With just weeks left until Israel heads to the polls, the most intense political battleground is unfolding in the air.
Tens of thousands of Israelis living abroad have reportedly booked flights home to vote, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is seeking to keep at least some Israelis stationed there.
On Wednesday, Likud submitted a petition to Israel’s Central Election Committee asking it to block Fly & Vote, a grassroots movement that helps Israeli expatriates fly home on voting day. Likud denounced this as an illegal foreign-funded operation and said it could “severely undermine the integrity of the election.”
In a country where elections are often decided by very close margins, these votes could play a major role in determining the next leader.
Unlike most Western democracies, where citizens abroad can mail in their ballots, Israel does not allow absentee voting. Only diplomats and ministers can vote from abroad. Ordinary citizens abroad (up to 10% of the population at any given time) will be stripped of their voting rights unless they return home.
Adi Ayash, an Israeli digital content creator living in Thailand, said there was no question of returning to the polls. “As someone who is deeply involved and very concerned about the realities of the (current) Israeli leadership, I feel it is my duty,” he told CNN. “It strikes me as extremely hypocritical not to exercise your democratic rights because of the cost of a flight or convenience.”
The Oct. 27 vote will be the first national election after four tumultuous years under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing and ultra-Orthodox coalition government. This coalition included massive protests by liberal Israelis against judicial reforms and the October 7 attacks in 2023, which were followed by a three-year multi-front war. According to the latest opinion polls, both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and the sharply divided opposition party fall short of the 61-seat majority needed to form a government. Likud fears the influx of Israeli expatriates could help the opposition in a close election.
“Fly & Vote” was launched by the American-Israel Democracy AID Coalition, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization founded in 2023, whose mission is “strengthening the foundations of Israel’s democracy.” The group says it doesn’t directly pay for anyone’s travel, but uses technology to search commercial listings for affordable and creative air routes and group fares. It also helps with logistics such as verifying eligibility and arranging charter flights when demand guarantees and commercial options are insufficient. The group says more than 35,000 Israelis have registered, and an internal survey says more than 50,000 plan to return to vote.
“There’s something bigger going on here. There’s an international movement from all over the world. This is a national event,” said Fly & Vote co-founder Batel Breisch Sultanik, comparing it to the wave of citizens who returned to enlist after Oct. 7.
“Israelis understand that their vote matters,” Sultanik added. She insists the effort is bipartisan and that participants receive no money or benefits from the group. “We don’t ask or confirm who we’re voting for behind the ballot box,” she told CNN. “It’s about the right to vote.”
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party disagrees. The party says in its petition that the coalition is a political group created to channel American donations to Israeli protest groups. Likud claims to be tied to the opposition Democratic Party. The group and the party deny any relationship.
Even if participants paid for their own tickets, Likud argues that priority flight access and group discounts are prohibited perks and amount to electoral bribery under Israeli law. The petition also points to another AID coalition project called “FLY AND AID,” which offers $250 gift cards for volunteer work in Israel. “This is clearly a political group trying to influence the electoral system,” the petition says. Project organizers say they have never enabled a gift card option.
Likud’s efforts have only strengthened the resolve of some Israelis to return to elections. Josh Drill, who is flying in from New York with the Fly & Vote group, told CNN: “Any attempt to thwart our democratic right to vote only strengthens our resolve to get on the plane, vote and participate in this election to shape Israel’s future.”
Guy Lurie, a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, said the outcome of the Likud petition will depend on the evidence. “It depends on the facts and evidence presented to the Central Election Commission. The legal question centers on whether the organization of flights without direct funding constitutes a prohibited interest, and whether Likud can substantiate its claim that this initiative constitutes a foreign legal activity,” he said.
The AID coalition maintains that it operates within the law and provides services to all Israelis abroad. “Likud calls for Israeli citizens who boarded planes after October 7, tax-paying citizens who want to be involved in their homeland, to be denied the right and obligation to participate in determining the future of the state of Israel,” the group said in a statement.
Opposition parties are raising other concerns. Likud’s control of the Ministry of Transport and the Airports Authority has led to a scenario in which flight slots will be restricted or disrupted around the election date. A July report in Haaretz suggested there were discussions within the ministry about reducing operations on October 27, and lawmakers and the Israel Civil Rights Association called on the Central Elections Committee to guarantee that the skies would be open and that flight operations would be uninterrupted. “Reducing the ability to travel to vote for Israel from abroad is a serious violation of the freedom to vote and the most basic democratic mechanisms,” the opposition Yesh Atid party said in a statement.
Transport Minister Miri Regev, a Likud, dismissed the report as “a complete lie.”
“During the war, I kept the skies open,” she said in a video posted on social media. “Does anyone really think I’m going to shut down the skies on Election Day? And who said it’s only leftists who travel abroad and come home on Election Day?”
Notably, ultra-Orthodox voters have traditionally returned en masse, mainly from New York, without similar opposition, and Likud has previously pushed for legislation to allow external voting from abroad. Not this time.
Far-right Communications Minister Shomo Karhi recently said in a radio interview that Israelis abroad who want to influence the country’s future should immigrate. “Whoever doesn’t live here should not come just in the name of ‘Just Not Bibi’ – trying to replace the government,” he said.
