Gadi Eisenkot, the former military chief who is trying to form the next Israeli government, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday of fueling a “racist” campaign against the country’s Arab citizens, in some of the strongest public criticism of his rival’s attacks on the community.
The comments were made days after Mr. Netanyahu delivered a divisive speech to the opening session of Parliament, or the Knesset, in which he referred to Arab lawmakers as “terror supporters” and “haters of Israel.” Diplomats and analysts condemned the remarks as a brazen display of hatred and incitement against Arab citizens, who make up about 20 percent of the overall population, and voted in massive numbers in inconclusive elections last month.
“Since the beginning of the election campaign, they have been subjected to a racist and aggressive campaign of delegitimization, fueled by the outgoing prime minister and those around him for political purposes,” Mr. Eisenkot said in a statement on social media.
“Arab citizens of Israel are an integral part of the Israeli story,” he said, adding that it was wrong to malign an entire community.
“The attempt to marginalize them and vilify them collectively is a profound violation of the principles of statesmanship,” Mr. Eisenkot said. “It dishonors Israel’s Declaration of Independence and the values we take pride in as a Jewish and democratic state.”
The Declaration of Independence says all citizens have equal social and political rights “irrespective of religion, race or sex.”
On Sunday, President Isaac Herzog gave Mr. Eisenkot a mandate to try to form a government after 67 of the 120 members of the new Parliament endorsed the opposition leader to become prime minister. He has up to six weeks to create a ruling coalition.
Mr. Netanyahu and his allies have claimed without basis that Arab voters stole the election, after his political bloc won fewer seats than his opponents. The Arab parties have supported Mr. Eisenkot’s effort to form a government and have said they were determined to oust Mr. Netanyahu.
In his speech, Mr. Netanyahu took aim at Arab parties, which received more than 835,000 votes. “To those thinking about establishing a government with those people, I say — are you ready to be dependent on those whose goal is the destruction of the Jewish state?” he said.
The Arab parties that won enough votes to enter the Knesset are Raam, a pragmatic Islamist party, and the Joint List, an alliance of three factions that includes leftists and Palestinian nationalists.
Raam has sought to gain wider acceptance by focusing more on issues affecting the Arab citizens of Israel, like violent crime and discriminatory housing policies, than on the plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
The Joint List has also fought for the rights of Arab citizens of Israel, but it has frequently criticized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and has called itself “a genuine democratic alternative to the racist Zionist consensus.”
Mansour Abbas, the chairman of Raam, has condemned the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel as “saddening, heartbreaking,” while officials in the Joint List have denounced the killing of civilians on that day. Both have refused to call Hamas a terrorist group — a condition that Mr. Eisenkot has said parties wishing to join a government under his leadership should accept.
Nadav Eyal, a leading columnist for Yedioth Ahronoth, a centrist Israeli newspaper, said Mr. Eisenkot’s statement pushed back against Mr. Netanyahu’s efforts to delegitimize any cooperation with Arab parties.
Mr. Eisenkot was also sending a more direct message to Arab voters, Mr. Eyal said. “He’s telling them, ‘I see you and I see what they’re trying to do you and your representatives.’”
Still, Mr. Eyal said Mr. Eisenkot’s comments did not suggest that he intended to form a government relying on Arab parties, especially when “they have trouble saying Hamas is a terrorist organization.”
