Golan urges opposition to form partnership with Arab parties to replace Netanyahu
Noa Shpigel reports in Haaretz on 28 October 2026:
Democrats party leader Yair Golan on Wednesday urged opposition leaders to form a government in partnership with Arab parties to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on his allies to overcome their reluctance to cooperate with Arab citizens.
“We have no future here if we don’t stop being afraid. And if we don’t put an end to racism. We can no longer accept Netanyahu’s racist distinction between Jewish and Arab votes,” Golan wrote on X.
“The vote of an Israeli citizen casting a ballot in Tira is worth exactly the same as that of an Israeli citizen voting in Givat Shmuel. No less, not approximately – exactly,” he added.
“Anyone who tries to erase the votes of Arab citizens is surrendering to Netanyahu and giving up on Israel,” Golan wrote. “We have a majority. We have a responsibility. And we have an opportunity to form a change government in partnership with Israel’s Arab citizens. Now we need courage. We need leadership. We need to stop being afraid and start acting.”
Yosef Jabareen, who leads a joint party of smaller Arab factions, also said on Wednesday morning that his party is ready to help replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as the results of the election appeared to show no clear majority for either block without cooperating with his party or the United Arab List.
“Whoever wants to offer a substantive and real alternative to Netanyahu’s government of bloodshed will have to speak with us to pave the way for the change the public in Israel yearns for,” Jabareen said. “We are ready to pave the way for Netanyahu’s ouster,” he added. “It’s either continued racism and continued exclusion and continued supremacy – or a true Jewish-Arab partnership,” Jabareen added.
Golan was the only leader of a party in Gadi Eisenkot’s political bloc to respond to the election results on Wednesday morning. Other leaders in the bloc have largely rejected the prospect of forming a government in partnership with Arab parties.
With more than 66 percent of the votes counted, Netanyahu’s bloc held 54 Knesset seats, falling short of the 61 needed for a parliamentary majority. The opposition parties and the Arab-led parties together held 66 seats.
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