Golan calls to form coalition ‘in partnership with Israel’s Arab citizens’

The leader of Israel’s The Democrats Party, Yair Golan, on Wednesday morning called on the opposition-bloc parties not to miss the opportunity to build a coalition with the Arab parties.

“We must no longer accept [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s racist division between Jewish votes and Arab votes,” Golan wrote in a Hebrew-language post on X.

“The voice of an Israeli citizen voting in Taibe is worth exactly as much as the voice of an Israeli citizen voting in Givat Shmuel. No less. Not approximately. Exactly,” he continued.

He went on to draw a parallel between the ultra-Orthodox parties (United Torah Judaism and Shas) and the Arab parties (the Joint List and Ra’am), saying they are both “non-Zionist.”

He argued that if these factions were subtracted, the center-left bloc had 49 seats against Netanyahu’s bloc of 39 seats. If they are not subtracted, he continued, the former had 65 seats against the latter’s 55 seats.

Golan was referring to partial results published by Israel’s Central Elections Committee on Wednesday morning. At the time of his writing, the Joint List and Ra’am had received 12 and four seats, respectively, while United Torah Judaism and Shas gained nine and seven, respectively, according to Israeli media. Netanyahu’s Likud had 27 seats, Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar 21, B’Yachad (“Together”) 11, The Democrats nine, Yisrael Beiteinu eight and Otzma Yehudit and the Religious Zionist-Zehut parties six each.

“Netanyahu lost. I know how to count to 120. 65 is more than 55. That’s how Israeli democracy works. Period,” he wrote.

“We have a majority. We have responsibility. And we have an opportunity to form a government of change in partnership with Israel’s Arab citizens. A government that will serve all Israeli citizens. Now it takes courage. It takes leadership. It takes stopping the fear and starting to act,” he said.

As of time of publication, based on provisional figures released by Israel’s Central Election Committee with over 70% of ballots counted, the division of seat numbers had changed, standing at 54 seats for Netanyahu’s bloc, 47 for Eisenkot’s and 19 for the Arab parties. The ultra-Orthodox parties, part of Netanyahu’s bloc, were projected at 14 seats.

Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli reacted to Golan’s post, saying that in light of its message, “The Democrats are, in practice, a Canaanite, anti-Zionist party.”

He continued on X, “Incidentally, from a sociological perspective and without passing judgment, it would be very interesting to examine whether the younger generation of this party’s members even sees any value in marriage according to the laws of Moses and Israel, or in circumcising their sons—the only two commandments without which one formally severs ties with the Jewish people.”

He then said he finds this “deeply saddening,” invoking The Democrats’ political roots in Israel’s historic Labor Party that “once represented the vanguard of Zionism.”