Tens of thousands of Israelis living abroad are travelling home to vote in Tuesday’s election, hoping to help remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office in a contest expected to be closely fought between his governing coalition and Jewish opposition parties.
Israel generally does not allow its approximately 810,000 adult citizens living overseas to vote at embassies or by post, with limited exceptions. Those wishing to participate must therefore travel to Israel to cast their ballots. The initiative Fly&Vote estimated on Thursday that 67,000 expatriates would return for the election, 14,000 more than it had forecast in early October.
Shira Carmel, a 45-year-old professional musician who moved to Melbourne with her family, is among those making the journey. She left Israel on 17 October 2023, ten days after Hamas’s attack, following an incident in which a missile fired from Gaza landed on her street as she ran to shelter with her young son. She had discovered three days earlier that she was pregnant with her second child.
Carmel said the atmosphere following the attack contributed to her decision to leave. She described the widespread slogan “Together we will win” as deeply distressing and said she felt alienated by what she saw as the country’s rapid mobilisation for war. She had expected Israel’s invasion of Gaza to last only one or two months, but has not returned until now, citing successive conflicts, disrupted flights, the expense of travelling from Australia and concern that another confrontation with Iran could leave her stranded.
The journey has cost her family €5,800 for four return air tickets. Nevertheless, she said voting was important enough to justify the expense. Carmel plans to support the Democrats, the only Jewish party in parliament that still advocates a two-state solution, although its leader, Yair Golan, has said such an outcome is unlikely in the coming years.
“I want to influence these elections if there is any possibility that they will have an impact,” she said, adding that others could not afford to make the journey.
Fly&Vote has become a focal point for expatriates opposed to Netanyahu. Although the initiative describes itself as non-partisan and does not endorse candidates, it is linked to AID Coalition, an organisation that emerged from protests against the prime minister’s judicial overhaul in 2023.
In September, Netanyahu’s Likud party filed a complaint with the Central Elections Committee, accusing the initiative of interfering in the election. It withdrew the complaint after an agreement that Fly&Vote would not organise further flights or subsidise tickets or other services.
The organisation’s estimate is based on a survey of 23,000 Israelis living abroad conducted between 12 and 21 October. Of those surveyed, 79% said they intended to travel to Israel to vote, with 48% expecting to come from the United States and 37% from Europe. By comparison, the organisation said only 14% of eligible expatriates returned to vote in the 2022 election. The actual number of returning voters and their political preferences remain difficult to establish because overseas citizens have generally been unable to participate.
The mobilisation comes amid a wider wave of emigration. A study published in August by Tel Aviv University estimated that nearly 270,000 Israelis had left the country between 2023 and 2025. The research described a potential “brain drain” involving highly educated professionals in technology, medicine, academia and engineering. Reasons for leaving included career opportunities, opposition to Netanyahu, concerns about raising children in an increasingly religious and right-wing society, and a desire for stability amid repeated missile and drone attacks.
Lilaj Weiss, a 29-year-old Israeli living in Spain, is spending €600 on a return ticket to vote. Having moved abroad to pursue a master’s degree in Barcelona, she now lives in Seville while completing a thesis and developing a career in flamenco dance. She said living abroad had changed her perspective on the normalisation of military threats in Israel.
Weiss has not decided which party to support. She is weighing a list uniting three Arab parties against the Democrats, whose participation in a potential anti-Netanyahu coalition could make them a more viable route to changing the government.
For another expatriate, a 35-year-old Israeli living in New York who uses the pseudonym Irit, the election could determine whether she considers returning home. She is spending $1,700 on a journey lasting 21 hours each way to spend just four days in Israel.
“If Netanyahu stops being prime minister, this racism, violence and nationalism will not disappear, because they run deeper,” she said. “But there are limits to what the state allows, and in that sense I feel this could be a turning point.”
