It would mark a remarkable resurrection for Netanyahu, whose 12-year term as prime minister ended in March 2021 after his rivals united to oust him from office. Tuesday’s vote, the fifth in less than five years, appears to show a decline in support for centrist incumbent Prime Minister Yair Lapid and his allies. Instead, Netanyahu’s far-right allies themselves appear to have won seats. Here are four key takeaways from the Israeli election so far:
Netanyahu is preparing to return
Netanyahu’s rule, marred by his corruption trial, ended in 2021 after two years of political deadlock and failure to form a government. Opposition to Netanyahu was so strong between both elements of Israeli politics that his right-wing former ally, Naftali Bennett, joined Lapid in a coalition deal. But that coalition finally fell apart in June, and Netanyahu appears to have retained the support of the majority of the Israeli right, which looks set to return him to power if early results are confirmed. The previous four elections since 2019 have largely been referendums on Netanyahu’s ability to serve while facing charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Netanyahu, the leader of Israel’s largest party in parliament, Likud, has denied any wrongdoing. Netanyahu’s bloc plans to remove the offense of fraud and breach of trust – for which Netanyahu is on trial – from the criminal code, stripping Israel’s Supreme Court of its ability to strike down unconstitutional laws and giving lawmakers control over the choice of judges.
Rise of (far right).
Poised to become his main running mate in Tuesday’s election, Netanyahu is running with far-right politicians Itamar Ben-Gvir, who openly calls for armed violence against Palestinians, and Bezalel Smotrich, who are both part of his coalition Israeli Religious Zionism. Ben Gvir has argued that Palestinians in Israel should be subjected to “faith tests”, with those deemed “unfaithful” expelled from their ancestral homeland. Even by Israel’s right-wing standards, Ben Gvir and Smotrich are considered extreme. The far-right merger of Ben-Gvir’s and Smotrich’s parties, which overlap ideologically, is projected to win at least 14 seats in Israel’s 120-member Knesset, compared with six in the last election. Ben-Gvir is known to regularly harass Palestinians on the streets in occupied East Jerusalem, including pelting residents, and to lead settler marches and cause friction, often leading to arrests and injuries to Palestinians, particularly in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. which has become a hub of Jewish illegal settlements. Meanwhile, some members of Smotrich’s party support the illegal annexation of the entire West Bank.
Palestinian parties: Will they succeed?
As of Wednesday morning, Mansour Abbas’s United Arab List (UAL), a conservative Islamic party, had surpassed the required threshold of 3.25%, with five seats. Abbas is considered controversial among Palestinians after UAL, also known by its Hebrew acronym Ra’am, joined the Bennett-Lapid governing coalition, becoming the first Palestinian party to join an Israeli government. Meanwhile, the joint alliance of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality and the Arab Movement for Change, known in Hebrew as the Hadash-Ta’al list, led by longtime politicians Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi, also appears to have pass the minimum limit. Palestinian voter turnout has been low this year, with many divided over whether to vote and some residents saying they are frustrated with the system. It is widely believed that the main issues plaguing Palestinians in Israel, including crime and murder, restrictions on urban development and land ownership, and police brutality and surveillance, have only worsened in the past 10 years, even as Palestinian political parties united and represented the third largest bloc in parliament in 2015 and 2020. However, other Palestinians believe that Abbas’s UAL was able to effect change through the Israeli government.
Will the Israeli vote affect the Palestinians in the occupied territories?
About 4.5 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule or blockade in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the besieged Gaza Strip and are not counted in Israeli elections. Palestinians in the territories occupied since 1967 live alongside hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jewish settlers who live in illegal settlements under a two-tiered legal system that favors Jews over non-Jews. Jamal Nazal, Fatah’s spokesman in Europe, said the two major camps in Israel have “one common denominator, which is both for the colonialist project in Palestine.” “I don’t see the difference between the two camps led by Yair Lapid or Netanyahu,” Nazzal told Al Jazeera. “In reality, both are competing as to who is more racist towards the indigenous Arab population within Israel itself and who is more extreme in maintaining the occupation. “We have seen an increase in Israeli violence and terrorism against the Palestinians, so no one can say that the Yair Lapid government is really moderate because it has more blood on its hands in a short period of time than its predecessors,” he added.
