Israel’s Arab Joint List and Democrats Agree to Coordinate to Unseat Netanyahu Government

Tel Aviv: Leaders of Israel’s Arab Joint List and the Democrats party agreed on Tuesday to coordinate their efforts to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government from power. It was the first meeting between the two parties since the October 27 Knesset elections.
According to a Joint List statement, party chief Yousef Jabareen and parliamentary group leader Ahmad Tibi met Democrats leader Yair Golan to review the post-election political situation and discuss the prospects for coordination.
Preliminary results give Netanyahu’s bloc 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset and opposition parties 48. Arab parties won 19 seats in total, including 11 for the Joint List and 8 for the Ra’am party.
The statement said both sides stressed their shared interest in using a parliamentary majority to remove the Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich government and form a new one. Jabareen and Tibi also raised key issues facing Israel’s Arab citizens, who make up roughly 20 percent of the country’s population of over 10 million. The parties agreed to keep up dialogue and coordination, strengthen parliamentary cooperation and advance an agenda based on equality and peace.
President Isaac Herzog will consult parties represented in the Knesset on Wednesday and Thursday before deciding who will be tasked with forming the next government. Gadi Eisenkot, head of the Yashar party, which leads the opposition’s “challenger bloc,” is expected to get the most backing, provided Arab lawmakers support him. Golan is also among the bloc’s key leaders.
Netanyahu has served as prime minister five times and is Israel’s longest-serving premier. He has led the current government since late 2022, widely described as the most right-wing in Israel’s history, and is also facing corruption charges.