalition. It should be noted that Gantz was quick to reject the rumors as false.

As the current Coronavirus pandemic keeps the world at a standstill, elections that were already incredibly complex and have wide implications for the futures of Israel and Palestine have become all the more complicated. With Netanyahu taking drastic measures of phone monitoring that have been called draconian by some to combat the virus, it is unclear what Israel’s government will look like when all of the pandemonium subsides.