ToI poll: If Jewish MK joins Ra’am, most opposition voters support including it in coalition

If Jewish lawmaker Yoav Segalovitz joins the Arab party Ra’am, most opposition voters would support including Ra’am in a governing coalition, according to a new poll from The Times of Israel’s Zman Yisrael sister site.

Recent reports have indicated that Segalovitz, an MK for the centrist Yesh Atid party, is exploring joining Ra’am. Ra’am is a historically Islamist party but has taken steps to depart from its religious roots and emphasize a civic identity.

The poll finds that 56% of opposition voters would support including Ra’am with Segalovitz in the coalition, while 30% oppose doing so.

Among voters for the current right-wing governing coalition, the numbers are flipped: 55% oppose including Ra’am while 11% would support doing so.

Overall, voters are split, with 40% who oppose including Ra’am and 38% in support of it. The remainder had no opinion.

The poll found that if Ra’am joined a governing coalition, it would give the anti-Netanyahu bloc a 63-seat majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

The poll found that if elections were held today, the centrist anti-Netanyahu Yashar party led by Gadi Eisenkot would win 23 seats, followed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud at 21, with Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad (Together) on 15.

In total, the Jewish anti-Netanyahu parties would win 57 seats, short of a majority without Ra’am, while the pro-Netanyahu bloc would win 51. Ra’am would win six seats, as would the Arab party Hadash-Ta’al.

The poll included 500 respondents and was conducted on August 5-6, with a 4.4 percent margin of error.