The new Israeli Parliament
An analysis and opinion piece sent to us by Geoffroy d’Aspremont*.
Elections in Israel: results that confirm the moral bankruptcy of Israeli society.
Whatever coalition is formed following the legislative elections of 27 October 2026, nothing will change for the Palestinians, whose rights, fate and lives do not count for the overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews, nor for most Western governments.
In the legislative elections of 27 October, 5,717,397 votes were cast (blank and spoilt ballots included), a turnout of 77.98% of all registered voters[1]. A record for several decades. Out of these votes, I asked myself how many went to lists that defend respect for the legitimate rights of Palestinians, and therefore respect for international law, equality and justice.
As a reminder, only 3 of the 14 lists standing defend them: The Joint List (secular left-wing Arab list – 500,755 votes, 8.80% and 11 seats), The Democrats (left-wing bloc – 366,278 votes, 6.44% of the vote and 8 seats) and Ra’am (moderate Islamist Arab list – 337,720 votes, 5.9% and 8 seats), a total of 1,204,753 votes (21.16% of valid votes).
All the other valid votes (4,486,673, or 78.84%) therefore went to lists that refuse to recognise the Palestinians’ right to a full state and to equality, and that support continued colonisation and oppression, or would even like to expel, deport or keep massacring Palestinians.
It is not possible to know exactly how many of the 1,204,753 votes cast for parties defending Palestinian rights came from Jews and how many from so-called “Israeli” Arabs, that is, those who live within Israel’s internationally recognised borders, the so-called “pre-1967 borders”, because they did not leave and were not expelled or massacred in 1947-1948. Moreover, there were Jews on the so-called Arab lists, some of whom were elected, notably former deputy minister Yoav Segalovitz, as well as Arabs on The Democrats list and on the Yashar list (913,629 votes, 16.05%) led by Gadi Eisenkot, a list which for its part does not recognise the legitimate rights of Palestinians at all.
Nevertheless, I think it is possible to make estimates close to reality. One can reasonably assume that 85-90% of The Democrats’ voters and 5-10% of the Arab lists’ voters are Jewish. That would represent around 450,000 Israeli Jews committed to defending equality and the rights of Palestinians, out of roughly 4,900,000 Jewish voters, or less than 10% of Israeli Jews. According to this estimate, more than 90% of Jewish voters in these elections therefore do not recognise the rights of Palestinians, and a large share of them do not care about their lives or existence. Let us recall that polls have shown that a large part of the Israeli population believes “there are no innocents in Gaza”[2], thereby justifying the total destruction of the enclave and the crimes committed against the population of Gaza[3], supports the colonisation or even annexation of the West Bank, or does not want the two-state solution[4].
Sadly, these figures confirm the total moral drift of a population indoctrinated into racism, supremacism and the acceptance of the violence in which it takes part, since every Israeli must serve in the army. This drift is the result of a supremacist ideology on which Israel was founded, Zionism, and of a clear political project: territorial expansionism, with force and violence as its only modus operandi. Netanyahu, Ben Gvir and Smotrich are not the causes of this drift, but its result.
Under these conditions, how is it that the EU’s association agreement with Israel and continued trade with this state (including arms sales by many European countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom and France) are not called into question, that there is a total absence of sanctions and almost no prosecution of Israeli war criminals, while calls for boycotts and the defence of Palestinian rights are being criminalised in Europe?
How is such an inversion of values possible?
Are our governments, and those who remain silent in the face of this situation, aware that continued impunity, and the eternal double standard when it comes to Israel, only play into the hands of extremists: first, those who control Israel, indoctrinate Israelis and wage war all the time; then the racist far right in Europe, Zionist or Islamophobic, which influences public opinion and skews the debate; and, sadly, in reaction, those who hold antisemitic positions. And in this context, who are the losers? Besides the Palestinians and the Lebanese, whose fate leaves people indifferent, the losers in the West are first and foremost the Jewish and Muslim religious minorities, and of course democracy, trampled and called into question. Is that the future we want?
Geoffroy d’Aspremont
*
Geoffroy d’Aspremont is an independent consultant with experience
– in the non-profit sector and within think tanks
– in professional consulting and management for civil society NGOs, international relations, education and real estate.
After serving as chief operating officer at EPEDA, he became its managing director in June 2025.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of BAM!