As the official distribution of mandates for the 26th Knesset solidifies, the opposition bloc’s central structural dilemma has emerged: Gadi Eisenkot, Avigdor Liberman, and Naftali Bennett have no mathematical way to form an alternative governing coalition without the direct support of Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am and the Joint List (Hadash-Ta’al). The political obstacle facing the Zionist opposition parties became clear immediately after the release of returns. Joint List leaders publicly celebrated their double-digit parliamentary representation by explicitly dedicating their achievement to the population of the Gaza Strip and to incarcerated Nuḥba terrorists held in Israeli detention facilities.
The ideological orientation was evident on the eve of the vote, when MK Ayman Odeh publicly led renditions of “Biladi, Biladi,” a nationalist anthem centering on the redemption of the land through fire and blood.
The incoming Joint List parliamentary delegation features a slate dominated by figures with extensive records of radical, anti-Zionist activism:
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Heading the slate is Yousef Jabareen, who has been documented maintaining close associations with Palestinian Islamic Jihad figure Khader Adnan alongside other convicted operatives.
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Second is Ahmad Tibi, one of the longest-serving parliamentarians in the plenum and former political adviser to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.
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Ranked third is Fatan Ghattas, who previously sparked controversy by publicly accusing the State of Israel of conducting experimental weapons testing on Palestinian civilians.
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Further down the slate, Bakr Awawda has been documented paying public tribute to convicted terrorist Karim Younis, who was imprisoned for the 1980 murder of IDF soldier Corporal Avraham Bromberg.
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Representative Hassan Nassasra, who previously held an educational role in the Rahat municipality, similarly embraced Younis and delivered public eulogies for deceased terrorists.
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In eleventh place, Haitham Zhalqa advanced initiatives in the Kafr Qara municipal apparatus to preserve the memory of villages destroyed during the 1948 war and led municipal efforts to name public streets after Ghassan Kanafani, a prominent leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
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The delegation also includes MK Ofer Cassif, who has repeatedly attacked Zionism, categorized the targeted elimination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh as an international war crime, and publicly referred to the Director of the Shin Bet as a “Jewish Nazi.”
While the High Court of Justice disqualified Balad Chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh from running after he offered rationalizations for the actions of Nuḥba terrorists, the remaining members of the slate were cleared to stand.
Political analysts emphasize that any governance framework reliant on the Joint List—particularly during an ongoing war against Iranian proxy networks and combat operations in Gaza—would invite acute parliamentary crises and compromise executive decision-making. The ultimate decision now rests with the leaders of the opposition bloc, who fell short of a majority within the Jewish electorate: whether to compromise their core ideological commitments and align with a faction that openly aligns with hostile elements, or concede the mandate to form Israel’s next government.