The latest poll figures in Israel's fifth election in under four years show former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu edging closer to assembling a right-wing religious coalition in government.
"The main outcome of this election is the proliferation of the fascist right in the ranks of the Israeli public," Aida-Touma Sulieman told The New Arab. Sulieman is a member of the Israel parliament (known as the Knesset) from the Al-Jabha or the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality and is the number three candidate on the joint ticket of Al-Jabha and the Arab Movement for Renewal party. Her slot in the Knesset is, for now, secure.
With 86 per cent of the vote accounted for, Netanyahu's Likud party has 32 seats, PM Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid has 24, and Religious Zionism of religious extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir has 14.
Read the full story by our Jerusalem correspondent here.
Earlier today, Netanyahu said he has received a "huge vote of confidence" from voters and declaring that his right-wing camp was on the cusp of a shocking election win.
"We are on the brink of a very big victory," a smiling Netanyahu told cheering supporters at his Likud party election headquarters.
Netanyahu is allied with far-right extremist settler Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose Religious Zionism bloc is on course to become the third-largest party.
Ben-Gvir is a former member of Kach, a group on Israeli and US terrorist watchlists.
He regularly led Israeli settlers mobs into the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem.
Whoever emerges as the eventual winner, Palestinians expect no let-up in Israel's policies of violence, expulsions, and settlement expansion against them.