The leader of Israel's Balad party has accused the country's main political figures of racism for refusing to consider a coalition with Arab parties, even as a record result could leave those parties holding the balance of power in the next parliament.
Sami Abu Shehadeh told Al Jazeera that Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about a fifth of the population, are being treated as illegitimate partners despite their strong turnout. "This is racism," he said. "We are a legitimate elected leadership of the national minority. The vast majority of our people decided that we are their leadership."
Arab parties are on track to win a record 19 seats. With 85 percent of the vote counted, Israel's Central Elections Committee shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc ahead with at least 53 seats, while the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot has 48. Neither reaches the 61 needed to govern. Netanyahu says Israelis chose a strong right-wing government, while Eisenkot says voters wanted change.
Abu Shehadeh leads Balad, one of the three parties in the Joint List, but did not stand as a candidate. The elections committee voted to disqualify him after accepting petitions arguing that he supported armed struggle and denied Israel's Jewish and democratic character. He withdrew in October after a majority of the Supreme Court panel appeared ready to approve the disqualification. He rejects those grounds and said the court showed that Israel has "two different judicial systems, one for the Jews and one for the Arabs".
"We are very proud of the Arab Palestinian minority in Israel that went in this very high percentage of voting," he said. He added that the community's first promise to voters was to stop "this gang of criminals" from returning to power, naming Netanyahu and far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said Netanyahu "has scared off everybody from talking to the Palestinian Israeli parties", which leaves him best placed to "call the shots". She said Eisenkot and his allies have signaled that they want a Zionist government and do not want to form one with the Arab parties, limiting their options.
Danny Ayalon, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, said Arab turnout reached "really unprecedented numbers" and that the parties "are going to have some significant clout". Mathematically, he said, Eisenkot's bloc could combine with the two Arab parties to pass the threshold, though it would require "political wizardry". Yousef Jabareen, who leads the Joint List, has said his alliance's "hands are extended" to remove Netanyahu.
Abu Shehadeh also described what Palestinian citizens want from the next government. "We are against genocide and we are against apartheid. We want to promote a different political alternative, one which is based on the values of freedom, justice and equality for both people who are living between the river and the sea." Of Netanyahu, he said: "Our problem … is that he is a war criminal."
