After boycotting Israeli parliamentary elections his entire life, 55-year-old Said Kabat will head to the polls for the first time on October 27. For him, the vote is existential. He fears for the future of Israel’s Arab minority if a right-wing government returns to power.
The pharmacist from the Arab village of Majd Al-Krum in northern Israel stated that he used to boycott elections all the time. Now, he will go out and vote. He is concerned that a low turnout among the Arab population would embolden the far-right elements of the current ruling coalition.
Arab Israelis, also known as Palestinian citizens of Israel, account for about 21 percent of the country’s population. They are descendants of Palestinians who remained within Israel’s borders after the state’s creation in 1948. They have long complained of discrimination compared with Israel’s Jewish majority.
The close-fought election is sparking calls for a mobilization push among Israel’s Arab population. Their situation worsened under the outgoing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Driven by far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, settlement construction in the occupied West Bank has soared, and their attention is now turning to predominantly Arab areas inside Israel.
In September, land belonging to Kabat’s family in Majd Al-Krum was the site of a confrontation between residents and Jewish Israelis who came to establish an outpost. Israeli police eventually removed the outpost. It had garnered the backing of Smotrich, who held a rally at the site and in August unveiled a plan to Judaise Israel’s predominantly Arab regions.
Turnout among the Arab minority has traditionally been lower than Israel as a whole. In the last election in November 2022, turnout among Arab and Druze voters was around 53 percent. The country’s overall figure stood at around 70 percent.
In Majd Al-Krum, activists like 31-year-old Dana Salameh were touring the village to explain the importance of voting. She said everyone, even those boycotting and those unconvinced about voting, has begun to see the danger very close to them if this government stays in power.
On October 27, the Arab vote is expected to be split among four parties running on two lists. The far-left Joint List brings together three parties. Raam, or the United Arab List, is more open to negotiating with the right. Raam became the first Arab party to join an Israeli government in a 2021-2022 coalition, and it could again play a kingmaker role this year.
Surging crime levels within the community could also push people toward the ballot box. Since the start of 2026, at least 175 Arab citizens have been killed in violent crime incidents, according to the Abraham Initiatives coexistence organization. The violence is predominantly driven by criminal gangs. Arab Israelis accuse the police, under the ministerial responsibility of Ben Gvir, of lax enforcement.
In Majd Al-Krum, home to about 17,000 people, campaign billboards for the Joint List have popped up bearing the slogan that change is in their hands. Several homes in the village face the threat of demolition, reflecting the reality for Arab localities across the country.
Further south, in the Negev desert, Israeli bulldozers recently demolished around 80 structures housing about 400 people in the Bedouin village of Al-Dahiya. Adnan Abu Wadi was left homeless with his four children. He stated that the demolitions were nothing more than an election stunt, adding that people will vote as Arabs to change the government and remove the extremists.
