Tuesday’s Knesset election marked the ‘end of the era of Netanyahu’, Joint List party chairman MK Ayman Odeh declared shortly after the polls closed. With exit polls predicting the predominantly Arab party gaining one to three seats from the 10 seats its constituent factions won in the April election, Odeh celebrated both the higher turnout in the Arab sector, and the failure of the right-wing Otzma Yehudit party to clear the threshold, according to all three major exit polls Tuesday night. “Once again, we are the third largest party in the Knesset, with 13 mandates,” said Odeh. “This dramatic change [comes from] a rise in voter turnout in the Arab sector. We are happy that Otzma Yehudit failed to cross the threshold.” Polls show a close race between incumbent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the center-left Blue and White party, with the Likud trailing by a single seat in two of the three exit polls. “The era of Netanyahu is over,” said Odeh. “We’ve returned to being the third largest party in the Knesset. With our votes, we’ve prevented Netanyahu from establishing a government. That is something historic.” According to the Channel 13 exit poll, the Joint List is projected to win 13 seats. The Channel 12 poll, however, shows the Joint List with just 11 seats, while the Channel 11 poll projects the party will win 12 seats.
