Arab Party Leaders Accuse Netanyahu of Inciting Hatred Before Israel's Vote

Leaders of Arab-led parties in Israel accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday of inciting hatred against Palestinian citizens of Israel to boost his electoral prospects. The accusations came on election day, as Reuters reported that Netanyahu had warned of an Arab voter surge and that Arab leaders had called that tactic racist.

Palestinian citizens of Israel are an Arab minority, and the parties that represent them have long drawn much of their support from that community. Earlier in the month, Reuters had reported that Arab voter turnout could help decide whether Netanyahu stayed in power. Polls suggested his coalition could lose its majority.

Yousef Jabareen, who leads the Joint List, said in a video statement that Netanyahu knew Arab voters "can put an end to his bloody reign." Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List, described Netanyahu's comments as a "scare tactic to mobilise right-wing voters and drive them to the polls." Sami Abu Shehadeh, leader of the Balad party, called on Arab citizens to keep coming out in large numbers to vote.

Netanyahu responded in posts on X. He described Arab voters as "Muslim Brotherhood supporters" and accused them of "raiding the polling stations and stealing the elections," according to Middle East Eye. He pointed to a picture of a large queue that appeared to show Palestinian citizens at a polling station and urged right-wing Israelis to "go out and vote for Likud." He called the situation a "matter of life and death for us."

Netanyahu also said his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, would be unable to govern without the support of Arab parties. Eisenkot has ruled out working with those parties, citing a lack of shared values.

Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said on Tuesday that it had received numerous reports from Arab voters of attempts to discourage them from voting. The group said queues at polling stations in Arab-majority towns were moving very slowly and in some cases had stopped altogether. It also reported a lack of ballot slips printed in Arabic.

Adalah said it had raised the problems with Israel's Central Elections Committee and regional elections committees, the bodies that oversee the vote.

Analysts have also linked the rhetoric to the political climate after the October 7 attack. Talshir said in a Washington Post report published on October 25 that Netanyahu was using the attack to continue incitement against Israeli Arabs.