Former Yesh Atid lawmaker Yoav Segalovitz will occupy the second position on Ra’am’s ticket in Israel’s October 27 election, putting a Jewish Zionist immediately behind the leader of a party built primarily around an Arab Muslim constituency. Segalovitz told The Media Line that he will join Ra’am’s parliamentary faction but will not become a formal member of the party, a distinction that allows him to retain his political identity while running on its slate.
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At a joint press conference in Nazareth, Segalovitz introduced the partnership by listing the differences between himself and Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas. Segalovitz described himself as a Jewish, secular Zionist who served as an army officer and rose to one of the highest ranks in the Israel Police. Abbas, he said, is an Arab, a religious Muslim, and a social conservative. “What connects us is that we are all Israelis,” Segalovitz said. “That is our shared identity.”
The arrangement gives Segalovitz a prominent position in a party that could again become important to the formation of a government. Ra’am participated in the coalition that governed Israel from 2021 to 2022, but several opposition leaders now say they will not form another government dependent on an Arab party. Segalovitz argues that his candidacy can begin changing that calculation, even if it does not produce an immediate electoral shift.
“I do not see Ra’am or Mansour Abbas as a threat,” he said. “They want to be part of the country, and I think we need to be strong enough to extend a hand in return.”
Former Israel Police, Lahav 433 official joins Ra'am
Segalovitz, 67, previously headed the Israel Police Investigations and Intelligence Division and the Lahav 433 national crime unit. During the previous government, he became the official responsible for coordinating the state’s campaign against organized crime and violence in Arab communities. That work gave him relationships with Arab mayors and local leaders well before he began discussing a political partnership with Abbas.
His decision to leave Yesh Atid and enter Ra’am’s slate has met resistance across much of the political system. Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said he believed Segalovitz was making a mistake, although he respected his former colleague for acting on his convictions. Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman has said Ra’am cannot be a coalition partner, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made the opposition’s potential dependence on Abbas a campaign issue, presenting voters with a choice between his government and a rival bloc supported by Ra’am.
Segalovitz said those positions leave Arab citizens fully integrated into much of Israeli life but excluded when political power is discussed. Arab citizens account for approximately 21% of Israel’s population and work throughout its medical system, universities, industries and public services. The distinction becomes visible, he said, when people move from daily life into party politics. “At a hospital, nobody asks questions,” Segalovitz said. “You enter political life, and everyone puts on some kind of narrative; some kind of suit tailored to his measurements. That is where you see the lack of connection.”
He rejected the argument that political cooperation with Arab parties became unacceptable after the Hamas-led massacre of October 7, 2023. In his announcement, Segalovitz said that more than 34 members of Israel’s Arab community were killed in the attack and that six Bedouin citizens were abducted to Gaza. Arab communities also suffered casualties and property damage from missiles fired during the conflicts with Hezbollah and Iran.
Segalovitz acknowledged that October 7 increased fear among Jewish Israelis when Arab political participation is discussed. He said, however, that the responsibility of political leaders is not to reinforce that fear. “There is no future for the State of Israel as I see it without partnership with Arabs,” he said. “The differences are there. I emphasized that in my statement. I am not hiding them.”
He described himself as a “bridgehead” between parts of Jewish and Arab society that rarely meet inside the same electoral framework. By accepting the second position rather than asking Abbas to join a Zionist party, Segalovitz said he intended to send a stronger message. “I am going to an Arab party. They are not coming to me,” he said. “A Jewish Zionist, a former police officer, number two in Ra’am. There is a powerful message in that.”
Segalovitz said the initial response within Arab communities had gone beyond support from Ra’am voters. The day after the announcement, he visited Baqa al-Gharbiyye, where residents approached him in the street to wish him success, including people who told him they did not intend to vote for the party. In Nazareth, he said, Arab journalists privately described an unusual level of excitement surrounding the move.
He also said he had received supportive messages from former commanders and senior figures in Israel’s security establishment, although he did not identify them. Segalovitz argued that excluding more than one-fifth of the population from meaningful political influence is damaging not only to democratic representation but also to Israel’s security and economy.
Violent crime will be immediate policy test
The immediate policy test, he said, will be violent crime. Segalovitz wants the next government to restore the interagency programs he oversaw as deputy public security minister and consider expanding them. Data compiled by the Abraham Initiatives showed that the number of Arab citizens killed in criminal violence fell from 126 to 116 during his only full year in government. It rose to 244 the following year, after the government changed. “Personal security comes first, and that means crime,” he said. “The situation is so serious that this must be at the top of the next government’s priorities. Root treatment will take longer, but significant action has to begin immediately.”
Segalovitz also supports expanding civilian service among young Arab citizens, presenting it as both a contribution to the state and a means of providing structure and opportunities for those aged 18 to 24. He said the program should not be imposed by the government. “It has to come from Arab society to the state, not from the state to Arab society,” he said, adding that Ra’am is already pursuing initiatives in that area.
Beyond crime, Segalovitz identified education, healthcare, welfare, employment, and infrastructure as priorities. He said the state has also avoided dealing seriously with the accumulated problems facing Bedouin communities in the Negev, including planning, housing, public services, and their relationship with state institutions. He did not place responsibility solely on the current government, saying the issue had been neglected for many years and could not be reduced to disputes over home demolitions.
The longer-term challenge, he said, is moving more Arab graduates into fields such as technology and other higher-paying sectors rather than allowing educational advancement to remain concentrated in a limited number of professions. “Arab society, as I see it, is first of all a major economic, cultural and social opportunity for the State of Israel,” he said. “It is not a threat.”
Asked what would constitute success four years from now, Segalovitz did not cite a seat target or government position. He said he wanted the partnership to become sufficiently established that Israelis would stop asking why he had joined Ra’am and begin asking what the alliance had accomplished, where it had failed, and what should be done differently. The work, he said, requires planning for the next 20 years rather than one parliamentary term. “If I have to put it in one phrase,” Segalovitz said, “I want the act I have taken not to be an episode.”