“Everyone is speaking with us, not just from the ‘change bloc.’”
Ra’am, the United Arab List, is a conservative Arab party with roots in the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel.
It split from the Joint List in 2021, arguing that Arab citizens gain more by working within Israeli politics than by staying in permanent opposition.
It focuses on practical issues for Arab citizens such as crime, budgets, housing and infrastructure rather than on Palestinian national demands.
In 2021 Abbas negotiated with Netanyahu before joining the Bennett–Lapid government, making Ra’am the first independent Arab party in a ruling coalition in decades.
This year it ran separately again and put Yoav Segalovitz, a Jewish former senior police official, at number two on its list.
He signalled openness to a government led by Gadi Eisenkot but said “there aren’t numbers for a government” yet, and that he would decide only once a viable, stable four-year coalition exists.
With partial counts showing Netanyahu’s bloc at about 55 seats and the Arab-led parties at about 16, neither camp can reach 61 without the Arab parties.