Israeli Politicsupdated 40m ago3 min read
Tens Of Thousands Of Israelis Abroad Fly To Tel Aviv To Vote Against Netanyahu
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Tens of thousands of Israelis abroad fly to Tel Aviv to vote. Estimated 65,000–67,000 overseas Israelis traveled, from the US and Europe.
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Abroad voters return
Tens of thousands of Israeli residents abroad are flying to Tel Aviv to physically deposit their ballots because Israel does not allow voting by mail or at embassies for its 810,000 adults abroad.
Shira Carmel returned to Israel after moving to Australia on October 17, 2023, and she said she did it because voting this Tuesday for Benjamin Netanyahu matters to her more than the travel time and the 5,800 euros that four plane tickets cost her.
Carmel described the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, when a missile fired from Gaza fell on her street, and she said, "I was very afraid. And immediately the 'Together we will win' began".
Carmel said she fears Netanyahu will attack Iran again before the elections and she won’t be able to leave, and she added that a child of school age, six, would be able to understand what is happening.
Fly&Vote published an updated estimate this Thursday that 67,000 Israelis abroad will travel to vote on Tuesday, and the initiative is linked to AID Coalition that was born from protests against Netanyahu over judicial reform in 2023.
Tight race and legal fight
Overseas voters are flying in to vote for a "change" of government and to end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s time in office, and Ben said, "You see so many people coming in from overseas, and you don't cross the world if you're happy with the current outcome." An estimated 67,000 Israelis living in the US and Europe entered the country to vote in Tuesday’s election, and the surge is described as 25 per cent above expected figures that could affect a very tight election. A Likud petition seeking to restrict Fly&Vote’s activities was withdrawn after a settlement reached before Judge Noam Sohlberg, chair of the Central Elections Committee, on October 6.
Yehonatan Bar Sadeh, president of the AID Coalition, said, "The future of the State of Israel matters so much to them that they are taking time off work or from their studies". Fly&Vote’s survey, conducted between October 12 and 21 and involving approximately 23,000 Israelis living abroad, found that 79.6% of respondents intend to travel to Israel to participate in the elections.
What could decide the outcome
A University of Kansas expert, Rami Zeedan, said Israel’s Oct. 27 election may hinge less on shifts between major parties than on turnout among key constituencies, how many Israelis living abroad return to vote, and how many votes go to parties that fail to cross the electoral threshold.
Zeedan said the third variable is Israel’s 3.25% electoral threshold, and he warned, "The threshold can magnify relatively small polling errors," because a party either crosses it and receives four or more seats or receives none.
Zeedan said the decisive question will be whether a political leader can assemble support of at least 61 members of the 120-seat Knesset, and he said, "On election night, we should ask three questions: Who turned out?"
The Jerusalem Post said Fly&Vote’s survey, conducted between October 12 and 21 and involving approximately 23,000 Israelis living abroad, found that 79.6% of respondents intend to travel to Israel to participate in the elections.
Zeedan would monitor participation among Haredi voters and Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel, and he said Arab turnout has varied considerably across elections, making seat distribution especially important.