JERUSALEM: Israeli prime ministerial hopeful Gadi Eisenkot called on Friday for respect for the country’s Arab minority after caretaker premier Benjamin Netanyahu and other right-wing figures sought to delegitimize the community’s lawmakers by linking them to Hamas.
Two Arab-majority parties, Raam and the Joint List, secured a combined 19 seats in last month’s election, winning nearly a sixth of the 120-seat parliament and potentially emerging as kingmakers in efforts by Eisenkot to form a government.
“Arab citizens of Israel are an integral part of the Israeli story,” Eisenkot wrote on X on Friday.
“The attempt to marginalize them and vilify them collectively is a profound violation of the principles of civic responsibility. It dishonors Israel’s Declaration of Independence and the values we take pride in as a Jewish and democratic state,” he added.
Netanyahu and his allies have repeatedly criticized leaders of Arab parties for refusing to describe Hamas as a “terror group” following its unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
All leaders of Arab parties have condemned the attack, in which Arab Israelis — descendants of Palestinians who remained in what became Israel in 1948, and who now form more than 20 percent of the population — were also among those killed.
Netanyahu has also repeatedly alleged electoral fraud by Arab-majority parties, but electoral authorities have rejected the…
