Support for Israeli far right surges among first-time voters, poll finds
Israel’s far-right parties are among the most popular choices for first-time voters ahead of this month’s elections, according to a new poll reported by Israeli news outlet Ynet on Friday.
The poll, conducted among a representative sample of 543 Israeli voters aged 18 to 22, found that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party would win 8.88 percent of the vote, translating to 15 Knesset seats.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist alliance would receive 8.09 percent, or 14 seats.
Together, the two far-right parties would secure 29 Knesset seats based on voting intentions among first-time voters, according to the poll.
They outperformed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, which received 7.95 percent of the vote, equivalent to 14 seats.
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Otzma Yehudit narrowly trailed former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s Together alliance, which received 8.98 percent, or 16 seats.
Gadi Eisenkot, a leading challenger to Netanyahu, was also close behind Ben Gvir. His Yashar party received 8.75 percent, translating to 15 seats.
The Zionist Democrats alliance, the successor to the Labor Party that dominated Israeli politics during the country's first three decades, polled at 4.99 percent, equivalent to nine seats.
The Joint List, an alliance backed predominantly by Palestinian citizens of Israel, received similar support, with 5.23 percent, also translating to nine seats.
In the 2022 elections, Smotrich and Ben Gvir’s parties won a combined 14 seats, helping pave the way for what has been described as the most right-wing government in Israel’s history.
Far right gains ground among young voters
The poll suggests growing support for far-right parties among young Israelis ahead of the 27 October elections.
Israel’s Central Elections Committee estimates that around 500,000 new voters will be eligible to cast ballots in the upcoming vote.
Just six years ago, in the 2020 elections, Otzma Yehudit secured only 0.42 percent of the vote, failing to cross the electoral threshold required to enter parliament.
Now, Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit, Smotrich’s Religious Zionist alliance and a new far-right party led by former army general Ofer Winter, Amcha Yisrael, are together projected to win more than 19 percent of first-time voters’ support, according to Ynet’s poll. Winter’s party, however, remains below the electoral threshold.
The parties are also polling strongly among the wider electorate. A survey published on Friday by the right-wing newspaper Ma’ariv projected that the three parties would win a combined 18 Knesset seats.
More broadly, 54 percent of first-time Jewish voters expressed support for the outgoing government’s policies, according to the poll.
Ynet’s interviews with young voters offered a glimpse into the appeal of the far right, particularly its policies on settlements, Palestinian prisoners and territorial expansion.
One young Israeli settler told the outlet that Smotrich had helped establish numerous farms and hilltop outposts in the occupied West Bank.
“Thanks to Smotrich, suddenly lots of farms and hilltop outposts” had been established, the settler said.
He also expressed frustration that Israel had not yet established settlements in the Gaza Strip following the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023.
“This is the biblical inheritance of our forefathers,” he said, referring to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
“This is a place that belongs to me historically and divinely,” he added.
Another young voter told the Israeli outlet that he is considering voting for Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit, saying the far-right leader had done "important things, like worsening the conditions of the terrorists in prison and the death penalty".
He was referring to Ben Gvir’s signature policy in Israel’s detention facilities, which human rights organisations have described as torture camps, as dozens of Palestinian inmates have died in them due to inhumane conditions in the past three years.
He was also referring to an Israeli law sponsored by Ben Gvir, under which only Palestinians convicted of deadly assaults will be executed.
A potential voter for the Zionist Democrats alliance offered a more critical assessment of the government’s policies.
“Sometimes wars are necessary, but there is unprecedented violence,” the voter told Ynet, arguing that the violence was not leading towards “a long-term political solution”.
“We keep losing our international legitimacy,” the voter added, expressing concern over Israel’s declining standing abroad amid its war on Gaza and escalating violence and displacement in the occupied West Bank.
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