Arab Party Leader Eyes 61-Seat Majority to Topple Netanyahu Bloc
(MENAFN) Mansour Abbas, head of the United Arab List (Ra’am), said early Wednesday that he was hopeful his party and the opposition bloc could jointly reach the 61 seats needed for a parliamentary majority and unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
“I hope we can change this government and that the numbers add up to 61 seats, the opposition bloc together with Ra’am,” Abbas told an Israeli channel.
Quoted again in the same interview, he cautioned: “With the numbers we have now, there is no government.”
Abbas described the strong showing among Arab voters as a shift from despair and frustration to hope. Pressed on the refusal of opposition leaders Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman to cooperate with his party, he said the issue would be dealt with once the election was over.
In Nazareth, Joint List supporters gathered at the alliance’s headquarters to celebrate, chanting slogans that mocked National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen said the projections showed the alliance had met its aim of assembling a strong list able to deliver change.
Turnout among Arab voters stood at 80%, Channel 12 reported. Its exit poll projected 18 combined seats for Arab parties in the 120-seat Knesset, with 52 for the bloc headed by Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot and 50 for Netanyahu’s bloc. Neither camp was projected to reach a parliamentary majority.
Nationwide turnout reached 77.7%, the highest since 1999 and 7.1 percentage points above the 2022 election, the Central Elections Committee said.
Counting began after polls closed at 10 pm local time (2000GMT) on Tuesday. Exit polls are projections, not official results.
“I hope we can change this government and that the numbers add up to 61 seats, the opposition bloc together with Ra’am,” Abbas told an Israeli channel.
Quoted again in the same interview, he cautioned: “With the numbers we have now, there is no government.”
Abbas described the strong showing among Arab voters as a shift from despair and frustration to hope. Pressed on the refusal of opposition leaders Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman to cooperate with his party, he said the issue would be dealt with once the election was over.
In Nazareth, Joint List supporters gathered at the alliance’s headquarters to celebrate, chanting slogans that mocked National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen said the projections showed the alliance had met its aim of assembling a strong list able to deliver change.
Turnout among Arab voters stood at 80%, Channel 12 reported. Its exit poll projected 18 combined seats for Arab parties in the 120-seat Knesset, with 52 for the bloc headed by Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot and 50 for Netanyahu’s bloc. Neither camp was projected to reach a parliamentary majority.
Nationwide turnout reached 77.7%, the highest since 1999 and 7.1 percentage points above the 2022 election, the Central Elections Committee said.
Counting began after polls closed at 10 pm local time (2000GMT) on Tuesday. Exit polls are projections, not official results.
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