Mansour Abbas has done nearly everything Israel asks of its Palestinian citizens.
asserted
Israel → do → citizens
The leader of a small Arab political party condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
asserted
leader → condemn → attack
He rarely speaks about the war in Gaza or Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, instead focusing on local issues like crime.
asserted
He → speak → crime
He broke a taboo in 2021 by bringing an Arab party into an Israeli government, in which he served as a loyal partner.
asserted
he → break → partner
This time around, the second-ranked member of his party list is a mainstream Jewish candidate.
asserted
member → rank → list
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his chief rivals have said they won’t form a coalition with his or any other Arab-led party after the Oct. 27 election – even if that means months of gridlock and another round of voting.
asserted
that → say → voting
It’s a measure of where Israel’s long-marginalized Arab minority finds itself three years after the Oct. 7 attack.
asserted
minority → ’ → attack
Their speech is heavily policed, their leaders have been branded as traitors, and at one point their parties were outlawed before a court lifted the ban.
asserted
court → police → ban
Yet in a tight race, Abbas and other Arab politicians are poised to play a potentially decisive role in choosing the next prime minister — a rare opportunity to wield their influence.
asserted
Abbas → poise → influence
The stakes in the coming election are “existential,” said Yousef Jabareen, leader of the Joint List of Arab parties, which adopt a less conciliatory line than Abbas’ Islamist Ra’am party.
asserted
which → come → party
“We have to use our political power in order to basically block the deterioration of the situation,” he said at a small campaign event in Tel Aviv, before slipping out the back to avoid a crowd of far-right protesters.
asserted
he → have → protesters
Activists say protests are heavily policed – crime less so
Palestinians who remained within Israel after the 1948 war surrounding its creation, and their descendants, today make up about 20% of the population.
asserted
who → say → population
They have citizenship, including the right to vote, but their close family ties and support for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank lead many Jewish Israelis to view them with suspicion.
asserted
ties → have → suspicion
They face discrimination and suffer from soaring crime rates, a problem that Arab activists blame on police negligence and the police say is rooted in the refusal of community leaders to work with them.
asserted
police → face → them
The Abraham Initiatives, an Israeli organization that advocates for equal rights, has tallied 184 crime-related killings in Arab communities so far this year.
asserted
that → advocate → communities
The group said in July that only 12% reported in the first half of 2026 had been solved.
asserted
% → say → 2026
Authorities have meanwhile aggressively curtailed freedom of expression, activists say.
asserted
activists → curtail → expression
Police have routinely broken up anti-war protests, restricted displays of Palestinian flags, and arrested hundreds of people over social media posts, according to the Israel-based rights group Adalah.
uncertain
Police → break → group
“They’re not writing ‘Kill the Jews.’
asserted
They → write → Jews
Some of them are writing, ’We pray for Gaza,’” Hassan Jabareen, its general director, said.
asserted
Jabareen → write → Gaza
The Israeli government says it is a Jewish state in which minorities have equal rights, and that its crackdown on certain kinds of speech and protests is rooted in security concerns.
asserted
crackdown → say → concerns
Jabareen said the perceived over-policing of protests and under-policing of violent crime leaves Palestinians feeling less like citizens and more like threats to be contained.
“We have to choose between the danger of being killed and being discriminated against,” he said.
asserted
he → say → danger
A taboo was broken, and then Netanyahu returned
Arab-led parties have long served in opposition to a system they believe is fundamentally unfair.
asserted
they → break → system
Until 2021, none had joined a coalition government.
asserted
none → join → government
Abbas’ decision to do so five years ago marked a major shift.
asserted
decision → mark → shift
The 52-year-old dentist argued that Arab leaders needed a seat at the table.
asserted
leaders → argue → table
Critics accuse him of sidestepping the larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict to court potential coalition partners, while he argues that focusing on local issues is the best way to serve his constituents.
asserted
focusing → accuse → constituents
“Crime and murder are issues linked to people’s lives and there is no value higher than the value of human life.
asserted
Crime → link → life
We’re responsible, as representatives elected by the Arab public, to serve this public,” he said at a campaign event in northern Israel last week.
asserted
he → ’re → Israel
The government he joined lasted a little over a year, until new elections in 2022 returned Netanyahu to power at the head of the most nationalist and religious government in Israel’s history.
asserted
elections → join → history
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has described Palestinian citizens of Israel as an “internal front” in the war and “an existential threat to the state.”
asserted
Smotrich → describe → state
With the far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir in charge of law enforcement, at least 200 Palestinian citizens indicted for speech-related offenses have been classified as security prisoners, according to Adalah.
uncertain
citizens → indict → Adalah
They’ve been subjected to brutal conditions, including overcrowding and severe restrictions on food, often in the same facilities as suspected militants from Gaza.
asserted
They → subject → Gaza
Multiple parties compete for the 120 seats in Israel’s national assembly, known as the Knesset.
asserted
parties → compete → Knesset
None is expected to win anywhere near 61 seats, so whoever succeeds in cobbling together a majority coalition will be the next prime minister.
asserted
succeeds → expect → coalition
That can give small parties outsized influence.
asserted
That → give → influence
Netanyahu won’t work with the Arab-led parties, and they have also ruled that out.
asserted
they → work → that
Netanyahu’s main opponent, the centrist retired general Gadi Eisenkot, also says he won’t ally with Arab-led parties.
asserted
he → retire → parties
Even Yair Lapid, a center-left leader of the 2021 government, told The Associated Press in May that he would not form another coalition with Ra’am.
uncertain
he → tell → Ra’am
They could change their minds, or form a minority coalition backed by Arab-led parties from the outside.
uncertain
They → change → outside
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
