Israeli abroad returns home to vote, framing election as for or against Netanyahu

Many Israelis living abroad are returning home to vote. So is Nathan from Berlin — a left-wing exception in an ultra-conservative family.

By Clara Nack | Berlin and Jerusalem | 25 October 2026, 20:20

"Love is stronger than ideologies," says Nathan Dawidowicz. Nathan is seeing their own mother in Jerusalem for the first time in seven years. Nathan has traveled to Israel for the upcoming parliamentary election. The last time Nathan voted in Israel was 17 years ago, at age 18. Since their last visit in 2019, not only has the October 7, 2023 attack occurred, further deepening the political divides in the country — a political dispute within the family also escalated, leading to several years of silence.

"Even on the plane, I noticed how many secular Israelis were apparently coming into the country to vote in support of the opposition," Nathan says about the flight there. Every seat was taken. When the mother picks Nathan up at the airport, she mentions that three planes from different airlines had just landed from Berlin simultaneously. The Israeli diaspora is coming to cast its vote.

A vote for or against the current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government — that is the decision over which Israel is apparently divided, says Nathan. "It's not at all about a split between left and right; it's about for or against the current government."

This divide runs through Nathan's own family as well. The mother is an ultra-Orthodox Jew and raised Nathan in the environment of the ultra-conservative Chabad movement after the family moved from Milan to Jerusalem when Nathan was six years old. Nathan has now lived in Berlin for ten years, is non-binary, and uses the English pronouns they/them.

"My mother agrees with things that I find horrifying. She is an Ashkenazi Jew, I am Black, and the people she gives her vote to actively stoke racism in Israel against people of my skin color," says Nathan, 35. Nathan has had to learn to live with this contradiction in order to re-establish contact with her after the father's death a few years ago.

"Such Aggression in Public Space"

In central Jerusalem, election posters line the streets. Nathan perceives the campaign as more aggressive than before. The Netanyahu camp fights with hard tactics and sets the tone in such a way that the opposition is constantly on the defensive. On a public city bus, Nathan reads a Bible verse used as a campaign slogan, which can be translated as: "If someone comes to kill you, kill him first."

"I don't know such aggression in public space from before," says Nathan. Anti-Arab hate slogans had existed before, but rather on the extreme fringe. "Not so visible in public space," says Nathan. "I don't believe we can afford to waste even a single vote." On Tuesday, Nathan plans to vote for Yair Golan's Democratic Party.

For Nathan, the Jewish and the Palestinian questions are inextricably linked, and this also informs the voting decision: "It's important to me that first steps are made toward a peaceful solution with the Palestinians. An independent Palestinian state or a reconciliation is unlikely to come in the next legislative term — I don't believe that in such a short time. But the future government must have enough forces that want to pave the way to a just peace."

The hostility between the different groups in Israel has become immense. A splitting of the country into separate communities for Orthodox and secular people would be, for Nathan, "a broken heart."

Je geeinter wir sind, desto leichter wird auch Frieden möglich

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The more united we are, the easier peace becomes possible.

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— Nathan Dawidowicz, flew to Israel specifically for the election

The Democratic Party is "anything but perfect," yet Nathan has observed its development for years and sees people there who genuinely want to change something and think long-term. "Especially important to me is that the Democrats would also be open to cooperation with Arab parties in a potential government constellation." The party also unites Jewish and Arab, religious and secular people on a social-democratic basis. Nathan wishes for Israeli society to come together again: "The more united we are, the easier peace becomes possible."

Israel as a Possible Place of Refuge

In August 2026, Nathan told taz about [experiences of antisemitism in Berlin]. Even then, it was clear that Nathan would travel to Israel for the upcoming election. The question of whether Israel could be a safe "place of refuge" in a worst-case scenario also occupied Nathan while planning the trip: "What do I prefer — physical danger in Israel through constant military escalation in the region, or the psychological burden of antisemitism in Berlin?"

After the Berlin election, Nathan criticized that apparently a portion of voters were prepared to ignore the security concerns of Jews in light of recurring antisemitic incidents within the Left Party, in favor of the vague promise of lower rents. The political polarization in Germany also worries Nathan. An oppressive feeling is emerging of being caught between two populist waves — from the right with the AfD and from the left with the Left Party. "I therefore ask myself whether the current wave of antisemitism isn't only just beginning."

Whether a move to Israel could offer protection in an emergency depends, for Nathan, also on the political future there: "Another term for Netanyahu could lead Israel into moral bankruptcy, further democratic erosion, and civil war." In the long term, the country could not survive in its geopolitical situation if it were internationally isolated and only partially democratic.

Recognizing the Traumas

In Jerusalem's Old City, Nathan feels as though the mood is about to boil over. Monks walk through the alleys, Catholic tourist groups from Italy push past one another, "someone is constantly trying to sell you something."

"I had forgotten what it's like to perceive all these people as real people with real stories," says Nathan. In recent years, Nathan had a lot of contact abroad with people who talked about Israel and its society only in abstract terms. Here, they suddenly stand before Nathan in the flesh and in all their diversity.

"I understand better today where certain attitudes come from, including my mother's — even if I don't support her indefensible views," says Nathan. Nathan can recognize the traumas behind some of these feelings and thereby feels more compassion. At the same time, it is not easy, coming from Berlin, to suddenly be surrounded by so much nationalism and ultranationalist imagery. "It's a certain culture shock that I can't get used to immediately."

Settler Violence in the West Bank Worries Nathan

Nathan looks toward the election with hope, but also with disillusionment — and fears there may be multiple rounds of voting, as there were from 2019 to 2022: four elections were held because coalition negotiations kept failing. "Unfortunately, that will eventually wear people down."

Even a government that simply formed without Benjamin Netanyahu would not yet satisfy Nathan. But one concern is currently foremost for Nathan: the violence of radical settlers in the West Bank. Nathan believes a government without Netanyahu would act more decisively against "settler terror." In an election campaign that on the one hand makes the division in Israeli society clear and on the other further promotes it, that alone would already be progress for Nathan.

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