Palestinian citizens of Israel have redrawn the political landscape

Most of the votes are counted in Israel’s parliamentary election and there is no clear winner. It is obvious that neither Benjamin Netanyahu nor Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the main opposition bloc, can obtain the clear majority required to form a government without the support of Arab parties.

For now, what is most clear is that there is no government in Israel. But another significant aspect of this election was the massive turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel. Despite the shift in wider Israeli society to the right, and an increase in racism, Palestinian citizens of Israel are making their mark at the ballot box.

In Rahat, an Arab Bedouin city in the Negev Desert, in the Southern District of Israel, turnout reached 75 percent, a source told me. This was unheard of. It was a statement from the Palestinian citizens of Israel that they have had enough.

It is important to note that Arab Bedouins are considered to be well integrated within the Israeli society. Still, even those considered to be privileged face racism and discrimination.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security, has been using the demolition of homes as part of election campaign pandering to an increasingly fascist audience. This month, 80 homes were demolished in the Palestinian village of Al-Dhahiya in the Negev Bedouin area. About 400 people were displaced.

Palestinian citizens of Israel feel that if they do not act they will suffer the same fate as the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank

Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib

Ben-Gvir claimed buildings were constructed without permits, as a bogus excuse to push forward with the demolition of hundreds of homes belonging to Palestinian citizens of Israel.

It is now a matter of a do or die; Palestinian citizens of Israel feel that if they do not act they will suffer the same fate as the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank. All the talk about Israel being a democratic state that grants rights to all its citizens — if, of course, they show loyalty to the system — is proving to be more and more of a fallacy.

Palestinian Israeli political activism is no longer triggered by a sense of solidarity with their kinsfolk in the West Bank and Gaza; it is driven by self-interest in their own survival.

However, the Arab parties present a problem for Israel, as it stands today. Haaretz reported in June 2025 that a survey found 56 percent of Jewish citizens of Israel who were polled supported the expulsion or transfer of Palestinian citizens of Israel. We are not talking here about their desire to kick out Gazans from their homes; we are talking about kicking out people who are Israeli passport holders.

In other words, the survey suggests that a majority of Israeli Jews do not want Palestinian citizens of Israel in their country.

Netanyahu desperately needs to remain in power because without it he might end up in jail as a result of the corruption trial he faces

Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib

Eisenkot is as hard-line as Netanyahu. We have to remember that he is the father of the Dahiya Doctrine, an Israeli military strategy of massive, disproportionate force and the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure as a means of establishing long-term deterrence, which was first used in 2006 in a densely populated Beirut suburb that served as a Hezbollah stronghold, and more recently in Gaza.

In a message posted on social media platform X, the American analyst and diplomat Aaaron David Miller described Eisenkot as a “hammer in a satin glove”.

Eisenkot, like Netanyahu, needs to cater to a more racist electorate. Hence, the majority in Israel faces a dilemma: it does not want the Palestinian citizens of Israel but it needs them to form a government.

Whichever camp the Arab parties end up siding with, it is likely to cause a significant shake-up and lead to losses from that bloc. If they moved toward the Netanyahu bloc, the coalition would have to ditch Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, the minister of finance. If they aligned with Eisenkot, he would probably lose Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett, who have explicitly ruled out participating in a government that partners with Arab parties.

Eisenkot and everyone else in his camp ran on an anti-Netanyahu agenda. One of his main campaign promises was accountability for the failings that contributed to the Oct. 7 attacks. He has accused Netanyahu of being corrupt and negligent. Might he now come to terms with Netanyahu and help form a government that can sideline Palestinian citizens of Israel? Maybe, but it would be difficult. He would lose all credibility, especially as he ran on a platform of being an honest person and a patriot.

The divisions inside Israel are becoming deeper and deeper. Achieving a parliamentary majority is an increasingly difficult task. For now, as long as the Arab parties remain on the outside, there is no government.

Again, the question is therefore whether the two political camps can reach a compromise. Netanyahu desperately needs to remain in power because without it he might end up in jail as a result of the corruption trial he faces. This is a risk he cannot take.

Israel is stuck. It is stuck in its own racism. This is a major turn-off for many supporters of the State of Israel. This election, and the possible refusal or inability of either of the main political camps to reach a deal with Arab parties to form a majority government, reveals just how racist Israel has become.

At the same time, there has been an increase in Palestinian political activism inside Israel, as shown by the high turnout at the ballot box on Tuesday. The Jewish majority will no longer be able to easily pacify the Palestinian minority.

The question now is what those people who claim that Israel is a democracy, the only democracy in the Middle East, will say after they see the euphoria of racism? Ron Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, who is an ardent Zionist, has sold his property in Israel and expressed his disappointment with the political trajectory of the country. He said in an interview with Haaretz this month: “I have no intention of going back to Israel. Zero.”

We still do not yet know whether a government will be formed or not. However, the reality at the moment is that there can be no government without the participation of Arab parties, but neither of the main political blocs wants to, or can, partner with Arab parties and so Israel is stuck.

• Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.