Israel election results live: count of absentee ballots under way as coalition talks set to begin

Israel’s choice: Netanyahu remaining in power or a Palestinian-backed coalition

Emma Graham-Harrison

Hours before the final results from Israel’s elections were in, several things were clear. Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition had lost its mandate, and the opposition had a firm majority.

But most of Israel’s Jewish opposition ruled out governing with Palestinian-led parties, in the course of a racist election campaign in which Netanyahu painted Palestinian citizens as an enemy inside the state.

The self-imposed ban on a broader opposition alliance, if it holds, offers Netanyahu the prospect of turning his defeat into another term in office – or at least a prolonged mandate as caretaker prime minister and perhaps another round of elections.

This confected barrier to unseating Netanyahu became the focus of Israeli media and analysts. “No Clear Government” announced the newspaper Israel Hayom. “Road to Unity Government Has Been Paved”, read an article on Channel ۱۲.

Yair Golan, leader of the centre-left Democrats, attacked that framing. “Netanyahu lost. I know how to count,” he said in a statement calling for a government with Palestinians, who make up about ۲۰% of Israel’s population.

“We must no longer accept Netanyahu’s racist division between Jewish votes and Arab votes,” he said. “We have a majority. We have a responsibility. And we have an opportunity to form a change government in partnership with Arab citizens of Israel.”

While Palestinian-led parties do not describe themselves as Zionist, neither do some of the ultra-Orthodox groups who are a key part of Netanyahu’s current coalition.

A survey taken as polls closed on election day showed that a clear majority of opposition voters supported forming a government with the Palestinian-led Ra’am in order to unseat Netanyahu, political psychology researcher Eran Halperin said.

But opposition leaders were silent on Wednesday, as they apparently tried to balance their desire to unseat Netanyahu with promises against working with Palestinians.

Former general Gadi Eisenkot, who leads the biggest opposition party, has not directly ruled out governing with Palestinians but laid out conditions that made it politically impossible for them to join a coalition.

Palestinians have been clearer about their priorities. “We are ready and prepared to pave the way for the ousting of the Netanyahu government,” Yousef Jabareen, leader of the larger Joint List, said on Wednesday. “The change comes through Jewish-Arab partnership.”

Israel’s elections committee has said it began counting absentee ballots at ۱am local time. That count is expected to last until Thursday evening, with an estimated ۵۰۰,۰۰۰ ballots from military personnel and diplomats to be tallied up.

They are not expected to significantly change the results.

Under Israeli electoral law, each voter is assigned a specific polling station and can only vote at that station. However in exceptional circumstances, some voters are allowed to cast their ballot at special polling stations they are not registered at. Among those afforded this exception are soldiers stationed at IDF bases, diplomats working abroad, prisoners and prison guards and people in hospital.

These absentee ballots are transported directly to the Knesset where they undergo a series of checks before they are counted, which is why they arrive in the final count much later.

Hello and welcome to our continuing coverage of the Israeli election.

With ۹۱% of votes now counted, the current results show prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc projected to receive ۵۳ seats, with the grouping of his opponent Gadi Eisenkot on ۴۸ and the Palestinian parties on track to receive a record ۱۹ seats.

The final tally of absentee ballots is not expected to significantly shift the results, and with no grouping managing to reach the ۶۱ seats needed for a majority in the Knesset, Israel could be in for weeks of uncertainty, as both sides try to gather enough support to form a government.

Yair Golan, the leader of the centre-left Democrats, a junior partner in Eisenkot’s bloc, has told Israeli media that he will meet leaders on Thursday for coalition talks. According to the Times of Israel, he will hold talks with Eisenkot, the leading opposition candidate and chair of the Yashar party, and Yair Lapid, the number-two in the opposition B’Yachad party.

This would mark the official start of coalition talks, and Golan has been the only opposition leader so far backing working with the parties led by Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, voiced hope that the country could avoid a second election. “We must do everything we can, certainly after yesterday, to avoid another round of elections,” said Herzog, who is tasked with determining which candidate to tap to form a government, urging parties to keep “an open mind”.

• Israel’s future hangs in the balance after it became clear that Benjamin Netanyahu has lost his governing majority. His political fate now depends on whether opposition Jewish parties are prepared to forge a common front with Palestinian parties, whose support surged in Tuesday’s historic elections. Indeed, Gadi Eisenkot and his allies face a clear choice: either make a pact with Arab Israeli parties heading for a record result of ۱۹ seats, or hand Netanyahu a political lifeline in the form of new elections or a unity government.

• Yousef Jabareen, head of the Arab-majority Joint List, said the Israeli public had voted for new leadership and “anyone who wants to offer a substantive and genuine alternative to Netanyahu’s blood-soaked government will have to talk to us”. He told AFP that while he was willing to cooperate with an opposition-led government to unseat Netanyahu, he was not open to joining such a coalition outright. The ad hoc support of Palestinian lawmakers could enable Eisenkot to maintain a minority government, although few observers believe such an arrangement would survive for long.

• Israel’s Central Elections Committee said it had received a Likud party complaint alleging that Arab parties had compromised election integrity and would examine the claims as part of its routine post-election review. Netanyahu’s party responded to partial election results showing Arab-led parties could play a king-making role in forming a new government by accusing them – without evidence – of “stealing” the election and demanding that the police and Shin Bet security service investigate the allegations.

• UN rights chief Volker Turk has said that he hopes the next Israeli government will “change course massively” and respect international law. “The message is: don’t continue the current course of warfare where you think you are above international law, because I think that’s what we have frankly seen in the current environment,” Turk told reporters in New York. He added: “Israel has its obligations under international law, international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and they need to respect them, and I hope that the next government will do precisely that and change course massively.”