Every election is called the most important in a country’s history, and the one scheduled for Oct. 27 in Israel is no different.

With 80 days to go until polls open, tens of thousands of Israeli expatriates are planning to spend thousands of dollars to fly in to vote. This is because, with the exception of diplomats posted abroad, Jewish Agency emissaries and other official foreign positions, Israel does not allow voting from overseas or absentee ballots. Participation in Israel’s upcoming election requires being physically present in Israel at a designated voting booth. 

These returning expats represent a relatively small group out of the 6.8 million Israelis registered to vote, but they are potentially enough to swing a Knesset seat or two. Though there have not been professional surveys of expats planning to return for the election, anecdotally, most appear to support the parties looking to oust the current coalition. In an election where the opposition bloc is hovering around the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, this group could prove pivotal. 

“If 70,000 to 80,000 people fly in, it will make a difference,” Yaron Keidar, an attorney and legal adviser to philanthropic organizations, told eJewishPhilanthropy. 

Noam, an Israeli who recently relocated to New York to work at a tech company and asked not to be identified by his last name, told eJP that he would not normally return to vote but views this election as critical, in light of both the current government’s failures ahead of and following the Oct. 7 terror attacks and its broader efforts to alter the country’s balance of power through a judicial overhaul. For Noam, the rationale behind spending $1,200 each way to fly back to Israel to vote is simple: “I want to have a home to go back to,” he said, adding that he believes the current government is “steering the country in a bad direction.” 

To accommodate people like Noam, a number of initiatives have sprung up — some grassroots, some highly organized — to help expats return for the election. This generally does not include paying for flights, as such payments would likely be challenged in court as illicit vote-buying.

The most significant of these is Fly & Vote, an initiative run by the AID Coalition, an Israeli expat movement that grew out of the 2023 anti-judicial overhaul protests.

Jonathan Barsade, the group’s president, told eJP that some 31,000 people have already registered, with hopes to have 70,000 by election day. While AID Coalition emerged from the anti-government protest movement, the group stresses that it is nonpartisan and that its focus is on democracy. It does not endorse any specific parties, nor does it ask participants to state for whom they are planning to vote before providing support.

“For us, success will be measured in two ways,” Barsade told eJP. “First, achieving a voter turnout in the elections that exceeds 75%. Second, at least 70,000 Israelis who live abroad who traveled to Israel and cast their votes.”

The AID Coalition walks Israelis living abroad through the documents they need and is organizing group flights from hubs including New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin and Melbourne. The AID Coalition does not pay for or subsidize any voters’ flights, though its website says that “scholarships” are available in certain cases. 

On a smaller scale, a number of academic conferences have specifically been organized for the days surrounding the election, under the banner of Israel Science and Academia. These give foreign-based academics and researchers a reason to fly back to Israel in time for the polls. For those going this route, this has the added bonus of potentially allowing their institutions to legally pay for the flights and accommodations.

Though these efforts are primarily believed to be a boon to the opposition bloc, Haredi Israeli expats have historically also flown in for elections to vote for the Haredi parties that are part of the current coalition. The AID Coalition verifies voters’ eligibility, helps Israelis who have not lived in Israel for many years figure out where to go to vote and ensures they are properly registered. (Israeli expats who have, for whatever reason, been removed from the country’s voter rolls have until Friday to appeal the decision.)

According to Barsade, the challenge of the Fly & Vote initiative lies mainly in the logistics. Foreign airlines’ service to Israel has been erratic in recent years, and Barsade said the picture shifts week to week. “We don’t know which foreign airlines are going to be flying in, so we’ve got all sorts of contingency plans,” he said. 

In recent weeks, reports have circulated that Transportation Minister Miri Regev could close the airport in the days and weeks leading up to the election, thus preventing Israelis living outside of Israel from voting. 

“I bought an El Al ticket because I am worried that the government will play tricks with not letting people come, and it’s harder to play tricks with El Al,” Noam said. 

In terms of the voting itself, Ofer Kenig, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, said he was optimistic it would be run fairly, praising the Central Elections Committee’s professionalism while pointing to what he described as the populist government’s efforts to erode public trust in state institutions. Israeli democracy, he believes, is strong enough to withstand them.

The public, though, is less convinced. In an Israel Democracy Institute poll released this week, 70% of Israelis said the integrity of the 2026 vote is in danger. 

“Above all, our goal is to encourage Israelis living abroad to come to Israel and exercise their democratic right to vote in the upcoming elections,” Barsade said. “We are focusing on our niche of making sure Israelis get to Israel and participate in the election.”

In addition to Noam, several Israelis living abroad told eJP why they are making the trek back to vote this time. Many said they left for work, study or family, yet still follow Israeli news from the moment they wake until they sleep, and some fly back for reserve duty. “There is no reason their voices shouldn’t be heard,” Barsade said.

A survey conducted by the AID Coalition found that of Israelis living abroad, 84% called the coming elections critical, 73% said they wanted to vote in the next Knesset elections, and 45% said they would make every effort to be in Israel to do it.

Acknowledging that any work surrounding an election is a “legal minefield,” the AID Coalition works with legal counsel in Israel and in the United States constantly, Barsade said, to ensure its activities fall within the law.

In the past year, the AID Coalition looked into chartering planes for voters at little or no cost, but dropped the idea after legal counsel advised it would be illegal. “Our side follows the laws, so we did not pursue that,” an individual with knowledge of those exploratory efforts told eJP on condition of anonymity.

 The group runs on donations, though the AID Coalition did not disclose to eJP who its biggest donors were, saying only that they were a mix of Israeli, American and international.

In response to the government’s judicial overhaul plans, which many Israelis saw as a blow to the checks on the government’s power, a number of funders have increasingly become engaged in supporting liberal democracy initiatives in Israel, including those who previously shied away from political advocacy.

“A lot of new players want to enter the public [arena] who didn’t want to before — players whose aim is to change public opinion or encourage people to vote, as distinct from government advocacy,” Keidar said.

Tali Reiner Brodetzki, who has lived in the Philadelphia area since 2019, told eJP that she is flying home to vote for the first time, specifically to oust the current coalition. “I don’t think it’s right versus left, but rather voting the current government out,” she said. She said she still owns a house in Israel and expects to move back eventually. She pointed to the previous election’s thin margins as the reason she now feels obligated to go.

For Dana Cwaigrach, the motivation to fly in for the election is tied to the past four years of crisis in Israel. Cwaigrach has lived in New York for many years and co-founded the U.S. arm of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. More recently, she has dedicated her time to helping fellow Israelis abroad get the information they need to vote. 

“What happens in Israel affects all Israelis, whether they live in Israel or outside of Israel,” she said, explaining her motivation to vote. 

Barsade agreed. “What we can say with certainty is that the current election process has established the strong interest that the voice of Israelis from abroad be heard,” he said. The bond between Israel and its Israeli diaspora runs both ways, he argued. “That connection is symbiotic,” he said. “We are living in a different era.”