Israeli Arab politician calls for 'genuine and equal Jewish-Arab partnership' to defeat far-right

The co-leader of the Joint List party Hadash-Ta’al said on Wednesday that the Netanyahu-led bloc would have secured an outright majority in the election if it were not for Israel’s Palestinian citizens. “Without the Arab citizens, Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, and Smotrich would already be celebrating today,” Ayman Odeh said in a post on X. “Without a genuine and equal Jewish-Arab partnership, it’s impossible to build a better future here for all of us. And we all deserve such a future,” he added. Earlier, Netanyahu's called a coalition with Palestinian parties “forbidden", and his Likud party accused them of stealing the election, without providing evidence. Odeh's co-leader, Ahmad Tibi, rejected the claims, telling Al Jazeera that “the accusations made by the Likud are merely the rhetoric of the defeated”. “There are those in Israel who seek to delegitimise the votes cast for Arab parties,” he added, saying that his party, which is on course to win 12 seats in the Knesset, achieved a “sweeping victory” on Tuesday's elections. Ayman Odeh of Israel's Arab Front for Change (Hadash) speaks during a demonstration outside the Israeli Parliament on 14 July 2026 (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)