A deadlocked result
Final results released by Israeli election officials on Thursday show that neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his chief challenger can immediately form a government, according to NBC News. Netanyahu's right-wing bloc won 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset. The bloc backing Gadi Eisenkot won 48 in what the outlet described as an extremely tight race.
A governing majority requires 61 seats, and neither side reached it. Netanyahu's bloc fell well short of the 68 seats it held at its peak in the previous parliament.
Arab parties make historic gains
Parties led by Israel's Arab minority won a combined 19 seats, a historic gain, NBC News reported. Palestinians with Israeli citizenship turned out in record numbers on Tuesday. Many hoped to remove Netanyahu and far-right members of his coalition, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The two main Arab parties are Ra'am and the Joint List. Both leading blocs have ruled out forming a government with them. Even so, the parties' rise as potential kingmakers has put the circumstances of Palestinian Israeli citizens back in the spotlight, the report said.
Allegations and denials
Before the vote, Netanyahu and other members of his coalition amplified allegations of foreign election interference. They referred Arab parties to the domestic security service, the Shin Bet, for investigation over alleged Qatari intervention, according to NBC News. Qatar denied the allegations.
Mansour Abbas, head of Ra'am, said his party had "no connection" to such conduct and called for a full investigation. He also accused Netanyahu of a "campaign of incitement and delegitimization" against Arab citizens.
Dean Livne, acting director general of Israel's Central Elections Committee, addressed the claims in a published letter to a member of parliament. He wrote that there was "no basis for allegations of systematic violations of electoral integrity," NBC News reported.
Calls for partnership and the road ahead
Netanyahu and Eisenkot both ruled out a government with the Arab parties before the election. Yair Golan, head of the smaller left-wing Democrats party, took a different view. He called for a government formed "in partnership" with Arab parties. In a post on X on Wednesday, he said: "We must no longer accept Netanyahu's racist division between Jewish votes and Arab votes."
The vote count is complete, but the results still need to be certified and submitted to President Isaac Herzog, who will then consult with party chairs. He will choose the candidate he thinks has the best chance of forming a government. With both blocs short of a majority and each rejecting the Arab parties, the coalition-building process is likely to be difficult, though the source does not say how it will unfold.
Background on Israel's Arab citizens
According to NBC News, most Palestinians with Israeli citizenship are descendants of those who remained within what became Israel during the war that led to the country's founding in 1948. At that time, hundreds of thousands of others fled or were expelled from their homes. Palestinians refer to this as the "Nakba," which means "catastrophe" in Arabic.
