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Israel Election Guide 2026

By IMEU
October 22, 2026

Israel Election Guide 2026
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures to supporters during a campaign appearance. October 22, 2026. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Contents

  • Election quick facts
  • Overview of Israel’s political system
  • Notable 2026 campaign developments
  • Major political parties & their policies towards the Palestinians

Election quick facts

  • Election date: October 27, 2026
  • Official results released: November 4, 2026
  • Number of seats in the Israeli Knesset (parliament): 120
  • To qualify for a Knesset seat, a party or electoral list must win at least 3.25% of the popular vote. After reaching that threshold, the party/list receives four Knesset seats, with additional seats allotted based on the percentage of overall votes obtained.
  • Number of Israeli citizens and residents: 10.3 million, including 7.8 million Jews (including approximately 750,000 settlers living illegally on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem) and 1.7 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship.
  • Number of eligible voters: 7,331,981
  • Number of Palestinians living under Israeli military rule in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 who cannot vote in Israeli elections: Approximately five and a half million, including 350,000 in East Jerusalem, 3.1 million in the West Bank, and 2 million in Gaza.

Overview of Israel’s political system

  • Israel is an apartheid state that grants citizenship and rights based on religion. While it is nominally a unicameral parliamentary democracy, only Jewish Israelis enjoy the full rights and privileges of citizenship, while roughly the same number of indigenous Muslim and Christian Palestinians living under Israel’s control are subject to varying degrees of disenfranchisement, dispossession, and violent subjugation.
  • Palestinians with Israeli citizenship make up about 20% of Israel’s population, or about 1.7 million people. While they can vote and hold office, they face widespread systematic discrimination because they are not Jewish, relegated to a permanent underclass in their own homeland. Approximately five and a half million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, are governed by brutal, undemocratic Israeli military rule, with no right to vote.
  • In 2018, the Knesset passed the “Jewish nation-state law,” enshrining in Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Laws the superior rights and privileges that Jewish Israelis enjoy over Palestinian citizens of Israel, other non-Jewish citizens of the state, and Palestinians in the occupied territories. Among other things, it declares the right to “national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.”
  • Under Israel’s electoral laws, it is illegal for candidates or parties to advocate for Israel to be a state that treats all of its citizens equally, regardless of their religion.

Notable 2026 campaign developments

  • The election is widely viewed as a referendum on the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is running for a seventh term since the 1990s while facing corruption charges that could send him to prison.
  • As with previous elections, Netanyahu’s campaign has been exploiting and inciting anti-Arab racism against Palestinian citizens of Israel, including issuing a statement with the extreme-right Religious Zionism party late in the campaign declaring they will send thousands of activists to polling stations in Arab communities on election day to prevent voter fraud, despite the fact there will be official observers in place and there is no evidence of past voter fraud. Critics say the move is intended to intimidate Arab voters.
  • In addition to Netanyahu’s anti-Palestinian race-baiting, numerous parties and candidates have been promoting plans to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza, the West Bank, and inside Israel, declaring they won’t form a government that includes Arabs, boasting about destroying Palestinian homes, and trying to get parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel disqualified, with one columnist at a prominent Israeli newspaper calling it “Israel’s most racist election to date.”
  • Yashar!, a new party founded by retired general Gadi Eisenkot, has emerged as the biggest challenger to Netanyahu and his Likud party, running neck in neck in public opinion polls for most of the campaign. Eisenkot is a former chief of staff of the Israeli military who is best known for formulating Israel’s notorious Dahiya Doctrine.
  • Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid who teamed up for the 2021 election to briefly unseat Netanyahu, with Bennett serving as prime minister until their government collapsed, combined forces again in a new party, Together, which is running a distant third in most polls behind Likud and Yashar.
  • The extreme right-wing Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) and Religious Zionism parties, which ran on a joint list in the last election and were key players in the outgoing government, split and are running separately this time. Religious Zionism instead joined forces with another extreme right-wing party, Zehut, which is led by Moshe Feiglin, a messianic fanatic and former member of the Knesset with Netanyahu’s Likud party. Religious Zionism also signed a vote surplus agreement with Likud that will combine any surplus votes the two parties receive after the initial allocation of seats after the election, which could give them an additional seat.
  • Three of the four parties representing Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and left-wing Jewish Israelis (Hadash, Ta’al, and Balad) teamed up to run together as the Joint List to try to maximize the number of seats they win. The fourth party representing Palestinian citizens of Israel, the United Arab List, chose not to join the coalition and announced its first Jewish candidate, fueling speculation it could join an anti-Netanyahu coalition government again as it did in 2021 under Bennett. All four parties ran together previously in 2015, 2019, and 2020.
  • Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and its occupation and systematic destruction of southern Lebanon, have not been a significant campaign issue, except for some candidates boasting about forcibly displacing Palestinians from their homes, bombing Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, and pushing plans for further expulsions.

