JERUSALEM, Israel – Yoav Segalovitz, a Jewish former senior police investigator who left the centrist Yesh Atid party to run with Israel’s Arab-led Ra’am, is poised to enter the Knesset after the October 27 election. The current vote count gives Ra’am eight seats, placing Segalovitz, its second-ranked candidate, in line for a parliamentary seat. Israel’s Central Elections Committee has not yet certified the final results.
The political partnership between Segalovitz and Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas was announced in Nazareth on August 31. It brought together a former Israeli police investigations chief and a party rooted in the country’s Arab Muslim political community.
Segalovitz described himself as Jewish, Zionist and secular. Abbas is an Arab Muslim and a socially conservative politician. Both presented their cooperation as an effort to build a shared political future across Israel’s Jewish-Arab divide.
The election has given that partnership greater potential significance. Ra’am’s provisional eight seats, combined with the Joint List’s 11, would give Arab-led parties 19 seats in the 120-member parliament. That would represent a substantial increase in their parliamentary representation.
However, the election arithmetic does not guarantee a role in the next government. Opposition parties remain divided over whether they will accept Arab-party participation or rely on Arab lawmakers for parliamentary support.
From senior police investigator to political partnership
Segalovitz built his career in Israel’s security and law-enforcement institutions before entering politics.
He joined the Israel Police in 1985 and held senior investigative positions. He helped establish Lahav 433, the police unit responsible for major investigations involving corruption, organized crime and other serious offenses.
He later headed the police Investigations and Intelligence Division. He retired from the police in 2013.
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Segalovitz entered politics through Yesh Atid in 2016. He was first elected to the Knesset in 2019 and served as deputy minister of public security during the Bennett-Lapid government.
His work included coordinating government efforts against violence and organized crime in Arab communities. The Knesset documented his role in presenting the government’s crime-reduction plans and calling for stronger enforcement and cooperation with Arab local authorities.
That experience became an important part of his political partnership with Abbas. Ra’am has made public security and the reduction of violence in Arab communities central concerns.
Segalovitz resigned from the Knesset and left Yesh Atid in August 2026. His departure ended his parliamentary service under the party’s banner before the election campaign began.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid praised his integrity and professionalism and thanked him for his public service. The party did not publicly endorse his subsequent decision to run with Ra’am.
Why Segalovitz joined Mansour Abbas
Segalovitz said his decision followed a long period of deliberation and discussions with Abbas.
In his August 31 announcement, he said he wanted to act amid growing social polarization between Jews and Arabs. He argued that Israelis should focus on their shared citizenship rather than the differences that divide their communities.
He also rejected the idea that political cooperation with Arab parties had become impossible after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Segalovitz described the partnership as a practical political effort. He said Jewish and Arab citizens could cooperate while maintaining different religious, national and political identities.
His police background also gave the partnership a policy focus. He had previously worked on efforts to address organized crime and violence in Arab communities, an issue that Ra’am has repeatedly raised in its political agenda.
Abbas, meanwhile, presented the alliance as a way to build broader political partnerships and strengthen Ra’am’s ability to influence national decisions.
The arrangement does not mean Segalovitz adopted every position held by Ra’am. Nor does his candidacy change the party’s religious identity or political platform.
Ra’am remains an Arab-led, socially conservative Islamist party
Ra’am, also known as the United Arab List, was established in 1996. It represents an Arab Muslim political constituency and draws on the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel.
The party combines a conservative religious and social outlook with participation in Israeli parliamentary politics. Its approach has emphasized improving the living conditions of Arab citizens through government budgets, public services and political influence.
Its policy positions include reducing inequalities in Arab education, developing industrial areas near Arab communities and recognizing Arab citizens as a national minority with constitutional rights.
Ra’am also supports the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Its platform includes ending the occupation, dismantling settlements and addressing Palestinian refugee rights.
The party’s parliamentary strategy has distinguished it from other Arab political movements. Rather than ruling out cooperation with Jewish-led governments, Abbas has argued that Arab parties should seek direct influence over decisions affecting their communities.
Ra’am joined the coalition supporting the Bennett-Lapid government after the 2021 election. It became the first Arab party to formally participate in an Israeli governing coalition.
That precedent remains central to the current political debate. Ra’am’s strategy is not simply to win seats but to convert parliamentary representation into policy influence.
Segalovitz’s identity does not erase political differences
Segalovitz’s presence on the Ra’am list is unusual because he is Jewish, secular and Zionist. His political views also differ from parts of the party’s socially conservative outlook.
