Arab MKs were in contact with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ office in Ramallah and informed him in advance of their decision to vote in favor of dissolving the Knesset.
The Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported that the contacts between the parties were initiated by the Knesset members, who told Abbas’ office that the reason they decided to support the dissolution was "to correct the mistake of running separately for the Knesset, which caused them to lose three seats."
MK Ayman Odeh explained, "From my point of view, disrupting Trump and Netanyahu's plans was the most important consideration in my decision to vote in favor of dissolving the Knesset."
MK Yousef Jabareen said, according to the report, "We knew that another election campaign might postpone the publication of the plan by many months, and perhaps lead to its shelving. This is because the clocks of the corrupt Trump and Netanyahu have started to tick. New elections could torpedo Netanyahu and Trump's plans to deny the Palestinian people the right to a sovereign state. We decided to take full advantage of this delay in order to thwart their plans and advance our vision of peace based on the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel within the 1967 borders."
It should be noted that, even without the support of the Arab MKs to dissolve the Knesset, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would have obtained a majority in the vote, because another 64 Knesset members supported the move even without the Arabs.