Major political parties & their policies towards the Palestinians

The following provides a brief description of the major parties and their policies towards the Palestinians.

Broadly speaking, the parties can be divided into two categories: Zionist, which support Israel’s apartheid system, and non-Zionist, which support full equality for all citizens. The latter are composed mainly of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship.

Zionist parties

    Outgoing government Likud Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) Religious Zionism - Zehut

Likud

Party leader: Benjamin Netanyahu (Prime minister)
Ideology: Far-right
Number of Knesset seats won in 2022: 32

  • Likud has been the most powerful right-wing party in Israel since it was formed in the early 1970s and has governed almost continuously under Netanyahu since 2009, with a brief interruption from June 2021 to December 2022.
  • Likud has moved further and further to the right in recent decades, making alliances with the extreme right-wing Jewish Power and Religious Zionism parties. Under Likud governments, Israel has massively expanded settlements on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law, de facto annexing the West Bank, and carried out an intensifying campaign of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, including state-backed Israeli settler terrorism, and an ongoing genocide in Gaza.
  • Likud is categorically opposed to Palestinian statehood, the “two-state solution,” or equal rights for Palestinians, and strongly backs the expansion of settlements on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It wants to drive Palestinians out of Gaza entirely, with Netanyahu telling a Knesset committee in May 2025 that Israel has been systematically destroying Gaza to make it uninhabitable so Palestinians have no choice but to leave. To that end, Netanyahu’s government has established an “emigration directorate” to oversee the process while Defense Minister Israel Katz of Likud has said Israel is ready to remove Palestinians from Gaza “by any means” but is waiting for approval from President Donald Trump and to find a country that will take them in.
  • See our 13 Things to Know About Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for more.

Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power)

Party leader: Itamar Ben-Gvir (National security minister)
Ideology: Extreme-right
Number of Knesset seats won in 2022: 6

  • The Jewish Power party is made up of followers of the American-born Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose Kach party was banned from Israeli politics in the 1980s because of its virulent anti-Arab racism, including advocating for the enslavement and expulsion of Palestinians. Kach and other Kahanist groups were labeled terrorist organizations by the U.S. government after numerous deadly attacks by their members against Palestinians, Americans, and liberal Israelis, including the massacre of 29 Palestinian worshippers in Hebron in the West Bank in 1994.
  • Party leader and national security minister in the outgoing government, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is a settler living illegally on occupied Palestinian land who was convicted multiple times of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization, campaigned on a plan to “encourage” the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza.
  • In 2025, the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, Australia and New Zealand imposed a travel ban and sanctions on Ben-Gvir for inciting settler violence against Palestinians.
  • Jewish Power strongly backs the expansion of settlements on occupied Palestinian land, wants to formally annex the West Bank and Gaza and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from both, and to expand Israel’s borders into other neighboring countries.
  • See our 10 Things to Know About Itamar Ben-Gvir and Meir Kahane & The Extremist Kahanist Movement fact sheets for more.

Religious Zionism - Zehut

Party leader: Bezalel Smotrich (Finance minister & minister in the defense ministry)
Ideology: Extreme-right, religious
Number of Knesset seats won in 2022: 6

  • Religious Zionism is an overtly racist, homophobic, extreme right-wing party. For the 2026 election, it teamed up to run with the small, extreme-right Zehut party, which is led by Moshe Feiglin, a former member of the Knesset with Netanyahu’s Likud party.
  • Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich and Zehut leader Feiglin are settlers who want to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Israel and the occupied territories, with Feiglin publicly calling for Israel to kill or expel all Palestinians in Gaza, including children. In 2024, Feiglin told a podcaster there needs to be “a lot” more dead Palestinian babies in Gaza. Feiglin is also a longtime leader of the messianic Temple Mount movement.
  • In his position in the defense ministry overseeing Israel’s settlement enterprise, Smotrich has carried out what he calls a settlement “revolution” in the West Bank, expanding settlements at an unprecedented rate since the outgoing government took power in 2021. He has been banned from entering the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, France, Ireland for his role in expanding settlements and inciting settler violence against Palestinians.
  • Religious Zionism and Zehut are categorically opposed to Palestinian statehood or equal rights for Palestinians and want to annex the occupied Palestinian territories (West Bank and Gaza) and expel the Palestinians living there. Both parties strongly back the expansion of settlements on occupied Palestinian land, including reestablishing settlements in Gaza.
  • See our previous election guide for more on Smotrich and the Religious Zionism party.

