--- title: "Arab Organizers in Israel Push for Highest Turnout Since 1999 Before Vote" description: "Polls leave both blocs short of 61 seats without Ra’am and the Joint List, but opposition leaders say they won’t rely on the Arab parties." author: "rews desk" published: 2026-10-22T07:02:10Z modified: 2026-10-22T12:34:56Z url: https://rews.cc/a/arab-organizers-in-israel-push-for-highest-turnout-since-199-edeea8 language: en tags: ["politics", "elections", "israel", "gaza", "arab-israelis", "mideast"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Arab Organizers in Israel Push for Highest Turnout Since 1999 Before Vote *Polls leave both blocs short of 61 seats without Ra’am and the Joint List, but opposition leaders say they won’t rely on the Arab parties.* By rews desk · October 22, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/arab-organizers-in-israel-push-for-highest-turnout-since-199-edeea8 ## In brief - Arab campaign organizers in Israel are aiming for 70 to 75% turnout in the Oct. 27 election, a level last reached in 1999 - Surveys cited by an operative put planned turnout at about 62%, up from about 53% in 2022 - Polls leave both main blocs short of 61 seats without Ra’am and the Joint List - Opposition leaders Naftali Bennett and Gadi Eisenkot have ruled out relying on the Arab parties - The Supreme Court overturned bans on both Arab lists on Oct. 2, and Balad’s Sami Abu Shehadeh withdrew Organizers for Israel’s Arab-led parties are trying to get Palestinian citizens to vote in numbers not seen since 1999 in Tuesday’s general election. They’re counting on fear of another government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to beat years of disillusionment. A Palestinian campaign operative [told Al Jazeera](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/22/in-israel-election-palestinian-citizens-weigh-fear-against-disillusionment) that surveys show about 62 percent of Palestinian citizens, who make up about a fifth of Israel’s population, plan to vote. The campaign’s goal is 70 to 75 percent. Over the past five elections, turnout in the community ranged from roughly 45 to 65 percent, and it was about 53 percent in 2022. The last time it was that high was 1999, when 75 percent of Palestinian voters turned out and helped Ehud Barak beat Mr. Netanyahu. “We want to take it there,” the operative said. In his view, a big turnout could keep smaller right-wing parties such as Amcha Yisrael and The Reservists under the 3.25 percent threshold for entering the Knesset, and that would shift the balance between the blocs. ![A seesaw carrying rows of empty seats tilts toward a ballot box receiving falling papers, against a red background with a large teal circle.](https://rews.cc/img/3a58d2591ff5826f4db9a6c32e4b5e6cd6c87446.webp) The arithmetic is tight. Polls have consistently left both Mr. Netanyahu’s bloc and the opposition alliance short of the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. The gap gets filled by Ra’am and the Joint List, an alliance of the Hadash, Balad and Ta’al parties. Ra’am is projected to win around five seats and the Joint List eight or nine, [The Times of Israel reported](https://www.timesofisrael.com/turnout-among-israels-arab-voters-could-make-or-break-hopes-to-unseat-netanyahu/). One Channel 13 poll gave the two parties [a record 15 seats](https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/434854). If no one can form a majority, Israel goes to another election, and the current government stays in office until then. Opposition leaders don’t want those seats. “The Arab parties are not Zionist, and therefore we will not rely on them,” said Naftali Bennett, the opposition leader. Gadi Eisenkot, the former army chief and a possible opposition candidate for prime minister, has also ruled out a partnership, even as Mr. Netanyahu campaigns on the slogan “There is no Gadi without Tibi,” a reference to Ahmad Tibi, the leader of Ta’al. Mr. Tibi has said his faction is ready to form “a preventive block to support \[a government\] from the outside.” Last week, Yousef Jabareen, the Joint List’s leader, said he was willing to do that on agreed terms, among them a path to Palestinian statehood and a fight against organized crime and violence in Arab communities. ![An outstretched hand holds a miniature weathered double door with an ornate stone frame against a textured yellow background with orange and cream circles.](https://rews.cc/img/dbbcc9ec042b4768cb7172322541ef7f2e9ee6e9.webp) The parties almost didn’t make the ballot. On Sept. 23, Israel’s Central Elections Committee voted to disqualify both lists, and on Oct. 2 the Supreme Court [unanimously overturned those bans](https://www.timesofisrael.com/supreme-court-unanimously-overturns-election-panels-ban-on-arab-parties/). Sami Abu Shehadeh of Balad withdrew after the justices signaled that a majority would [uphold his disqualification](https://rews.cc/a/israel-s-election-referee-bars-the-arab-leader-and-waves-the-7b4d9c). “We feel that we are under attack,” said Thabet Abu Rass, an expert on Arab-Jewish relations. “This is why we will cast our vote in a higher percentage.” Laila Atamneh, 19, of Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem, will vote for the first time. Her mother has always abstained because, Ms. Atamneh said, she thinks voting “feeds into the idea that Israel is a democracy and Palestinians have the same rights here.” Ms. Atamneh said she felt she owed her vote to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, [who get no say](https://rews.cc/a/west-bank-palestinians-ruled-by-israel-have-no-say-in-its-oc-b06671). “I feel like I have to be these people’s voice,” she said. She thought about voting tactically for Ra’am or the Democrats, a liberal Zionist party, but settled on the Joint List. “As Palestinians, we have to support Palestinians.” Hanan, 36, a Palestinian Christian who lives in a Druze village in the Galilee, said the threat felt closer than it used to. Last month, settlers tried to build an outpost near Majd al-Krum, a Palestinian community in the Galilee. Then Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich released an AI-generated campaign video in which a West Bank Palestinian calls a relative in the Galilee to warn that “the Jews are coming” to “do to you what they did to us.” ![Cupped hands hold a glowing orb above a hillside stone village, with golden circles and torn black paper textures filling the sky.](https://rews.cc/img/98f010b39d3a9af89e504032765fbe596daa9ff9.webp) “This makes me want to vote more,” Hanan said. Every election, she tells herself she’ll sit it out, and every time she goes. “I know that voting is like admitting that there is an Israeli country, but it’s here. We can’t be all dreamy.” As’ad Ghanem, a political scientist at the University of Haifa, said a mass boycott was by now “a small point of view.” He has little time for Ra’am, which in 2021 became the first Arab party to join an Israeli government. He said its leader, Mansour Abbas, “gives everything almost in order to get a little bit of budget.” Mr. Ghanem pointed instead to 1993, when Arab parties backed Yitzhak Rabin’s government without joining his cabinet. Bedouin voters, many of them in the Naqab, are expected to stick with Ra’am. Mr. Abu Rass said they were focused on “daily survival” and hoped a seat in government would mean “recognising their unrecognised villages, investing in education, and employment.” “The only day that we have the right to be equal with the Jews ... is the day of elections,” the campaign operative said.