Israel first-time voters lean right after October 7

A Channel 12 poll found that 74 percent of Israeli first-time voters described their policy views as right or centre-right ahead of the October 27 election, as young voters cited security concerns after Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.

Channel 12 said roughly 550,000 Israelis aged between 18 and 22 will be voting for the first time in October.

Amihai, an 18-year-old from Shomria in southern Israel, told AFP he planned to vote for the ultra-nationalist party of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Speaking less than two kilometres from Gaza while attending an event calling for Jewish settlement of the Palestinian territory, he said he was voting “based solely on security”.

Pollster and analyst Dahlia Scheindlin said the right-wing turn among Israeli Jewish youth had been building for about two decades. She said today's 18-year-olds had formed their political views under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and in what she called “a very ultra-nationalist environment”.

At a gathering of young activists for the centre-left Democrats party in Tel Aviv, 18-year-old Gili said the October 7 attack had made many young people afraid and less likely to believe peace was possible. Another 18-year-old, Yuval, said he supported a political agreement with the Palestinians and that “conflict management is not a solution”.

Yishai Neeman, a 19-year-old yeshiva student from Petah Tikva who said he hoped to enlist in a combat unit, told AFP he would vote for the Religious Zionism party of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Neeman said Israel should annex the occupied West Bank and “win decisively”.

Hamas's October 7 attack killed 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel's military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 74,200 people, according to the health ministry there, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.