JERUSALEM (RNS) — Corinne Markov, a dual Australian-Israeli citizen, and her partner, Hallie, will travel from rural Australia to vote in Israel’s Oct. 27 election, a journey of thousands of miles they feel compelled to make at a moment when the country is facing stark questions about its future.
“It’s too important an election not to come,” said Markov, a counselor who lived in Israel for 18 years before returning to Australia in 2000. “This government has not just created huge divisions within Israeli society. Jewish people overseas have suffered as well from the behavior of this government.”
Markov is one of the tens of thousands of Israeli expatriates who are expected to travel to Israel to cast their ballots, according to the America Israel Democracy (AID) Coalition. In the first national election after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and three years of war in Gaza, many consider this election a do-or-die situation for the future of the country.
To encourage voting, the coalition has launched an initiative called Fly&Vote, which provides Israelis abroad with logistical information to travel to Israel for the election, including a list of the documents they need, a flight search engine and the location of polling stations.
Jonathan Barsade, president of the AID Coalition, told RNS a recent survey by the group found at least 53,000 Israeli citizens living abroad plan to return to vote. About half are from Europe, 45% from the United States and 5% from other countries.
For Israelis living overseas, voting requires being physically present in the country on Election Day. Only diplomats and Israelis working on seafaring vessels may vote by absentee ballot, so expats must absorb the cost and time off if they want to participate in elections.
During the planning process, some expats were shocked to learn they are ineligible to vote because they are no longer on the voter registry. Israel’s High Court ruled against a petition brought by 100 disqualified voters on procedural grounds earlier this month.
Barsade said his organization is not connected to specific political parties, does not provide any financial incentives to vote and is not subsidizing flights.
“Our only goal is to encourage people to vote,” he said. “Israel is at a crossroads. These elections are critical. Every vote counts.”
Still, the effort has become politically contentious. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened legal action against the initiative, reportedly believing that Israelis who have moved abroad — especially since Oct. 7 and the resulting war — are more likely to support left and centrist parties that seek to replace the far-right Netanyahu government. The controversy has centered in part on whether enabling travel could amount to an illegal inducement to vote.
Israel’s election laws prohibit offering bribes or benefits such as free accommodations or flights to voters in order to influence their vote. Barsade said his organization adheres to the law.
Netanyahu’s opponents say his Likud party did not complain when ultra-Orthodox groups abroad organized charter flights to enable thousands of ultra-Orthodox Israelis, who tend to support right-wing parties, to fly to Israel to vote in past elections. An unknown number are expected to do so for this election as well.
Jonathan Grossman, a senior lecturer in political studies at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, said some Israelis always fly in to vote. But for many, this election feels especially crucial because of the current government’s handling of the Gaza war and how it has prioritized settlement expansion while generally ignoring settler violence in the West Bank. Others fear that a more politically and religiously moderate government will sacrifice Israel’s security and force ultra-Orthodox men to serve in the military.
“It is impossible to really measure how many will come, but you can feel the buzz on social media,” Grossman said. “In the days after the election was announced, we saw so many Israelis abroad post photos of their flight tickets.”
Grossman believes the high number of potential voters may have something to do with the higher rate of emigration in recent years, especially by young, secular and politically liberal Israelis. Although people leave for a variety of reasons, he said, “polls show the political situation was a significant cause” for recent emigrants.
Many in the Israeli diaspora still feel “very connected” to Israel, “and some might return here to live if Israel becomes more democratic again,” Grossman said.
“They feel they have a stake in the country: family, friends and quite a few work for Israel companies or organizations,” he said. “But they feel that the current Israeli government is excluding large parts of the Jewish diaspora — both Israelis and non-Israelis, Reform and Conservative Jews, pluralists and leftists.”
Grossman said he knows of young expats who are yearning to vote but who cannot take off from work and/or have young children. Plane tickets are costly as well.
The political engagement of Israelis abroad reflects a broader transformation in the relationship between Israel and its diaspora, he added. Until the 1970s, emigration carried a stigma. Then, successive governments began to view the Israeli diaspora as a strategic asset.
Given the wide range of support expats provide to Israel, many believe they deserve to have a say in who leads the country and how it sets its priorities. “We see this trend in many countries,” Grossman said.
For some, the decision to vote is being driven by fear about where Israel is headed.
Chaia Beckerman of Houston, Texas, said she is returning to Israel for the first time in several years because the stakes in this election are so high. And in a country much smaller than the United States, with a lower threshold to win one of the Knesset’s 120 seats, every single vote counts.
“Even though my husband and I are just two votes, I feel I have to do what I can as an Israeli to change things,” she said. “We’re anxious about Israel and what it’s doing and what I see as Israel taking steps leading to self-destruction. That sounds hyperbolic, but I look at the ancient Jewish temples and how long Jewish sovereignty lasted. I really fear for Israel.”
Beckerman’s trip will include time spent in the West Bank volunteering with Rabbis for Human Rights to help protect West Bank Palestinians from potential attacks by violent Jewish settlers.
David Hill, a former kibbutz resident who opened a lawn irrigation company when he returned to Montreal 20 years later, believes his vote will help not only Israelis living in Israel, but Jews in the diaspora as well.
“In the past, a lot of Israelis felt that if you don’t live in the country, you don’t have a stake in what goes on there and you shouldn’t vote,” he said. “The truth is, in the last few years, whenever someone makes a statement, it’s affecting Jewish communities worldwide.”
Anti-Israel activists often point to actions carried out by the Israeli government to justify verbal and sometimes physical attacks on diaspora Jews. Hill said that Israeli extremist lawmakers like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir “make it really difficult for liberal Jews to defend Israel.” Yet even if a more moderate government is voted in, “I don’t think it’s going to provide an immediate solution. It’s not like there will be peace in the Middle East tomorrow, regardless of the outcome,” he added.
Eric N., an expat living in New Jersey who asked that his last name not be published, said he will vote “because I love my country.” His hope is that the next government will also be right-wing. He supports a greater Jewish presence in the West Bank.
But like the majority of Israelis, he wants ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in the military, despite the refusal of most to do so. “As a veteran reservist who came from New Jersey to serve in the IDF for more than 300 days since Oct. 7, I think it’s ridiculous that a population of more than one million people doesn’t do anything for the national effort,” he said.
Avishai Ben-David, an Israeli scientist who lived in the United States for decades before relocating to Switzerland, said his ties with his native country remain strong. He specifically expressed concerns that if Israel annexes the West Bank, as some right-wing lawmakers support, the country would need to give Palestinians in annexed areas the right to vote. That means Israel would cease to be “Jewish in character,” he said. But denying them the vote, as Netanyahu has said would be the case, “will signal the end of democracy,” Ben-David said.
“I want Israel to be a liberal, democratic and progressive country,” he said. “This is why I am coming from Switzerland to vote.”