Israel's Arab parties win a record 19 seats: What does this tell us about its democracy?

Israel's October 27 election produced an extraordinary result: Arab-led parties won 19 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, almost doubling their representation from 2022.

Yet the election also exposed disagreements over Palestinian rights, national identity and whether Arab politicians should participate in government.

To understand those contradictions, it helps to distinguish four parties, rather than simply speak of an “Arab vote”.

How Israel's electoral system works

Israel uses nationwide proportional representation. Citizens vote for party lists, not individual local MPs. A list needs at least 3.25% of valid votes to enter the Knesset; forming a government normally requires the support of 61 members.

Arab citizens, who account for roughly one-fifth of Israel's population, can vote and stand for parliament.

Palestinians living in Gaza and most of the occupied West Bank do not vote in these elections.

Four parties, two electoral lists

Hadash, founded in 1977, grew from the communist movement and remains a Jewish–Arab socialist alliance.

It advocates workers' rights, redistribution, equality between Jewish and Arab citizens, an end to Israeli occupation and Palestinian statehood.

Its economic positions are substantially to the left of Likud's historically market-oriented nationalism.

Ta'al was established in 1996 by Ahmad Tibi.

A secular Arab political movement, it prioritises equal citizenship, public services, closing economic gaps and a negotiated Palestinian state.

Compared with Hadash, it is less identified with socialism and more focused on parliamentary advocacy for Arab citizens.

Balad, also established in 1996, takes a more explicitly Palestinian-nationalist position.

It proposes a “state of all its citizens”, rather than one defined principally by Jewish national identity. It supports collective minority rights, separation of religion and state, and Palestinian self-determination.

These positions contrast with Likud's commitment to Israel as the Jewish nation-state and its longstanding support for settlements.

The three parties formed the Joint List for 2026, led by Hadash politician Yousef Jabareen, alongside Ta'al's Ahmad Tibi.

The alliance first emerged in 2015, partly in response to an electoral threshold raised to 3.25%, and won 15 seats when all four Arab parties ran together in 2020.

Ra'am, the United Arab List, was founded in 1996 and draws on the southern branch of Israel's Islamic Movement.

Led by Mansour Abbas, it is socially conservative but more willing than the Joint List to negotiate with Jewish-led parties.

It emphasises tackling organised crime, housing shortages, education, municipal budgets and economic development in Arab communities. It also supports Palestinian statehood and an end to occupation.

Ra'am made history in 2021 by joining the Bennett–Lapid coalition: the first independent Arab party formally included in an Israeli governing coalition.

It demonstrated that disagreement on the Palestinian question need not prevent cooperation on domestic policy.

What happened in October?

The Joint List won 11 seats and approximately 500,000 votes, up from five seats for Hadash–Ta'al in 2022, when Balad failed to clear the electoral threshold.

Ra'am won eight seats and approximately 337,000 votes, up from five.

Together, they secured 19 seats and approximately 837,000 votes.

Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, won 27 seats, down from 32 in 2022.

The Netanyahu-aligned bloc secured 53 seats and the main opposing bloc 48.

The 19 Arab-list members could therefore matter in coalition negotiations, although several Jewish-led parties have resisted relying on their support.

As of 1 November, no new government had been formed.

The ballot-access controversy

The result followed a significant legal confrontation.

In September, Israel's Central Elections Committee voted to exclude both Arab-led lists.

On 2 October, the Supreme Court overturned those decisions, allowing both to contest the election.

The attempted bans illustrate the political obstacles Arab parties face.

The Court's intervention illustrates another institutional feature: decisions by the politically composed electoral committee can be challenged and overturned.