In a formal statement, the Joint List said it is prepared to cooperate politically to establish an alternative government and end Netanyahu's rule. The party said Arab voters turned out in large numbers across the Galilee, the Triangle and the Negev despite what it called incitement and intimidation. It described Election Day as a show of strength against the Netanyahu-Ben-Gvir-Smotrich government. Any alternative government, the party said, must commit to changing what it called racist policies, recognize the rights of the Arab community and end the exclusion of Arab citizens from the political system.
Tibi discussed the contacts on Reshet Bet, a station of the public broadcaster Kan, in an interview with Esti Perez Ben-Ami. He did not name the parties involved. "The Joint List wants to assist, help and replace this government and pave the way for an alternative government, and therefore we are extending a hand to the change bloc," he said. "I hope the change bloc will have enough courage to take advantage of the clear numbers. They have a partner for this. We are brave enough. I hope they will be equally brave." JNS, which put the Joint List at 11 seats based on partial results subject to change, reported that Tibi credited the large turnout with preventing Netanyahu from forming the next government.
Tibi said the Joint List is not demanding cabinet posts. "It is likely that we will not be an organic part of this government. There are various other arrangements. We are open to dialogue," he said. He said the party would seek commitments on violent crime, home demolitions, infrastructure and what he described as incitement against Arab citizens. He also announced that Joint List lawmakers would vote for the opposition's candidate for Knesset speaker. Tibi recalled that the party had once recommended Benny Gantz for prime minister. "But he went and joined Netanyahu," he said.
Asked directly whether Hamas should be designated a terrorist organization and destroyed, Tibi declined to answer. "I don't want to answer those questions," he said. He maintained that he had already condemned the October 7 atrocities against communities near Gaza. "You want us to call all the Palestinian factions; Fatah, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front, the Communist Party and Hamas terrorist organizations, so that the entire Palestinian people will be a terrorist organization," he said.
Sami Abu Shehadeh, chairman of Balad, one of the parties that make up the Joint List, set out his own conditions for working with Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot. Speaking to the Qatari television network Al-Araby, he said: "First of all, he needs to stop the incitement against us and stop the incitement against the legitimacy of the Arab parties." Abu Shehadeh withdrew his Knesset candidacy earlier in October amid disqualification proceedings over an article he published on October 8, 2023, in which he called the Hamas attack "an important historic event militarily, politically and strategically."
The opposition is divided over relying on Arab support. Democrats leader Yair Golan counted the Arab parties in a 65-to-55 majority against Netanyahu, and fellow Democrats MK Gilad Kariv urged the opposition to work with them. Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett of B'Yachad and Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beytenu have all drawn a red line against Arab parties joining the government. One scenario under discussion is a minority government backed by the Arab parties from outside the coalition. Jabareen had previously said he would support such a government if a series of demands were met.
Netanyahu responded by sharing a video of Joint List MK Osama Saadi, Arutz Sheva reported. In the clip, Saadi calls the government one of "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" and sends greetings to "our people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the occupied territory." Netanyahu wrote that Saadi "praises the Palestinian people and the terrorists in prison. These are the people with whom they want to form a dangerous government. We will not allow this to happen!" Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli of Likud called The Democrats "a Canaanite, anti-Zionist party" over Golan's proposal.
