JERUSALEM, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The leader of the Arab-majority Joint List alliance, which is set to run in Israel's October 27 elections, said Saturday that the alliance would be willing to provide parliamentary backing to any government that replaces Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to most major polls, neither Netanyahu's far-right religious coalition bloc nor the opposition bloc of Jewish Zionist parties is on track to secure the 61 seats needed for a majority in Israel's 120-seat parliament.
Against this backdrop, the Joint List, which recent polls project to win between seven and nine seats, and the Arab-majority party Ra'am, projected to win five to six seats, could emerge as kingmakers.
In a recorded video statement, Yousef Jabareen, chairman of the Joint List, said the alliance was prepared to launch negotiations with leaders of the opposition bloc.
"The bigger and stronger we are, the greater our weight. In such a situation, we can bring down the current government and present our conditions to any political configuration formed after the elections," Jabareen said.
However, some parties in the opposition bloc remain reluctant to cooperate with Arab-majority parties, arguing that they support the establishment of a Palestinian state and do not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
The Joint List is an alliance comprising Ta'al and Balad, two Arab parties, and Hadash, an Arab-Jewish party.
All Arab-majority parties were disqualified from running in the elections by Israel's Central Elections Committee late last month, but the country's Supreme Court overturned the decision. ■
