Thousands protest in Tel Aviv urging Eisenkot to ally with Arab parties to oust Netanyahu

Thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv urging opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot to strike a deal with Arab parties that would enable him to form a government and end the tenure of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Protesters told AFP that this could be "the last real chance for change."

Tuesday's election resulted in Netanyahu's bloc securing 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, compared to 48 seats for Eisenkot's bloc, while three Arab parties won 19 seats in a historic surge representing a 64 percent increase compared to the 2022 elections. According to the central elections committee's data, approximately 840,000 voters cast ballots for the Ra'am movement and the Joint List. This calculation means that an Eisenkot alliance with the Arab parties would produce a comfortable 67-seat majority sufficient to form a government.

However, Eisenkot had previously declared his rejection of a coalition with Arab parties, amid mounting street pressure. In counter-response to the demonstrations, opposing protests emerged from Netanyahu supporters who chanted "no government with terrorists."

Netanyahu accused the Palestinian-Israeli Arab parties of "stealing the election" and receiving funding from Qatar, which denied the accusations and described them as a "disinformation campaign." Right-wing Israeli circles characterized the historic turnout of Palestinian-Israeli voters as "electoral terrorism," comparing it to the October 7 attack that claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people.