SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Opponents of Israel's hard-line prime minister are trying to oust him by building a broad new governing coalition. To do so, they may have to cross a red line drawn by most Israeli parties - partner with Palestinian citizens of Israel. From Jerusalem, NPR's Lauren Frayer explains.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #1: Shalom.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Shalom.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: College student Kayla Glick stands outside the Israeli president's office with a poster that says unity.
KAYLA GLICK: So we're here for unity. We're one of the biggest grassroot movements in Israel, which really tries to reduce polarization and bring in...
FRAYER: She wants a unity government with power shared between far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his center-right rival, Gadi Eisenkot, who's been tapped to try to form a coalition. To this protester, unity...
GLICK: It's a Zionist unity. Like, we - this is a Jewish democratic state. Everyone's welcome to be part of it.
FRAYER: Everyone except Arab-led parties, which won a record number of seats in last month's election. Glick says they're welcome in parliament but not in a ruling coalition. Polls show about half of Israelis feel this way. Another protester, Hila Shaish, interrupts. Arab lawmakers, she says...
HILA SHAISH: They will stop Israel from protecting itself against terror organizations.
FRAYER: She questions their loyalty in the event of another Gaza war, for example, but acknowledges she didn't use to look at Israel's largest minority this way.
SHAISH: I think that after October 7, the trust within the Israeli society with the Arab people, it damaged a lot.
FRAYER: Iman Khatib-Yassin feels that, too. She's the first Israeli lawmaker to wear a hijab since those 2023 Hamas attacks.
IMAN KHATIB-YASSIN: The last years were the most hard.
FRAYER: She says she's asked to denounce Hamas with every breath...
KHATIB-YASSIN: What can I do? What can I say?
FRAYER: ...To prove her loyalty to a country where she's not only a citizen, she's a member of parliament.
Why do they not want to work...
KHATIB-YASSIN: Racism. That's all.
FRAYER: It's racism, she says. Arriving at the Israeli president's office for coalition-building talks...
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: ...She has to walk past a protester shouting that Arabs shouldn't be trusted. Inside, Israeli President Isaac Herzog asks if she considers Israel both Jewish and democratic and, again, whether she denounces Hamas.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT ISAAC HERZOG: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: The exchange was livestreamed. This is Eisenkot's litmus test. He says he will not partner with Arab-led parties unless they agree to these conditions. And most of them have not.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MANSOUR ABBAS: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: Mansour Abbas leads the party Iman Khatib-Yassin is in. It's called Ra'am. Abbas has denounced Hamas' actions on October 7 but stopped short of labeling it a terror group to preserve the possibility of negotiating with it one day.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ABBAS: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: So both men are under pressure - Abbas to denounce Hamas, Eisenkot to become only the second leader in Israeli history to partner with Arabs.
LEENA DALLASHEH: Just like everything else about this conflict, it did not start on October 7.
FRAYER: Analyst Leena Dallasheh is a Palestinian citizen of Israel herself.
DALLASHEH: This actually is the norm in Israel, the demand that Palestinians face to guarantee the security and safety of Israeli Jews.
FRAYER: She says it's gotten worse under Netanyahu, who has accused Arab politicians, without evidence, of electoral fraud and of endangering Israel. Things are tense, which is what makes the No. 2 official in the Arab-led Ra'am party so extraordinary.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
YOAV SEGALOVITZ: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: Yoav Segalovitz is a former Israeli police official, and he's Jewish. Flanked by Arab colleagues, he told Israel's president...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SEGALOVITZ: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: He believes the country is in profound crisis, that discourse has become toxic and that 20% of the population cannot be excluded.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: On his way out of the president's house, he, too, gets accosted by protesters, questioning why he would partner with Arabs. Demonized by the right and held up as a hero on the left, he says he's just working with his colleagues and fellow citizens. Lauren Frayer, NPR News, Jerusalem. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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