Following the release of the first exit polls from Israel’s Monday elections, PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat said the results would “force the people of the region to live by the sword.”
“It is obvious that settlement, occupation and apartheid have won the Israeli elections,” Erekat posted to Twitter, after exit polls revealed that Likud was expected to win between 36 and 37 seats, above Blue and White’s 32 to 33.
Erekat railed against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who he said had run a campaign to promote “occupation and conflict” that would lead to a “continuation of violence, extremism and chaos.”
In an interview with Israel’s Kan News immediately following the publication of the exit polls, Joint Arab List leader Ahmad Tibi said the Blue and White Party’s failure was due to its resistance to “moving forward” with the Joint List and called the election a results a “black day in the history of the country.”