Palestinian citizens of Israel are torn over whether to vote in the country’s coming general election. Many believe the political system leaves them little room to secure their rights. Yet they fear that if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right Jewish government returns to power, repression of Palestinians will grow. So despite their distrust of the system, many want to vote, in the hope that their ballots can help remove Netanyahu’s government.
Israel holds its general election on 27 October. Palestinian citizens make up about a fifth of the population, and their votes could matter this time. Opinion polls show that neither Netanyahu’s far-right bloc nor the parties that call themselves the Zionist opposition bloc will win the majority needed to form a government on its own. That could make the support of the Arab-led Ra’am and Joint List parties decisive.
A government needs 61 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. If neither side reaches that majority, a new election must be held, and Netanyahu’s current government, known as the most far-right in Israel’s history, stays in power until a new one is formed.
Laila votes for the first time
Laila Atamneh, 19, from Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem, will vote for the first time. At every Israeli election her parents argued about voting. Her father favoured voting for an Arab-led list; her mother always stayed away.
Laila said her mother believes that voting helps present Israel as a democracy. It creates the impression that Palestinians enjoy the same rights as Israel’s Jewish citizens, when in reality they face deep humiliation and then have to deal with a government in which extremists hold great sway.
Even so, Laila has decided to vote this time. She feels a duty to speak for the millions of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, who have no say in choosing Israel’s next government, even though, she believes, they are the main victims of Israeli occupation, ethnic cleansing and genocide.
“I feel I have to be the voice of these people,” Laila said. “One person may not be able to do much. But if my vote gives them even 1 percent of hope, I will vote.”
As an Arabic speaker, though, Laila finds it hard to follow election news broadcast in Hebrew. She says Palestinians take very little part in the election debate, and the parties do not give enough weight to the worries and hopes of young Palestinians voting for the first time.
Laila’s dilemma reflects the mood of a large share of Israel’s Palestinian citizens. They feel the political system does not protect their interests, yet they fear things will get worse if Netanyahu forms another government.
Netanyahu has led Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza since 2023. Analysts say his government’s policies have put Palestinians’ rights, livelihoods and land under constant threat.
An election in the shadow of occupation
Asad Ghanem, a political scientist at the University of Haifa, said this election is taking place as repressive policies against Palestinians grow harsher. Genocide in Gaza, ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and tough state policies towards Palestinians inside Israel have together caused deep anxiety among them, he said.
For Hanan, a 36-year-old Palestinian Christian woman who lives in a Druze village in the Galilee, the threat now feels more real. Last month, Israeli settlers living in illegal settlements in the West Bank tried to set up an illegal outpost near Majd al-Krum, a Palestinian town in the Galilee.
Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, then released an AI-generated campaign video. In it, a Palestinian from the West Bank is seen phoning a relative in the Galilee in a panicked voice. “The Jews are coming,” he says, and “what they did to us, they will do to you too.”
Hanan said such incidents frighten her more. She fears settlers could become more aggressive and try to take more Palestinian land. But fear is not stopping her from voting; she wants to encourage others to vote as well.
“Before every election I tell myself I won’t vote this time, because I don’t feel Arab representatives can really do much. The lack of women’s representation and the absence of new political voices also disappoint me. But in the end I go and vote. I feel that maybe this time something will change,” Hanan said.
Anger over the attempt to ban parties
On 23 September, Israel’s Central Elections Committee decided to disqualify the Arab-led Ra’am and the Joint List, an alliance of the Hadash, Balad and Ta’al parties, from the election. The Supreme Court later overturned the decision.
Balad leader Sami Abu Shehadeh nonetheless withdrew his candidacy, because the court had signalled that a majority of its justices might favour disqualifying him.
Many Palestinians saw the episode as proof of their doubts about the legitimacy of Israel’s political system. Others believe the attempt to keep Arab parties out of the election could push voters to organise even more.
“We feel we are under attack. That is why we will vote in greater numbers,” said Thabet Abu Rass, an expert on Arab-Jewish relations.
Turnout among Israel’s Palestinian citizens was between about 45 and 65 percent in the last five elections. At the most recent one, in 2022, it was about 53 percent.
A person involved in the Palestinian election campaign, citing several polls, said about 62 percent of Palestinian citizens may vote next week. The campaign aims to raise that to 70 to 75 percent. The last time about 75 percent of Palestinians voted was in the 1999 election, when their strong turnout helped Ehud Barak defeat Netanyahu and become prime minister.
