Israel's Center-Left Could Topple Netanyahu – Without Any Plan For Palestinians

The election will decide whether the prime minister remains in control — and by extension, what could happen to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel is just days away from holding its first elections since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, and voters will determine whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right, ultranationalist government will remain in control — and, by extension, what might happen to the 5 million Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank under a system of occupation.

Netanyahu is Israel’s most electorally successful and longest-serving prime minister, having governed off and mostly on for 19 years. Many voters, though, are upset over his corruption scandals, the security failures that led to the October 7 attack, and Israel’s increasingly isolated position on the global stage. An anti-Netanyahu coalition that is considered center-left has been gaining traction, and its leading party, Yashar, could pull off a win next Tuesday.

However, polls show that neither the opposition nor Netanyahu’s coalition is likely to garner the 61 seats required to take control of the 120-seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament. The anti-Netanyahu coalition could win 53 seats to Netanyahu’s 51, according to a polling average from Israel’s top three networks released Wednesday.

This means that despite being historically repressed in the Knesset, Palestinian parties in Israel could serve as kingmakers this election. The anti-Netanyahu coalition increasingly appears unable to govern without a Palestinian party joining it, but has so far refused to publicly agree to it.

In fact, both sides have all but ignored Palestinians — who make up roughly half the population of Israel and the Palestinian territories — and what the election results would mean for them, even as Gaza remains under siege and settler violence in the occupied West Bank continues to rise.

“There is no discussion about the future of how Israel will deal with the Palestinians,” said Tamir Sorek, a Jewish studies professor at Penn State University. “There is no debate because only one side has a clear vision articulated in the program … and [the Netanyahu coalition’s] vision is quite simple: no Palestinians between the river and the sea. The other side, the anti-Netanyahu opposition, they share the same fantasy, but they refuse to articulate it.”

Nearly 2 million Palestinian citizens of Israel have the right to vote, but Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza are not allowed the same political participation. Israelis in the West Bank, however, are allowed to vote.

“Even though Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship are 21% [of Israel’s voters], in this weird way they’re voting for 50% of the electorate, right?” said Palestinian policy analyst and legal expert Diana Buttu. “Like they’re representing the other 30% who don’t have a voice, and........

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