Opposition parties (Zionist)

Together
Shas
United Torah Judaism
Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home)
The Democrats
Noam
Yashar! (Straight)
The Reservists-New Economic Party

Together

Party leader: Naftali Bennett
Ideology: Right-wing
Number of Knesset seats won in 2022: 24 (for Yesh Atid)

  • The Together party was formed in 2026 as a merger between Bennett 2026 and the Yesh Atid party led by Yair Lapid, the latter of which had 24 seats in the outgoing Knesset. Bennett and Lapid previously teamed up to briefly oust Netanyahu from power in 2021-2022, with Bennett serving as prime minister before their government collapsed.
  • Bennett, who used to head the main political organization representing West Bank settlers and was a longtime member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, is categorically opposed to Palestinian statehood. As he explained in September 2026: “I oppose handing over even one centimeter of land to the Arabs.” Bennett and Lapid are both staunch backers of Israel’s settlement enterprise.
  • See our 5 Things to Know About Israel’s New Opposition Party, “Together,” Quick Facts: Naftali Bennett, and Quick Facts: Yair Lapid for more.

Shas

Party leader: Aryeh Deri
Ideology: Right-wing, religious
Number of Knesset seats won in 2022: 11

  • Shas is an ultra-Orthodox religious party representing Sephardic Jews (Jews of Middle Eastern, north African, and Spanish descent). It was part of the outgoing government before withdrawing in 2025 over the government’s failure to pass a law exempting ultra-Orthodox from conscription but continued to support Netanyahu’s coalition.
  • Although Shas’ longtime spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was a virulently anti-Palestinian racist and Jewish supremacist, in the past the party was open to the establishment of a Palestinian state in the occupied territories as part of a peace agreement. However, in recent decades Shas has moved further to the right along with Israeli society as a whole and now strongly backs Israel’s settlement enterprise and opposes Palestinian statehood.

United Torah Judaism

Party leader: Ya’akov Asher
Ideology: Right-wing, religious
Number of Knesset seats won in 2022: 7

  • United Torah Judaism is made up of three small parties representing ultra-Orthodox Jews of European origin, known as Haredim. While it isn’t officially Zionist, UTJ has been part of numerous Zionist governments and doesn’t support equality for Palestinians, therefore it is effectively Zionist. Like Shas, it was part of the outgoing government before withdrawing its ministers in 2025 over the government’s failure to pass a law exempting ultra-Orthodox from conscription but continued to support Netanyahu’s coalition.
  • Although historically it hasn’t had a clear position regarding the Palestinians, focusing mainly on religious and domestic issues, in 2021 a senior party official said it opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, declaring it’s “something which we cannot agree to in any fashion, since the Land of Israel was given to the People of Israel.” One of the two parties that make up UTJ also backs Israel annexing Gaza and reestablishing settlements there.

Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home)

Party leader: Avigdor Lieberman
Ideology: Far-right
Number of Knesset seats won in 2022: 6

  • Yisrael Beiteinu represents mainly Russian immigrants. Its founder and longtime leader, Avigdor Lieberman, is a Moldovan-born settler known for promoting hardline racist policies and race-baiting against Palestinians with Israeli citizenship. He served as minister of defense (2016-2018) and minister of foreign affairs (2009-2012 & 2013-2015) in previous Netanyahu governments.
  • While in theory Yisrael Beiteinu supports a two-state solution, it also backs the continued expansion of settlements on occupied Palestinian land, the annexation of large so-called settlements “blocs” that carve up the West Bank, and the “transfer” of Palestinian citizens of Israel to a future Palestinian state, stripping them of their Israeli citizenship.
  • See our previous election guide for more on Yisrael Beiteinu and Lieberman.

