Insults and Walkout Mar Swearing-In of 26th Knesset as Eisenkot Opens Coalition Talks

Jerusalem, 10 November, 2026 (TPS-IL) — The 26th Knesset was sworn in in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening, with the festive ceremony marred by shouting and insults directed at Arab lawmakers. When Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen stood up to declare his allegiance, Otzma Yehudit MK Itamar Ben-Gvir yelled at him, “To whom are you pledging allegiance? To Hamas?” Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana intervened and threatened to remove Ben-Gvir from the plenum.

Near the ceremony’s conclusion, just before the “Hatikvah” national anthem, most Arab MKs walked out, prompting angry calls from several lawmakers. Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas and one Hadash MK chose to stay.

The central question is how long the 26th Knesset will last. Will it complete a full four-year term, like its predecessor, or will Israel head back to the polls within months?

Yashar! leader Gadi Eisenkot, tasked by President Isaac Herzog with forming the next government, is negotiating with the Change Bloc parties (Naftali Bennett’s Together, Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, and Yair Golan’s Democrats) as well as United Torah Judaism (UTJ). UTJ has already declared it would not join a new government unless legislation regulating the military draft status of yeshiva students is passed before the government is sworn in.

The draft issue was a central theme of the election campaign, following three years of war. Meanwhile, although Together and Yisrael Beiteinu favor a Zionist government without Arab parties, the Arab factions are expected to support the emerging government from outside the coalition, at least initially.

The ceremony was attended by President Herzog, Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, Police Commissioner Danny Levy, Shin Bet chief David Zini, Israel Prison Service Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi, and Fire and Rescue Commissioner Eyal Caspi.

Given the outgoing coalition’s opposition to Amit’s appointment as Supreme Court president and its efforts to exclude him from Knesset ceremonies, his presence at the event marked a discernible change. President Herzog explicitly acknowledged Amit by name and official title in his address.

As he had done during last week’s consultations with party leaders following the announcement of the election results, Herzog on Tuesday renewed his call for political unity to avoid another election.

“This Knesset must serve its full term amid the many challenges ahead. You must do everything possible to avoid another election. The people who elected you are yearning for security and normalcy and want to see a hand extended in the spirit of unity. I ask you to show restraint toward one another and reach out for compromise, even with political rivals. There is much work to be done,” Herzog said.

He also called for completing the mission of destroying Iran’s nuclear program, repairing Israel’s severely damaged relations with the United States, ending racism, and establishing a commission of inquiry into the October 7 massacre.

“We must leave no stone unturned in order to investigate and understand how the October 7th disaster occurred,” Herzog said.

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana addressed the plenum after the president, using his speech to take a jab at Arab lawmakers in the debate over whether Arab parties should join the next government. He challenged them to explicitly designate Hamas a terrorist organization and said there should be no cooperation with anyone who calls the Jewish people “invaders in their own land.”

Ohana has served as Knesset speaker for the past four years and is expected to be replaced next week by Yashar! MK Matan Kahana. Ohana had tried in recent days to block the move, but Yashar! submitted more than the 61 required signatures of MKs supporting his replacement. With the required backing secured, Ohana had little choice but to accept the request and schedule the vote for next Monday.

Immediately following the Knesset’s opening session and swearing-in ceremony, the Change Bloc parties submitted a series of new legislative proposals, the most prominent of which is a bill to establish a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 massacre. This initiative had been blocked by the outgoing government. They also submitted a bill limiting a prime minister’s tenure to eight years, and a bill repealing the previous government’s judicial reforms.

The 26th Knesset includes 46 first-time lawmakers, among them 24-year-old Yonatan Shalev (Together), the youngest person ever elected to Israel’s parliament.

The new Knesset also includes nine lawmakers who lost close family members in the war, the highest number of bereaved MKs since the first Knesset in 1948, when twelve of its members had lost loved ones.

Among them are Yashar! Leader Gadi Eisenkot, who lost his son Gal and two nephews, and three first-time MKs who lost sons on October 7: Michal Hirsch Negri (Together), Rafi Ben Shitrit (Yisrael Beiteinu), and Shira Shapira (Yashar!).

Yisrael Beiteinu MK Sharon Sharabi lost his brother Yossi, who was murdered in Hamas captivity, as well as his sister-in-law and two nieces, who were murdered in Be’eri. Likud MK Tali Gualy lost her son Ran, who was killed in battle on October 7, and whose body was abducted to Gaza.

Another new Likud MK, Elisha Madan, lost both legs after being wounded in fighting in Gaza. In a rare moment of unity in the deeply divided parliament, all lawmakers rose and applauded as Madan stood on his prosthetic legs and declared, “I so affirm.”