Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Hatikva Market in Tel Aviv as part of the Likud party’s election campaign, October 22, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

50 shades of right: An Israeli election primer

While Netanyahu’s bloc adds more extremists to its ranks, his opponents are impeding their own path to power by refusing to work with Arab parties.
By Ben Reiff
Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh, surrounded by MK Ahmad Tibi and Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen, at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem for a hearing on the Central Elections Committee’s decision to disqualify candidates and parties from running in the upcoming Knesset elections, October 1, 2026. (Oren Ziv)

Israel’s election won’t change the renewed reality of political apartheid

Abu Shehadeh’s disqualification sends a clear message: Jewish-majority state institutions now determine who represents Palestinian citizens.
By Areej Sabbagh-Khoury
Election campaign billboards featuring Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot and Likud party chairman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alongside opposition leaders, displayed on a road in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, October 17, 2026. (Sharon Leibel/Flash90)

Eisenkot is trying to outflank Netanyahu on the right. It’s a failed strategy

The more hawkish the opposition leader is, the harder it is to explain what alternative he offers — and he’s not the first to make that mistake.
By Amos Brison
Finance Minister and Religious Zionist Party chairman Bezalel Smotrich tours the Mahane Yehuda Market as part of the party’s election campaign, in Jerusalem, October 9, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Why Smotrich still defines the horizon of Israeli politics

Israeli liberals have acceded to the maximalist vision of the MK's 2017 ‘Decisive Plan’ — while claiming to oppose ‘messianic’ violence.
By Avi-ram Tzoreff
Leena Dallasheh (courtesy)
PODCAST

What’s at stake for Palestinian citizens in Israel’s election?

