What Arab Israelis Really Think About Israel’s Election

What Arab Israelis Really Think About Israel’s Election

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Analysis: What Arab Israelis Really Think About Israel’s Election

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Analysis

What Arab Israelis Really Think About Israel’s Election

Ethnic Arabs could decide Israel's coming election—and its democratic future.

!Vohra-Anchal-foreign-policy-columnist18

*Vohra-Anchal-foreign-policy-columnist18*

*Anchal Vohra*

By **Anchal Vohra**, a columnist at *Foreign Policy*.

!Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas (R) and Israeli politician Yoav Segalovitz (L) attend a news conference in Nazareth, Israel, on Aug. 31.

*Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas (R) and Israeli politician Yoav Segalovitz (L) attend a news conference in Nazareth, Israel, on Aug. 31.*

Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas (R) and Israeli politician Yoav Segalovitz (L) attend a news conference in Nazareth, Israel, on Aug. 31. Jalaa MAREY / AFP

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September 25, 2026, 8:19 AM

What is the biggest election issue for Arab citizens of Israel? An end to violent crime on their streets, they say—not, in other words, the future of Palestine.

Seventy-four percent of respondents said violence and crime was their biggest concern, while 7.6 percent noted the importance of resolving the Israel-Palestine crisis, according to a recent survey conducted on behalf of the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at the Moshe Dayan Center in Tel Aviv.

What is the biggest election issue for Arab citizens of Israel? An end to violent crime on their streets, they say—not, in other words, the future of Palestine.

Seventy-four percent of respondents said violence and crime was their biggest concern, while 7.6 percent noted the importance of resolving the Israel-Palestine crisis, according to a recent survey conducted on behalf of the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at the Moshe Dayan Center in Tel Aviv.

That does not mean they have abandoned the Palestinian cause, but they are instead making pragmatic decisions and no longer tying their daily well-being to a resolution that appears improbable in the current atmosphere in Israel. A majority of Israeli Jews oppose a two-state solution in the aftermath of Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

The more urgent needs of Israel’s Arab citizens—a fifth of the total population—are better policing, better education, and more housing.

“You cannot solve all problems at once,” said Arik Rudnitzky, the author of the survey and a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, in reference to attitudes among Arab citizens of the country. “The question is how long can Arab citizens wait for this external conflict to be resolved before focusing on how best to meet their daily needs.”

Arab citizens of Israel want to play a larger role in Israeli politics, seeking not mere representation in the Knesset but a seat at the table in the new government. An overwhelming 77 percent support the inclusion of an Arab party in the next government’s coalition.

Mansour Abbas, the leader of Ra’am—the most conservative Arab party in Israel—has presented his political group as a potential coalition partner to whomever is prepared to tame criminals and offer more to Israel’s Arab citizens.

But, at a time when mistrust between Arabs and Jews runs especially deep, whether Arab Israelis will be allowed to take part in governing the country may be a decisive test of Israeli democracy.

Israel’s Central Elections Committee voted Wednesday to disqualify both Mansour Abbas’ United Arab List party and the Joint List— an alliance of Israel’s other three Arab parties—from running, including because of their alleged rejection of Israel as a Jewish state, which they deny. The committee’s largely political composition, made up mostly of members of PM Netanyahu’s coalition, was expected to approve disqualification requests against the Arab parties while rejecting requests against right-wing parties. As was the case in previous elections, these decisions will likely be reversed by Israel’s Supreme Court prior to the election.

In the meantime, the Arab parties are continuing to focus on the more prosaic concerns that their voters are concerned about. “The organizations that collect protection money from an Arab grocery-store owner also collect it from a Jewish garage owner,” Abbas said recently. “This is not the Arabs’ problem. This is the country’s problem.”

Abbas is right. Criminals don’t discriminate on the basis of religion or ideology. But Arab citizens of Israel inhabit a more dangerous world with a much higher crime rate. “Over the past 20 years, nearly 2,000 citizens have been murdered as part of the phenomenon of crime and violence within Arab society,” Abbas said in January. According to the Knesset’s National Security Committee, 241 Arabs were murdered last year compared to 47 Jews.

Palestinian Israelis also endure systemic hurdles in securing legal building permits and live in more cramped neighborhoods compared to their Jewish counterparts. Tens of thousands—especially those in Bedouin communities—live in “unrecognized villages.”

An OECD survey last year documented that many Arab schools were underresourced, which impaired “pupils’ employment, productivity, and wage prospects,” and it recommended equalizing “funding for Arab schools with other schools presenting similar socio-economic characteristics.”

Ra’am wants to change that dynamic by securing a place in the government—the country’s most powerful inst