Families of October 7 massacre victims warned lawmakers Thursday against cooperating with Arab parties. “Any MK who makes a move with the Arab parties will be considered a supporter of Hamas supporters,” the families wrote in a post published by Kobi Samarno, father of Yonatan Samarno, who was murdered in the massacre. Samarno called on followers to tag all Knesset members in the comments so the message would reach each one.
1+Eighteen family members of those murdered and kidnapped signed the call. Among the signatories are Eli Shatui, father of Idan Shatui, and Yitzhak Guaili, father of Ran Guaili. Five of the signatories are the parents and siblings of Amit Cohen. Also signing was Ilan Regev, father of Maya and Itay Regev, who were kidnapped to Gaza and returned to Israel.
The call comes two days after elections for the 26th Knesset, in which the Arab parties surged to a record 19 seats, nearly double their strength in the outgoing Knesset. The Joint List received about 12 seats, and Ra’am about 7. After counting roughly 90% of votes, Netanyahu’s bloc stood at 53 seats, and the left-wing bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot at 48.
1+Neither bloc reaches the majority of 61 seats without additional support, and absentee ballots are still being counted. The Arab parties’ seats could give the left-wing bloc a majority, but most parties in the bloc have ruled out cooperating with them. The Democrats are the only party in the bloc that has not ruled it out.