Israeli right makes inflammatory claims about Arab voters as ballots are counted

Senior figures on Israel's right made a series of provocative statements about Arab voters, alleged attempts to steal the election and plans for Jewish settlements in Gaza, during Tuesday's vote and in the hours after exit polls suggested a setback for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing alliance.

Neither major political camp appears to have secured a clear majority. That leaves Arab-led parties in a position to play an important role in deciding who forms the next government.

Speaking early on Wednesday at the election headquarters of his far-right Religious Zionism party in Jerusalem, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich brushed aside opposition celebrations. He pledged to protect the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law. His opponents, he said, would not reverse the government's settlement "revolution", and he declared: "Jewish settlements will be established in Gaza." Israel dismantled its settlements in Gaza in 2005.

Earlier on Tuesday, Smotrich posted on Facebook that turnout was unusually high in Arab communities and left-wing strongholds, though he offered no figures to support the claim. He argued that a failure to mobilise right-wing voters could allow "terror supporters" to enter government.

Netanyahu, who leads the right-wing Likud party, made similar appeals while voting was under way. He warned that Arab voters were rushing to polling stations and that an opposition victory would threaten Israel's Jewish character. He also accused three senior figures from Ra'am, an Arab-majority party, of trying to steal the election. Police confirmed that they arrested three people on suspicion of voter bribery, but there was no indication that any of them held senior positions in Ra'am.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev, also of Likud, repeated the unsubstantiated theft allegations in a post on X. "They're trying to steal the elections and the country from us," she wrote. "It's either the right or Palestine."

British-American political scientist Dov Waxman told Al Jazeera that, after the inconclusive result, Netanyahu is likely to "hammer home the message" to the Israeli public that a governing coalition including Arab parties would be "illegitimate". Arab political leaders condemned the prime minister's election-day messages as racist and inflammatory.

Al Jazeera correspondent Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said that with about 55 percent of ballots counted, Netanyahu's bloc of right-wing and religious parties was projected to win 56 seats. That is short of the 61 needed for a majority in the 120-seat parliament.

She added that Mansour Abbas, the leader of Ra'am, said he had been approached by both Netanyahu's Likud and the opposition camp led by Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief who heads the Yashar party.