Head of the opposition Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sept. 8 that he had created new Arabic-language accounts on Twitter and Instagram, in addition to the popular TikTok and Facebook Arabic-language accounts that he created on the eve of the 2021 election, which target the Arab citizens of Israel. Netanyahu has thus become the only Israeli Jewish politician to have Arabic-language accounts on all of the major social media sites — accounts that have become livelier every day in the run-up to the November election. 

Netanyahu's Facebook page was not very active during the Bennett-Lapid government with only 16 posts in an entire year, but since the Knesset dissolved this summer, the account has become more active with 29 posts in Arabic to date. It may seem like another politician courting votes, but when it comes to Netanyahu there is obviously much more to it.

Netanyahu ostensibly intends to revive his 2021 “Abu Yair” campaign, where the Likud party put up posters of their leader in Arabic in Arab towns and villages, distributed Arabic-language car stickers and even created an Arabic-language jingle. The Likud organized frequent meetings with Arab leaders and incessant visits of Netanyahu and other party seniors to Arab towns and villages. At the time, many Israeli citizens wondered about this sudden intense courtship of Netanyahu, and whether Netanyahu just woke up one morning and decided to turn over a new leaf in his relationship with the Arab public.

As a result of that campaign, the Likud received a little over 20,000 votes in Arab municipalities of all regions (Druze, Muslims and Christian). Still, Netanyahu’s real achievement was not in the number of Arabic votes, but rather that he succeeded — from his point of view — in sedating the Arab street, giving Arab citizens no reason to go to the polls. Suddenly, for them, Netanyahu was less of the enemy he used to be.