Otzma Yehudit gains ground with 8 seats before Israel vote

Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit is polling at about 8 of 120 Knesset seats before Israel’s Oct. 27 election, The Times of Israel/JTA said in an Oct. 17 news article.

The projected result would top the 6 seats Otzma Yehudit won in 2022, while polls cited in the news article project losses for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism.

Ben Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, campaigned in Ramle’s market on Oct. 14, drawing supporters, police, security guards and critics in a mixed Arab-Jewish city.

“Here comes the next defense minister,” teenage supporters wearing Ben Gvir shirts chanted, according to the news article.

Ben Gvir is seeking the defense portfolio after holding the internal-security brief. The visit showed the tension around his campaign: supporters praised his policing and nationalist message, while critics said his politics threatened coexistence.

Hodaya Nabara, 52, said after taking a selfie with him that she backed demolition orders against Bedouin homes built without permits in southern Israel.

“I love Ben Gvir,” Nabara said. “He does what he says he’ll do.”

Michal Sharabi, 53, took the opposite view in Ramle, which the news article described as 78% Jewish and 22% Arab.

“I can’t stand him at all. Because of him, there’s no peace in this country,” Sharabi said.

The news article said Ben Gvir has drawn condemnation in Israel and abroad for dehumanizing language about Palestinians and support for what he calls “voluntary emigration” from Gaza and the West Bank. It also cited his past display of a photograph of Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Muslim worshippers and wounded more than 100 others in Hebron in 1994.

As national security minister, Ben Gvir has downgraded conditions for Palestinian security prisoners, pushed through a law establishing a death penalty for West Bank Palestinians convicted of deadly terrorist acts, and led police during rising settler violence, which he largely denies, the news article said.

Ramle gives those disputes a local charge. The news article said tens of thousands of Arabs were expelled from the city during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, which Palestinians call the Nakba, or catastrophe.

Liron Lavie, an assistant professor in political studies at Bar Ilan University, said Ben Gvir’s appeal fits a wider pattern of far-right parties gaining strength through simple messages and emotional identification.

“Likud and Netanyahu are losing ground,” Lavie said. “They are being criticized about how they managed the situation, either from the center and left or from the right, allowing voters to go to Ben Gvir, who was able to position himself as an [alternative] to Netanyahu from the right.”

Atlas360 reported in July that Ben Gvir had threatened to dismiss Israel’s attorney-general after she moved to curb government actions during the pre-election period.

Israel’s election is scheduled for Oct. 27, when Otzma Yehudit’s seat count can be compared with the polls cited by The Times of Israel/JTA.

Takeaways:

• Otzma Yehudit is polling at about 8 of 120 Knesset seats before Israel’s Oct. 27 election.

• Polls cited by The Times of Israel/JTA project losses for Likud and Religious Zionism.

• Ramle residents split between praise for Ben Gvir’s policing and fears his politics threaten coexistence.

Israel Knesset OtzmaYehudit BenGvir

Source: News article, The Times of Israel/JTA, Oct. 17, 2026