Leena Dallasheh discusses the echoes of military rule in today’s crackdown on Palestinian dissent, and the struggle for a more substantive form of citizenship.
By +972 Magazine
Latest
An injured Palestinian child awaits treatment at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City following Israeli attacks, July 30, 2014. Basel Yazouri / Activestills.org
Learning to photograph while running in Gaza
Opening at Jaffa Theatre on Thursday as part of Tel Aviv’s Solidarity Festival, an exhibition will feature the work of Activestills, including Gaza photographer Basel Yazouri. Having joined Activestills a few months before last summer’s offensive, his work has been published in various international platforms, including +972 Magazine. But unlike his Israeli colleagues, the 19-year-old Gaza City resident…
By Activestills April 29, 2015
Thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel demonstrate against the government's housing discrimination and policy of home demolitions, Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, April 28, 2015. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
PHOTOS: Thousands protest policy of home demolitions in Tel Aviv
Some 50,000 Palestinian homes in Israel are under threat of demolition. The Israeli government is not addressing the serious housing crisis among the Arab population, activists and politicians say. Photos by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org Several thousand Palestinian citizens of Israel held a demonstration in the center of Tel Aviv Tuesday evening, demanding an end to home…
By Activestills April 28, 2015
IDF soldier attacks photojournalists in Nabi Saleh, April 24, 2015. (Screenshot: Miki Kratsman/Activestills.org)
WATCH: IDF officer gets prison for throwing stones at journalists
The incident is not the first time Israeli security officials have been documented attacking journalists at West Bank protests, and in the village of Nabi Saleh. An IDF officer videotaped throwing rocks at Israeli and Palestinian photojournalists last week was sentenced to two weeks in prison. A second officer was sentenced to 30 days confinement…
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man April 28, 2015
Joint List MKs celebrate on election night, Nazareth, March 17, 2015. (Akron Darwishi/Activestills.org)
Why the Arabs are coming to Tel Aviv
It used to be that when Israel demolished Arab homes there would be a spontaneous strike and reactionary protest in some of the Arab cities. But there is a new political force leading Palestinian citizens of Israel, and this time, the protest is coming to Tel Aviv. The average Israeli does not understand the dramatic…
By Samah Salaime April 28, 2015
The Palestine Gazelle (Photo: Jerusalem Biblical Zoo)
Zoological terrorism? Israelis up in arms over ‘Palestine Gazelle’
A Facebook post livid at the fact that the Palestine Gazelle at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo is being listed as such has been making some waves on Israeli social media today. The status was posted by Israeli right-wing protofascist Yoav Eliassi, who goes by “The Shadow” (and was involved in violence against leftists protesting the Gaza war…
By Mairav Zonszein April 27, 2015
The Israel-Palestine Lorde Project
Putting together an homage to your favorite singer is a trivial thing — if you live in a normal country. It started off as a simple enough idea: let’s make a musical tribute to Lorde, New Zealand’s young and upbeat singer-songwriter. I’m crazy about Lorde’s music, despite being nearly 40 years old and usually more…
By Yuval Ben-Ami April 27, 2015
Ongoing construction work in the Pisgat Ze'ev settlement in East Jerusalem, as seen from the Anata neighborhood on August 29, 2012. Under international law, all of the new Jewish neighborhood established by Israel after 1967 are deemed to be illegal and supposedly to be "removed" as a prelude to a peace agreement. In the meantime, residents of Anata complain of having lost a lot of land and access to the hill on which this neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev is built, although they add that several local families have actually moved to the settlement in order to find themselves on the right side of the Separation Wall, and avoid having to go through a checkpoint several times a day. (photo: JC/Activestills.org)
Israel issues E. J’lem settlement tenders as violence spikes
Pisgat Ze’ev is one of Israel’s ‘ring neighborhoods,’ separating Palestinian East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. Settlement watchdog says tenders could not have been published without Netanyahu’s approval. The Israeli government published tenders for 77 new housing units in the settlements of Pisgat Ze’ev and Neve Yaakov in occupied East Jerusalem Monday…
By Natasha Soffer-Roth April 27, 2015
EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, July 11, 2014. (EU Photo)
Israeli Right renews its fight on funding for human rights orgs
Legislative attacks on EU funding of human rights activities could backfire by forcing the Europeans to revisit the basis for its entire economic relationship with Israel — something that not even BDS has succeeded at accomplishing. The Israeli Right is once again seeking to introduce legislation that would limit the ability of human rights and…
By Noam Sheizaf April 27, 2015
BDS graffiti on Israeli separation wall, Bethlehem, West Bank, June 17, 2014. (Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)
Congress: There is no legitimate form of Palestinian resistance
Congress uses U.S. trade policy to undercut European pressure against Israeli settlements. A new U.S. bill legitimizes Israeli settlements and delegitimizes Palestinian non-violent resistance to the occupation. The United States Congress is about to pass a law that erases the Green Line and delegitimizes one of the most effective non-violent tools Palestinians have for fighting…
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man April 26, 2015
A view of olive trees and a stone home near Bethlehem. (Photo: Mariait/Shutterstock.com)
The Long Road to Bethlehem: Part two
In part one, Jewish journalist Mya Guarnieri concludes she can no longer live in Israel, that love cannot survive being separated by an eight-meter concrete wall. But navigating Palestinian society as a Jew and living with the haunting tribulations of the occupation isn’t any easier.
By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat April 26, 2015
Most Read
  1. 50 shades of right: An Israeli election primer
  2. ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
  3. Israel's election won't change the renewed reality of political apartheid
  4. Jewish Israelis must do more than stand together with Palestinians
  5. Eisenkot is trying to outflank Netanyahu on the right. It’s a failed strategy
  1. ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
  2. 50 shades of right: An Israeli election primer
  3. Jewish Israelis must do more than stand together with Palestinians
  4. Eisenkot is trying to outflank Netanyahu on the right. It’s a failed strategy
  5. Why Smotrich still defines the horizon of Israeli politics
  1. ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
  2. Why ‘NAZA’ terrifies Israel's liberal elite
  3. Debunking Israel’s latest list of ‘terrorist’ journalists in Gaza
  4. ‘The Gaza Holocaust won't be forgotten’: An Israeli musician screams into the void
  5. Israel’s flailing chatbot army