He has acknowledged those differences. His argument is that cooperation on shared civic interests does not require complete agreement on religion, security or social policy.
The arrangement is also a political alliance rather than evidence that Ra’am has changed its identity. Segalovitz joined the party’s electoral list and parliamentary faction, but reports on the arrangement have distinguished that role from formal membership in the party itself.
That distinction matters. His candidacy broadens the slate’s representation without establishing that Ra’am has abandoned its Arab-led character or Islamist political roots.
For Abbas, the partnership may help demonstrate that the party can work with Jewish politicians beyond narrow parliamentary arrangements. For Segalovitz, it offers a platform to pursue public security and Jewish-Arab cooperation through a party with a strong Arab electorate.
Whether that message resonates beyond the election remains uncertain.
Arab-led parties gain greater parliamentary leverage
The current count gives Ra’am eight seats and the Joint List 11. Together, the two Arab-led lists would hold 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
That would be a major increase in representation and could make Arab parties important participants in negotiations over the next government.
The election count also leaves the two main political blocs short of a parliamentary majority. Current estimates put Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc at 53 seats and the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot at 48.
Neither group can reach the 61 seats required for a majority without additional support.
Arab-led parties could therefore hold significant influence over coalition negotiations. But their participation is politically contested, particularly among Jewish-led opposition parties that have ruled out relying on Arab-party support.
The issue is not only whether Ra’am can join a government. It is also whether opposition leaders will accept a government that depends on Arab lawmakers from outside the coalition.
Segalovitz has argued that the next prime minister must take Arab voters and their parliamentary representatives into account. He has said Ra’am wants to participate in the coalition process.
Abbas has also indicated that he is prepared to speak with leaders from both political camps.
Those statements show the party’s ambitions, not a confirmed coalition agreement.
Crime and public security remain central priorities
Violence and organized crime in Arab communities have been major political concerns for years.
Segalovitz worked on government efforts to address the problem while serving as deputy public security minister. In Knesset discussions, he criticized delays in implementing national programs and called for stronger coordination between law enforcement agencies and local authorities.
The Abraham Initiatives has documented the continuing impact of violent crime on Arab communities. Its annual reporting has tracked killings, the locations of victims and the broader effects of organized crime.
The issue gives the Segalovitz-Abbas partnership a concrete policy focus. Both have argued that public security and equal treatment by state institutions should be central to the next government’s agenda.
However, the partnership does not itself establish that crime levels will fall or that the next government will adopt Ra’am’s proposals.
Those outcomes will depend on budgets, law-enforcement policy, cooperation with local authorities and the willingness of governing parties to implement reforms.
Coalition cooperation remains uncertain
Ra’am’s election performance could strengthen its bargaining position, but the party faces political resistance from several directions.
Some Jewish-led opposition politicians have opposed relying on Arab parties to form a government. Others have shown greater willingness to cooperate with Ra’am than with the Joint List.
The Israel Democracy Institute’s pre-election research found substantial differences among Jewish voters over Arab-party participation. Support was stronger on the political left and weaker among centrist and right-wing voters.
Arab voters have also expressed differing views about the role their parties should play. Some favor participation in government, while others prefer parliamentary influence from outside the coalition.
These divisions mean that Ra’am’s eight seats do not automatically translate into government membership.
The party could seek formal coalition participation, support a government from outside, or remain in opposition if negotiations fail. Abbas has said he wants the party to take part in the political process, but no final agreement has been announced.
The next stage will depend on the parties’ negotiations and the president’s constitutional role in assigning a politician to form a government.
For Segalovitz, the election represents a new political chapter after years in Yesh Atid and public security work. For Abbas, the partnership offers an opportunity to demonstrate that an Arab-led party can build cooperation across Israel’s political and social divisions.
Their alliance is a significant political experiment. It shows that Jewish-Arab cooperation is possible within parliamentary politics, but it does not mean that wider divisions have disappeared.
Reporting Credit: Journos News reviewed the Central Elections Committee’s provisional results information, the published Ra’am candidate-list position, Knesset records documenting Segalovitz’s previous parliamentary and deputy-minister service, his August 31, 2026, public announcement, and the Israel Democracy Institute’s research on Ra’am and coalition participation. The report also examined published data from the Abraham Initiatives on violence in Arab communities. The election allocation remains provisional pending official certification. No direct interview with Segalovitz, Abbas or Yesh Atid representatives is claimed in this report.
