The leader of Israel’s main Palestinian coalition, which holds the balance of power after Tuesday’s elections, has said the country is facing a historic opportunity to change direction.

Yousef Jabareen, the head of the Joint List, said he was ready to join forces with the “Change” bloc to oust Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition, and to wrest control of the Knesset.

Turnout among Arab Israelis (Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, 20% of the population) more than doubled to about 80% , transforming the political landscape. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza had no vote.

Jabareen said the first demand of the roughly 840,000 Palestinian Israeli voters was to get rid of the Netanyahu government, and in particular its most extreme members , Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister.

“This has been an awful four years … in all areas of life: in terms of house demolition, criminal gangs within the Arab community without any…