Arab voters in the spotlight

Palestinian leaders in Israel are urging members of the Arab minority to turn out in large numbers for the election on 27 October 2026. Their aim is to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and end what would be the most right-wing government in the country's history. Arab citizens, who are Palestinian by heritage and Israeli by citizenship, make up about 20 to 21 percent of the population, depending on the source. Mansour Abbas, an Islamist dentist turned politician who heads the United Arab List (Ra'am), spoke to Reuters from his office in Nazareth, the largest Arab city in Israel. Jussef Dschabarin leads the Joint List, which takes a less conciliatory line than Ra'am and held a campaign event in Tel Aviv. Al Jazeera reports that the two Arab-led parties are projected to win 13 seats together, a figure that still has to be confirmed at the polls.

Abbas framed the stakes in terms of changing government rather than joining the existing one. He told Reuters:

“We can ensure the formation of a new government of change.”

Who could hold the balance

Polls point to Gadi Eisenkot's bloc, led by a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, winning the most votes without reaching a majority. That would leave Eisenkot dependent on Arab parties, either as coalition partners or as backers from outside a minority government. Eisenkot has so far ruled out working with Arab parties, citing a lack of shared values and their refusal to label Hamas a terrorist organisation. In a podcast earlier in October he put his position plainly:

“I will not align myself with any Arab party.”

Netanyahu and most leaders of the opposition have also ruled out a coalition with the Arab-led parties. Abbas nevertheless expects room for manoeuvre after the vote, pointing to the hard arithmetic of the electoral result. If no bloc can form a workable government, the country could face a period of deadlock followed by fresh elections in 2027, with Netanyahu remaining in charge in the meantime.

AI in the campaign

Political scientists have already started calling this Israel's first AI election. Ze Be AI, a research project at the Open University of Israel led by media researcher Anat Ben-David, has tracked politicians' social media since late July. By mid-October the team had gathered more than 44,000 posts across Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok, and found that over 14 percent of the material used AI in some way. Ben-David warned that AI could be used shortly before the vote in ways that steer controversy and tilt the result.

The project counted more than 1,800 posts with AI-generated content from Netanyahu's Likud party by mid-October, about a quarter of the Likud social media material it analysed. One example posted on Netanyahu's account is a 19-second AI-generated clip showing Eisenkot embracing Abbas in a meadow, a scene that appears designed to play on anti-Arab sentiment. The clip has been viewed more than 1 million times and stirred outrage.