Why are Arab parties central to Israel's coalition talks after the 2026 election?

Neither Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition nor Gadi Eisenkot's opposition bloc won a majority, BBC correspondent Yolande Knell reported. Arab-led parties won a record 19 of the 120 Knesset seats on unprecedented turnout, so they could break the deadlock. The Joint Arab List has offered to prop up a minority government, while the United Arab List wants to sit in government, but most Jewish-led parties have ruled that out.

• President Isaac Herzog is meeting party leaders and then has a week to ask one of them to form a government.
• Israel's Attorney General refused a Shin Bet request to interrogate four Arab political leaders, citing no evidence of wrongdoing.
• Of the opposition bloc, only Yair Golan's Democrats have not ruled out governing with Arab parties.

▸In their words

“Arab or Palestinian citizens of Israel make up just over a fifth of the population.” Yolande Knell · at 20:30 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Global News Podcast (2026-11-04). Read the whole episode summary →

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