With 90 percent of votes counted, Israel’s largely Arab Joint List alliance had its best-ever electoral performance. But it may yet fall short of its chief goal of blocking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election.
The Joint List’s solid performance came after it campaigned heavily for the votes of Jewish leftists disenchanted by the demise of Israel’s historic left-wing parties, notably Labor.
The success of that strategy remains unclear, pending a breakdown of voter patterns.
But Joint List chairman, Ayman Odeh, made no secret of his wish to become the face of the Israeli left — for both Arabs and Jews.
“I want to congratulate our public, both the Arab and the many Jewish voters who supported the Joint List,” Odeh told reporters Tuesday morning.
“This is the beginning of strengthening the true left,” he said.
“I call on leftists to not despair or do any soul-searching, but to think about a partnership… real democracy, real equality between Jews and Arabs in the country and social justice for the weak.”
To get out its core Arab vote, the Joint List also focused on US President Donald Trump’s controversial peace plan, detested and feared by Arabs, who make up around 20 percent of Israel’s population.
They are particularly alarmed by a clause that would place some Israeli Arab towns and villages under the sovereignty of a future Palestinian state.
If implemented, that could see some Arab Israelis have their citizenship changed against their will.
Monday’s election was the third in less than a year, after inconclusive votes in April and September.
The Joint List’s member parties include conservative Islamists and Arab nationalists.
They are united by demanding the end of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and the establishment of a Palestinian state, a position regarded as left-wing in Jewish Israeli society.
Its manifesto also includes “workers’ rights and social and environmental justice”.