The campaigner said they want to bring turnout back to that level this time. A higher Palestinian turnout, the campaigner said, could keep the small far-right parties Amcha Israel and The Reservists from crossing the electoral threshold. A party must win at least 3.25 percent of the total vote to take seats in Israel’s parliament, and if small parties fall short, the overall political arithmetic could change.
In Ghanem’s view, the idea of a broad Palestinian boycott is now a relatively small strand of opinion. “We are in real danger,” he said. “We can also play a part in ending this government’s term.”
Hanan, too, believes that despite objections to Israel’s political system, it is necessary to accept reality and vote. Voting may feel like recognising the existence of the State of Israel, she said, but the state does exist, so one cannot live only in dreams.
“The only day we have the right to be equal with Jews is election day,” said the person involved in the campaign.
Key to forming a government, yet shunned as partners
A big question in this election is what kind of relationship the Jewish parties opposed to Netanyahu will build with the Arab-led parties. Polls consistently show that neither Zionist camp will win the 61 seats needed to govern on its own, so the support of Ra’am and the Joint List could become crucial.
On paper, this puts the Arab parties in a decisive position. In practice, key leaders of the opposition camp are reluctant to form an alliance with them. Opposition leader Naftali Bennett has said the Arab parties are not Zionist, so a government will not be formed that depends on them.
Former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, the opposition camp’s likely candidate for prime minister, has also shown no interest in an alliance with the Arab parties, and has rejected Netanyahu’s attempts to link him with them. Netanyahu’s campaign has used a slogan aimed at Ta’al leader Ahmad Tibi: “No Gadi without Tibi”.
That leaves Palestinian voters with a hard choice: hold on to their own political ideals and values, or vote tactically for parties that could help form a government opposed to Netanyahu.
Laila Atamneh first considered voting for Ra’am, which has support among the Bedouin community of the Negev. The religiously conservative party is seen as more likely to join an anti-Netanyahu coalition. She also considered the Democrats, a liberal Zionist party.
In the end, though, she decided to vote for the Joint List for reasons of principle.
“I can compromise on some things,” she said. “But in the end there are some morals and values I cannot give up so easily. As Palestinians, we have to support Palestinians.”
In 2021, Ra’am made history by joining an Israeli government, becoming the first Arab party to be part of a broad coalition. That coalition kept Netanyahu out of power for a short time.
Ra’am argues that taking part in government can secure real benefits and protection for Palestinian citizens. But that position has not reassured everyone.
Ghanem, the political scientist, accuses Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas of making many concessions even for small budget allocations, without solving the basic problems of Palestinians’ identity and rights.
Still, a large share of Bedouin citizens are expected to back Ra’am, hoping the party can again join a governing coalition and win benefits as it did while in government from 2021 to 2022.
Thabet Abu Rass said the Bedouins’ political message centres on civil rights and their main concern is daily survival. Through a role in government they want recognition for their unrecognised villages, investment in education and more jobs.
Saving people before ending the occupation
In Ghanem’s view, the political power of Palestinians inside Israel is weak because they have not built a cohesive political force within their own society.
He believes, however, that the Joint List could play an important part in the arithmetic of forming a government. In 1993, Palestinian parties backed Yitzhak Rabin’s government from outside the cabinet, and he thinks it is possible this time too to work with the opposition camp to remove Netanyahu.
Wanting to remove Netanyahu does not mean having to join a governing coalition, Ghanem said. What matters is being part of the wider political camp that wants to remove a racist government.
Last week, Joint List leader Youssef Jabareen also said he was willing to back the opposition camp on certain conditions, including opening a path to a Palestinian state and tackling organised crime and violence in Palestinian communities in Israel.
Thabet Abu Rass hopes that although the opposition camp led by Eisenkot rejects an alliance with Arab parties during the campaign, it will in the end reach some kind of understanding with them.
“If the Arabs can elect 15, 16 or 17 members of the Knesset, everyone will knock on their door,” he said. “They may not want to admit it in public. But I am sure their tune will change after the election.”
Abu Rass has himself lost 38 members of his family in Gaza to Israeli attacks. He believes a government opposed to Netanyahu will not by itself bring peace, but it may at least slow some of the brutality against Palestinians that has grown under the current government.
“Before ending the occupation, I want to save my people,” Abu Rass said.
Fearing another far-right government under Netanyahu, Laila believes she has finally persuaded her mother to vote too.
“There is bad, and there is very bad,” she said. “We will choose bad over very bad. If we can prevent even one death, one demolition order or something like that, it is better than doing nothing.”
But after a pause, she voiced her doubts again. She fears that by voting they may be giving Israel a chance to polish its image as a democracy. “Then it feels as if we have reached a dead end,” Laila said.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report