Palestinian citizens of Israel face intimidation after election success
Mohammad Mansour writes in Al Jazeera on 4 November 2026:
Israel has officially certified its election results – delivering a blow to right-wing claims of a stolen vote – but the record 19 seats captured by Palestinian-led parties have triggered aggressive police raids, arbitrary arrests, and targeted interrogations by state security apparatuses.
The electoral gains made by the parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel – the Joint List and the United Arab List (Ra’am) – could give the Zionist opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the upper hand in forming the next government, if they choose to work with the Arab parties.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu and his allies have portrayed the increased vote share for the Palestinian-led parties as the result of illegality, and say they represent Jewish Israelis.
Political analyst Mamoun Abu Amer told Al Jazeera that the political backlash was preplanned. “From the beginning, it was clearly a systematic campaign when Arab citizens mobilised heavily, especially in the villages, the Naqab and the Bedouin areas,” Abu Amer said. He noted that the heavy turnout deeply shocked the Israeli political establishment, prompting Netanyahu to launch a smear campaign to discredit the democratic process.
Ahmad Tibi, leader of the Ta’al Party – which is part of the Joint List – shared a similar analysis. “There is no indication that the elections were manipulated in the Arab towns, as everyone expected the voting rate to be high this time in advance due to the bad reality created by this government for our public,” Tibi told Al Jazeera. “On the contrary, there was a press report on Israel’s Channel 12 television revealing that the Likud party, led by Netanyahu, had prepared and readied a file before the elections to invent this falsehood when the results were issued, because they know with absolute certainty that they will lose the elections.”
Systematic security crackdown
The intimidation campaign against Palestinian citizens of Israel materialised through aggressive police actions on election day. As reported by The Jerusalem Post, police arrested several Ra’am supporters for alleged vote-buying, which Likud immediately invoked to claim an attempt to steal the election. However, many of the suspects were quickly released, with a judge noting that suspicions had weakened and that investigators had failed to explain why restrictions were necessary. Defence lawyers maintained the seized funds were intended for charitable assistance.
“The best proof of this is that the detainees were released,” Tibi said. “We said from the beginning that the mountain laboured and brought forth a mouse.”
The security crackdown extended beyond party activists to media personnel. Abd Abu Shahadeh, a journalist and political activist, was arrested on Tuesday night by the Israeli police and the domestic security service, the Shin Bet. Sami Abu Shehadeh, the chairman of the Balad Party, another member of the Joint List, called it an attempt by Netanyahu to “steal the elections”.
Deep historical securitisation
Human rights and Israeli affairs expert Mustafa Ibrahim argued that Netanyahu’s approach is deeply rooted in discriminatory state policy.