The unofficial results of the Israeli general elections - after counting about 97% of the vote - showed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's chances of obtaining a majority in the parliament have declined, after the results of the Likud Party and those aligned with it closely converged, and between the left and the center of the opposition.
The United Arab List managed to pass the electoral threshold by winning 5 seats, while the Joint List (a coalition of 3 Arab parties, headed by Ayman Odeh) won 6 seats, which raises the share of Arabs in the Knesset to 11 out of the total of 120 seats. .
Likud and its allied parties won 52 seats, and the number may rise to 59 if the Yemina party joins them.
According to the same semi-final results, the anti-Netanyahu left and center camp - including the two Arab lists - gets 61 seats, and despite winning the majority of seats in the Knesset, the differences between the components of this camp make the hypothesis of forming a government coalition excluded.
In this situation, which is characterized by a strong convergence of results between the two rival camps, Yamina party (7 seats) and the United List (5 seats) are turning into important players in determining the identity of the next prime minister.
During the past two years, the four Arab parties ran within one list, and in the previous election held in March 2020, they won 15 seats.
However, disagreements arose between the United Arab List and the rest of the Joint List components, which led them to run in the elections separately.
Many Palestinians - on both the official and popular levels - are not optimistic about what the Israeli elections will produce, and they consider that the results of these elections will be a key that brings them further escalation and the evaporation of their hopes, given that Israel - with its extreme right-wing parties - will not restore Palestinian rights based on decisions and legal references. International.