Israel heads to the polls on October 27 amid scrutiny of parties' votes on Palestinian measures
Israelis are scheduled to vote in Knesset elections on October 27, 2026. The contest is widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rule, according to the Associated Press, and it is the first national vote since the war in Gaza and the wars involving Lebanon and Iran.
Ahead of the ballot, Al Jazeera published an analysis on October 21 that looked at how every party in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, voted on the most consequential measures affecting Palestinians. The analysis covers votes from July 2024 to March 2026. It reports that the opposition and the Netanyahu government often voted together on such measures. Since the Gaza war began in October 2023, the Knesset has passed or advanced a series of laws and motions affecting Palestinians, including ones rejecting Palestinian statehood, backing the annexation of the occupied West Bank and cutting off aid to Palestinians.
The Knesset has 120 seats, and a prime minister needs at least 61 of them to form a government. No party has ever won an outright majority, so governments are built from coalitions, which are alliances of parties. To win any seats, a party must capture at least 3.25 per cent of the national vote. A bill must pass three votes in the Knesset before it becomes law.
The current government took shape after the November 2022 election. Netanyahu's Likud, with 32 seats, formed a 64-seat coalition with Shas, United Torah Judaism and the Religious Zionism alliance. Al Jazeera described it as Israel's most right-wing government to date. Bezalel Smotrich, who heads Religious Zionism, serves as finance minister and also holds authority over civilian affairs in the West Bank, including settlement planning.
Al Jazeera has noted that in Israel, left and right are defined less by economic policy than by the conflict with Palestinians. The left is associated with territorial compromise and negotiations, while the right is associated with opposing a Palestinian state and supporting settlement growth.
Another Al Jazeera analysis, published on October 11, argued that the election appears less a demand for change than a further entrenchment of the nationalism that surged after October 7, 2023. The same piece framed the vote as a test of that mood rather than a clear shift in direction.
