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
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'Haaretz' newspaper (Photo: Hmbr/Wikimedia/CC)
A different look at democracy: Impressions from a ‘Haaretz’ conference
What does it feel like to be thought of as someone who endangers democracy? Sometimes, all it takes is having dark skin, curls and a kippa. Thoughts on Mizrahi identity from Haaretz’s Conference on Democracy. By Eli Bareket Several weeks ago I attended the Israel Conference on Democracy sponsored by the liberal Haaretz daily. It was…
By Haokets March 1, 2015
A vendor in Nablus uses a candle in his store, after Israel Electric Company deliberately shut down power to the city and the surrounding area. (photo: Ahmad al-Bazz/Activestills.org)
PHOTOS: Israel cuts off Palestinian power twice in one week
Photos and text by Ahmad Al-Bazz At the height of a harsh winter season, the Israel Electric Company cut power to two major Palestinian cities in the West Bank twice over this past week. Nearly 650,000 people were left without power for an entire hour in the middle of the day in Jenin, Nablus and 18…
By Activestills February 28, 2015
Star of David built by settlers in West Bank (photo: Guy Hircefeld)
PHOTO: Settlers build Star of David on Palestinian land
Settlers built a Star of David made out of rocks on private Palestinian lands in the village of Shweika in the South Hebron Hills on Saturday. The settlers, who live in the illegal outpost Eshtamoa near the village, built the Star of David in order to obstruct Palestinian residents’ sheep from grazing, and as a crude…
By Mairav Zonszein February 28, 2015
An Israeli border policeman uses pepper spray against a protester during a demonstration marking a decade of popular struggle against the wall in the West Bank village Bil'in, February 27, 2015. (photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)
PHOTOS: Pepper spray and arrests as Bil’in marks decade of struggle
Text by Haggai Matar Photos by Yotam Ronen, Shiraz Grinbaum, Miki Kratsman / Activestills.org Nearly 1,000 protesters — Palestinians, Israelis and internationals — marched to celebrate 10 years of popular struggle in the West Bank village Bil’in. Soldiers responded with tear gas, pepper spray and arrests. One Palestinian was badly wounded. Meanwhile, activists marked 21…
By Haggai Matar February 28, 2015
THUMB - FAIR USE ONLY
‘The media makes Israeli Jews ignorant of Arab society’
How much do this country’s Jews really know about Arab society, especially around election time? The head of the Mossawa Center, Jafar Farah, says Israelis have only their media to blame for their ignorance. By Oren Persico The last attempt by the Mossawa Center to ensure fair representation for the Arab population in Israel’s news…
By The Seventh Eye February 27, 2015
WATCH: From Ofer prison to the Knesset?
Attorney Gaby Lasky spends her days fighting the occupation in Israel’s military courts. Now she is fighting to make it into the next Knesset with the left-wing Meretz party. An elections special. Video by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org For Palestinians in the West Bank, Ofer Military Court has come to be known as a symbol of the…
By Activestills February 27, 2015
‘A consciousness free of occupation’: Bil’in marks 10 years of popular struggle
The village that managed to unite the world behind the spirit of nonviolent Palestinian protest marks not only a decade of tear gas, night raids and tragedy, but also of co-resistance and victories in its struggle against settlements, the separation barrier and the occupation. Anyone who has visited the West Bank village of Bil’in on…
By Haggai Matar February 26, 2015
The Israel-Palestine Lorde diaries, chapter 13: Overwhelmed
In this country, looking at things differently can really get your head spinning. Part 13 of 15. To read the rest of the series, click here. And so the project took a real conceptual shift. There was no denying it: this was the same shift my own political views took in recent years. Once I strongly…
By Yuval Ben-Ami February 26, 2015
PM Netanyahu's addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress, May 24, 2011 (Photo: GPO)
Stop giving Netanyahu publicity
The best way to object to Netanyahu, his Congress speech and his policies, is to ignore him. Since the Netanyahu Congress speech episode began last month, the press, and specifically foreign press, has been flooded with items on the Israeli prime minister. Not a day has gone by without a headline about Netanyahu’s lavish spending, incompetence…
By Mairav Zonszein February 26, 2015
Bi'lin Palestinian popular resistance leader Abdullah Abu Rahme (Activestills)
Palestinian activist explains the Israeli elections
Bil’in protest leader Abdullah Abu-Rahme: If Israelis must decide between Labor and Likud, they might as well just vote for Liberman instead. The residents of the West Bank village Bil’in are in close contact with the Israeli state. For the past ten years, they have been waging a popular struggle against the separation barrier that…
By Haggai Matar February 26, 2015
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