The Democrats

Party leader: Yair Golan
Ideology: Center-left
Number of Knesset seats won in 2022: 4 (for Labor)

  • The Democrats formed in 2024 from a merger between the Labor Party, which dominated Israeli politics for decades following Israel’s establishment in 1948, and the Meretz party. It has four seats in the outgoing Knesset belonging to Labor.
  • Party leader Golan, who is considered the most moderate of the potential contenders for prime minister, says he supports the “two-state solution” at some point in the future but “not at this time.” In 2025, he called the recognition of a Palestinian state by Canada, France, and several other countries, “destructive.” He instead advocates “a process centered on separation, with security responsibility in Israel’s hands,” which amounts to Israel continuing to dominate and control Palestinians without granting them their freedom or rights.
  • While Golan says if elected he will stop funding small settlement “outposts,” which are illegal under Israeli as well as international law, he also supports the continued expansion of large so-called settlement “blocs” that dissect the West Bank and make the creation of a territorially contiguous Palestinian state impossible. As he said in February 2026: “The settlement blocs are part of Israel… They will be, because there is no other possibility. We will strengthen settlements along the border, but there will be no illegal [outpost] activity.”

Noam

Party leader: Avi Maoz
Ideology: Far-right, religious
Number of Knesset seats won in 2022: 1

  • Noam is a small party composed of ultra-Orthodox Jews best known for being virulently homophobic. In 2019, it sparked controversy with a campaign ad comparing followers of Reform Judaism, left-wingers, and LGBTQ people to Nazis. In 2022, it joined forces with the Religious Zionism and Jewish Power parties, winning one Knesset seat and joining Netanyahu’s government, with leader Maoz becoming a deputy minister in the prime minister’s office. The party left the government in March 2025.
  • While the party is focused primarily on religious and domestic issues, it strongly backs Israel’s settlement enterprise and opposes Palestinian statehood or equal rights in a single state.

Yashar! (Straight)

Party leader: Gadi Eisenkot
Ideology: Center-right
Number of Knesset seats won in 2022: New party

  • Yashar was founded in 2025 by retired general and former Israeli military chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkot, who is best known for formulating the military’s “Dahiya Doctrine,” which calls for the use of disproportionate force and the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, which are war crimes.
  • Eisenkot is categorically opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state telling an interviewer in June 2026: “I have never said two states for two peoples… anyone who talks about ‘peace now’ and two states doesn’t understand the conflict.” In August 2026 he called the two-state solution “delusional.” He also supports the continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank.
  • See our 6 Things to Know About Yashar Party Leader Gadi Eisenkot for more.

The Reservists-New Economic Party

Party leader: Yoaz Hendel
Ideology: Center-right
Number of Knesset seats won in 2022: New party

  • Founded in 2025 by Hendel, who was as an aide to Netanyahu and minister of communications under governments led by Netanyahu (2020) and Naftali Bennet (2021-2022), The Reservists is a small party that primarily represents Israeli military reservists. For the 2026 election, it joined forces to run with the small New Economic Party. Their main priorities are ending the exception that religious Israelis have from serving in the military and economic issues.
  • The Reservists-New Economic Party opposes Palestinian statehood and backs the continued expansion of settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Hendel says he wants to establish a “broad Zionist government” and that he won’t join any government that includes parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel. He also backs the establishment of a government agency to oversee the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.

Non-Zionist parties

Joint List
United Arab List

Joint List

Party leader: Yousef Jabareen
Ideology: Left-wing
Number of Knesset seats won in 2022: 5

  • The Joint List is a coalition of three parties (Hadash, Ta’al, and Balad) that represent Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and left-wing Jewish Israelis.
  • In October 2026, Balad party leader Sami Abu Shehadeh withdrew from the race after being threatened with disqualification over an article he wrote that critics claimed advocated armed struggle against Israel. Abu Shehadeh strenuously denied the accusation, saying he stepped down because he didn’t want the controversy to harm the Joint List’s electoral prospects.
  • The Joint List supports making Israel a state with full equality for all of its citizens, the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied territories, and the return of Palestinian refugees who were expelled from their homes during and after Israel’s establishment.

United Arab List (Ra’am)

Party leader: Mansour Abbas
Ideology: Center-right, religious
Number of Knesset seats won in 2022: 5

  • The United Arab List (also known by its Hebrew acronym, Ra’am) is a small Islamist party that became the first Arab party since 1977 to join a (short-lived) Israeli coalition government under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett after the 2021 election.
  • The party made headlines during the campaign when a Jewish member of the center-right Yesh Atid party switched allegiances and became the UAL’s first Jewish candidate. The move fueled speculation that the UAL might join another coalition government to unseat Netanyahu as it did in 2021.
  • The United Arab List supports the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied territories.

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