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
Border police officers stands in front of Palestinians as they wait to cross from Qalandiya checkpoint outside Ramallah, West Bank, into Jerusalem to attend the Ramadan Friday Prayers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, July 26, 2013.
Just another exclusionary democracy in the Mideast
This state has never truly recognized the injustices it is responsible for: the Nakba, the occupation or the poor treatment of Mizrahim. And yet, we still have an obligation to try and make this a place worth living in.  Israeli society isn’t ready for a political party with “too many women,” said one female political…
By Samah Salaime February 3, 2015
Hadash Chairman Ayman Odeh. Odeh was elected to first place in the united Arab slate. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Israeli media coverage: An election with no Arabs?
What does it say about the mainstream media when it took over two months for one of Israel’s most well-read newspapers to include a photo of a non-Jew in its special elections coverage section?  Oren Persico / ‘The 7th Eye‘ On Monday morning, six weeks before the upcoming elections, the Israel Hayom daily finally began publishing the…
By The Seventh Eye February 3, 2015
"Night Raid", from the times when soldiers would go on nightly invasion to Bil'in to arrest activists (Hamde Abu Rahma, from the book)
IDF suspends plan to minimize nighttime arrests of children
Despite concerns raised by the international community, the army suspends a pilot program meant to lessen the number of Palestinian children arrested in night raids. By Gerard Horton A pilot program by the Israeli army in order to lessen the number of Palestinian children arrested in nighttime raids has been suspended, according to Israel’s chief military prosecutor.…
By +972 Magazine February 2, 2015
Free speech silenced (Yossi Gurvitz)
The thin line between incitement and freedom of the press
On the face of it, a protest by Likud youth against one of Israel’s most prominent newspapers seems like a non-issue. But in the context of last summer’s war and the growing threats against left-wing journalists, freedom of the press may no longer be able to protect the media. By Gaby Goldman Journalists, editors, media…
By +972 Magazine February 2, 2015
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Photo by Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)
What do you call a politician who promises more war?
Election season is a time when most people expect to be presented with a hopeful vision for the future. In Israel, every single leading political figure is promising more of the same. Israel’s election season officially went into full swing over the weekend as lists of candidates were finalized and the deadline for parties to…
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man February 1, 2015
Hundreds of Palestinians participate in the funeral of Ahmed Najjar (19 years-old), who was shot to death by the Israeli army on Saturday, nearby his village Burin, Nablus, West Bank, February 1st, 2015. (photo: Ahmad al-Bazz/Activestills.org)
PHOTOS: Hundreds mourn Palestinian teen shot by Israeli army
Photos and text: Ahmad al-Bazz / Activestills.org Hundreds of Palestinians participated today in the funeral of 19-year-old Ahmed Najjar, who was shot to death by the Israeli army on Saturday outside village of Burin, near Nablus. The army claimed that Najjar was about to throw a molotov cocktail at passing vehicles near the village. Medical sources…
By Activestills February 1, 2015
Bulldozers in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc. (flickr / ☪yrl CC BY-NC 2.0)
The fraud of Gush Etzion, Israel’s mythological settlement bloc
Destroyed by Arab armies during the 1948 War, Gush Etzion was repopulated after Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967. Since then, successive Israeli governments have done everything they can to expand the area of the mythological bloc, while settling Israelis on privately-owned Palestinian land.  By Hillel Bardin and Dror Etkes All American children learn…
By +972 Magazine February 1, 2015
The Israel-Palestine Lorde diaries, Chapter 6: Crossing over
It’s time for the local Lorde tribute to go over the Line, in more than one way.   Read the previous chapters of The Israel-Palestine Lorde Diaries here. On Boxing Day we traveled down to Bethlehem. We were five: my girlfriend Ruthie, three members of her research team (she is a doctoral student of social psychology)…
By Yuval Ben-Ami February 1, 2015
Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, Jerusalem 2009 (Eileen Fleming CC BY-3.0)
High Court: State can continue restricting Mordechai Vanunu’s freedoms
Nearly 11 years after he was released from an 18-year prison sentence for leaking information on Israel’s top-secret nuclear program, Mordechai Vanunu is still prevented from doing just about anything an average citizen can.  Three High Court justices ruled earlier this week that Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu will able allowed extremely limited contact with…
By Haggai Matar January 31, 2015
Police arrest a young protester during clashes in Kafr Kanna. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
To fight police violence, address their racism
The killing of a young Bedouin man from Rahat and the death of another during the funeral have deepened the city’s lack of faith in the authorities. Only anti-racism education for police and young people alike can stop the landslide. By Kher Albaz The Or Commission, which investigated the shooting deaths of 13 Arab demonstrators…
By Haokets January 31, 2015
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  2. 50 shades of right: An Israeli election primer
  3. Eisenkot is trying to outflank Netanyahu on the right. It’s a failed strategy
  4. Israel's election won't change the renewed reality of political apartheid
  5. Jewish Israelis must do more than stand together with Palestinians
  1. ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
  2. Days away from Israeli elections, a ‘sour mood’ pervades the Haredi street
  3. ‘We’ve paid the price for war. We haven’t yet reaped the fruits of peace’
  4. Jewish Israelis must do more than stand together with Palestinians
  5. Why ‘NAZA’ terrifies Israel's liberal elite
  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. ‘NAZA’ is forcing Israelis to reflect. But we Palestinians are not your mirror