A leading Arab candidate who could emerge as a kingmaker in next week's Israeli elections warned on Wednesday of disaster if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won again, voicing hope for high Arab turnout.
If Netanyahu and his far-right allies return to power, "that would, first and foremost, be a catastrophe for the State of Israel", Raam party leader Mansour Abbas told AFP in an interview.
"There is no doubt that the consequences would be extremely serious for us as an Arab community."
He said he hoped that Raam, a Hebrew acronym for "United Arab List", would win eight seats, up from the current five -- a potentially crucial number in the 120-seat parliament, or Knesset, in which no party is expected to achieve a majority on its own.
"At the moment, we are optimistic. The trend is positive and moving upward," Abbas said during a campaign stop in Nazareth, the biblical childhood home of Jesus Christ and a stronghold of the Israeli Arab community.
"We will make every effort to ensure that the election results lead to the replacement of this racist, fascist right-wing government with a government of change," Abbas said.
Abbas has played a key role in the recent political history of Israel, where around 20 percent of the population is Arab -- descendants of Palestinians who stayed after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
A former dentist whose ideology is moderate Islamism, Abbas agreed to join a short-lived 2021-2022 government of Netanyahu's opponents, making Raam the first Arab party to join an Israeli government.
- 'Kingmaker' sees only one choice -
Abbas said that the term "kingmaker" -- in the sense that its lawmakers could crown either side -- was not technically accurate for next Tuesday's election, because there was no chance he would sit with Netanyahu.
"The term 'kingmaker' was something we used when we believed it was possible for us to form an alliance with either of the two blocs, the right or the left," Abbas said.
"Today, our only option is to ally ourselves with the change bloc."
But Netanyahu's chief rival, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, has demurred on whether he would form a coalition with Arab lawmakers, mindful that some Jewish Israeli voters would see a government backed by Arabs as illegitimate.
Netanyahu has nonetheless hammered home the message that a vote for the opposition would mean Arab parties in power, putting posters up across the country that read, "Either the Right or Palestine."
In a move to woo greater support, Abbas has included on the Raam list its first-ever Jewish candidate, Yoav Segalovitz, who won popularity within Arab communities for his police work combating high crime.
The Netanyahu government launched a massive offensive in Gaza, displacing virtually the whole population, in response to the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas. His government has also approved a record number of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Netanyahu's far-right ally Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, has laid out a plan modelled on the West Bank to change the demographics of largely Arab parts of Israel by bringing in Jewish settlers.
Another far-right minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, unsuccessfully sought to ban Raam from the election.
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