Former Israeli police chief Yoav Segalovitz joins Arab party Raam for October election
Yoav Segalovitz, a former Israeli police official and ex-Knesset member, will run on the list of the Arab-Israeli party Raam in the upcoming election, becoming the first Jewish candidate for an explicitly Arab party.
On Aug 31, Raam’s leader Mansour Abbas revealed that Yoav Segalovitz, a former senior police officer who served as deputy minister of national security and sat in the Knesset for Yesh Atid from 2019, will appear on the party’s list for the Oct 27 parliamentary election. This marks the first time a Jewish Israeli has been nominated by an explicitly Arab party, although the communist Hadash has previously fielded mixed Arab-Jewish tickets.
Abbas framed the partnership as an anti-crime platform, citing Segalovitz’s experience fighting crime alongside Arab communities. Segalovitz acknowledged historic tensions but expressed confidence in building political cooperation based on trust and mutual recognition. He stressed he will not change Raam’s character, nor will the party alter his.
Polls project Raam to win five or six of the 120 Knesset seats. The right-wing Likud criticized the move, accusing Abbas of refusing to label Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups, despite Abbas’s condemnation of the Oct 7 attacks.
Why it matters
It signals a rare cross-community political alliance that could reshape Arab-Jewish relations in Israel’s parliament.
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