Arab-majority Knesset parties seek joint run in potential new elections

The two Arab-majority Knesset parties have launched negotiations for a potential joint run in future elections, Hebrew media reports.

The Ra’am party confirms the existence of the talks with Hadash-Ta’al to The Times of Israel.

Ra’am chief Mansour Abbas and Ta’al leader Ahmad Tibi met today on the plenum’s sidelines, after Abbas also met previously with Hadash Chairman Ayman Odeh, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

Abbas is said to be leading the push, highlighting that the separate run in the last election diminished the Arab parties’ representation since fellow Arab party Balad narrowly failed to make it into the Knesset and voter turn up in the Arab community went down significantly compared to elections in which Arab parties ran as a single, merged party.

The report says that while Abbas is seeking a “technical bloc” that would run together in elections but then function as separate factions in the Knesset, Tibi is demanding a resurrection of the Joint List, which was a fully merged party made up of all major Arab Israel political forces until it split up several years ago.

The report says no talks have been held yet with Balad, possibly because the other parties are seeking to first reach understandings between them.

Elections are currently scheduled for 2026, but signs have increased that the current government may be nearing its collapse.

Gianluca Pacchiani contributed to this report.