Israeli First-Time Voters Lean Far Right Ahead of Election, Polls Show

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is drawing crowds of young supporters as he campaigns ahead of next week's general election, in which more than half a million people will cast a ballot for the first time. At a covered market in Ramle, a mixed Jewish and Arab city, he was surrounded by flag-waving fans, according to BBC News. Polling for the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth suggests more than 16% of first-time voters intend to back far-right parties — either Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power or Religious Zionism, led by his ally Bezalel Smotrich.

Those new voters could prove decisive in what polls indicate is a tight race between two stable blocs of government and opposition supporters. A separate survey for Channel 12 found almost three-quarters of first-time voters describe themselves as right or centre-right. Ben-Gvir, who was rejected from the Israeli army three decades ago for being too politically extreme, is now a senior minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition.

His platform includes annexation of the occupied West Bank, Jewish settlement of Gaza and what he describes as the voluntary emigration of Palestinians — positions liberal Israelis widely condemn. Several Western countries have imposed sanctions or travel bans on both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich over incitement against Palestinians. At the Ramle market, some shopkeepers threw sweets at his entourage while others gave them dark looks; one stallholder told the BBC the minister sows discord and preys on young, uneducated people.

Young backers cited security as their main motivation. A 20-year-old named Mordechai said Ben-Gvir gave him a sense of security and that occasional slips of the tongue did not matter, while 18-year-old Nadav said the minister was showing that Israel is a strong country. Meir Schreiber, a 23-year-old ultra-Orthodox voter who grew up in London, told the BBC the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks had convinced him Ben-Gvir was the right choice.

Political analyst Dahlia Scheindlin, who has run Israeli election campaigns, said the trend predates the Gaza war. She noted that young Jewish Israelis have been more right-wing than the 55-plus group for roughly 20 years, growing up through successive wars without personal experience of peace efforts. In her view, they have been socialised into treating annexation, settlement expansion and, after 7 October, the annexation of Gaza as legitimate terms of debate.

Opposition parties are trying to reach the same voters with warnings about threats to democracy, social media videos and younger candidates. Yonatan Shalev, a 24-year-old candidate for the centre-right Beyachad party led by former prime minister Naftali Bennett, said Ben-Gvir grasped the power of TikTok and Instagram before his rivals did, while young Israelis increasingly ignore television news and newspapers. The race remains deeply divided: Ben-Gvir was shouted down by protesters and forced off stage at a student event in Tel Aviv, and surveys suggest first-time voters are highly motivated — more than 80% say they are likely to vote — but also more sceptical of democratic institutions than their parents' generation.