How Israelis can win together after this election

In March 2024, I arrived at Ben Gurion airport to find hostages’ faces lining the walkway. Everywhere I went, on signs and banners, I saw the same words: Yachad Nenatze’ach. Together we will win.

This spring, I spent seven weeks in Tel Aviv, mostly during the war with the Iranian regime. Leaders were again promising “total victory.”

A powerful moment of those weeks came from Ilana Dayan, a prominent anchor on Channel 12. Within days, an elderly couple had been killed by an Iranian missile in Ramat Gan, and a Palestinian couple and their two young sons shot dead by Israeli forces in the West Bank. Dayan said in her broadcast’s final minutes: “We must not normalise the death around us… We must insist on sanctifying life. There is no more total victory than that.”

Israelis went to the polls yesterday. Exit polls and initial counting suggest Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud will be the largest party, however the majority of Israelis voted for parties outside the outgoing coalition. It is possible Gadi Eisenkot will be given the first opportunity to form a coalition. Turnout overall was exceptional, and among Palestinian citizens of Israel it was unprecedented, despite attempts earlier this year to bar Arab parties from standing, which the Supreme Court overturned. Yair Golan’s The Democrats are predicted to rise from four seats to nine. The path to a governing coalition is unclear, and Benjamin Netanyahu may yet be given his chance to form one. But a change of direction now looks possible, after four years of attempts to undermine the independence of the judiciary and protections for minorities.

For many of us, this is a moment of fragile hope. Some in our community will feel anxious instead. I understand that too. Those who voted differently are not our enemies. Democracy survives because people defend the rights of those with whom they profoundly disagree.

So, what could winning actually look like?

For me, one test is how much of what civil society has been forced to do over the last three years it will no longer need to do.

When the government refused a state commission of inquiry into 7 October, citizens set up their own and heard from 120 national figures. This month, bereaved families and survivors organised and largely crowdfunded a national memorial in Tel Aviv. Winning means the state functions to protect and provide for all its citizens.

Last year, 252 Arab citizens of Israel were killed, the highest number on record, according to the Abraham Initiatives. The five-year plan for Arab society, worth around NIS 30 billion, ends this year, and ministers have already tried to move billions from it to the police and the Shin Bet. Its predecessor was approved by a Netanyahu-led cabinet in 2015, a reminder that moves towards equality for Arab citizens can come from different sides of Israeli politics. Arab mayors and organisations including Sikkuy-Aufoq and the Arab Centre for Alternative Planning have been drafting what should come next. Winning means a government that builds on their work, and parents in Arab towns who no longer fear the walk home from school.

In the West Bank, where Palestinian families face settler violence with little protection, Israelis from Rabbis for Human Rights and Bnei Avraham stand beside them. Winning means volunteers can go home because the authorities keep everyone safe.

Omer Ohana, whose partner Sagi Golan was killed on 7 October, won equal access to support and recognition for the same-sex partners of fallen soldiers, even with an ultra-conservative government. “We are now recognised in death,” he said. “Now we must continue the fight to be recognised in life too.” Winning means he no longer has to.

Winning that lasts will also depend on who comes next, which is the work of this year’s NIF UK Human Rights Award winners. Dr Samer Sweid founded Qadaya, which develops leadership among Palestinian youth within Israel, with 70 groups in 25 towns. Noam Vidan co-founded IDEA, which brings mayors, journalists and educators together to defend democratic values, and helped set up HaMigdalor, now working with over 100 institutions reaching tens of thousands of young adults. Noam and Samer are raising the citizens Israel’s democracy will depend on long after this Knesset.

The Arab-Jewish partnership we embody and encourage offers a model for a resilient democracy and a stable, shared society.

None of this will happen because of an election alone. Turning promises into change will take the same people who have carried Israel through three years of war and grief: community leaders, lawyers, teachers and volunteers, NIF partners and many more.

With so much unclear and uncertain, I hope we remain determined and committed to supporting the scale of systemic change needed.

Our community has a part to play. We can keep listening to Israelis, including Palestinian citizens whose voices too rarely reach us. On 19 November, we will honour Samer and Noam in London, a chance to meet people leading this work across Israeli society and nurturing the generation coming up behind them. Each of us can back the people doing this work.

In March 2024, Yachad Nenatze’ach was a promise made in grief. Winning, if it comes, will look like a country where nobody has to crowdfund a memorial, guard a village or fight for equal treatment when loved ones are killed in battle. A country, as Ilana Dayan put it, that insists on sanctifying life.

Together, we must keep striving alongside Israelis and Palestinians for that “total victory”: a just, safe and equal future.