Israelis Abroad Organize Trips Home as Election Fight Extends Beyond the Country’s Borders
Sandego.net – Israel’s approaching October 27 election is producing an unusual contest far from the polling stations: a campaign over whether citizens living overseas can be helped to return home and vote.
Thousands of Israelis based abroad are making travel plans for election day, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party seeks to halt an initiative that assists expatriates with finding routes and navigating the logistics of returning. With polls showing neither Netanyahu’s governing bloc nor the divided opposition currently reaching the 61 seats needed to control the Knesset, even a relatively small shift in turnout could matter.
Israel does not generally permit its citizens to cast ballots by mail or at overseas polling locations. Apart from diplomats and certain official representatives, Israelis outside the country must travel back to Israel if they want to participate. That rule places a practical burden on people living overseas, particularly when fares are high or flight schedules are limited.
Legal challenge targets Fly & Vote effort
Likud submitted a petition Wednesday to Israel’s Central Elections Committee asking it to block Fly & Vote, a grassroots project assisting Israelis who intend to return for the election. The party argues that the effort is an unlawful foreign-funded operation and could damage the fairness of the vote.
Fly & Vote was created by the America-Israel Democracy AID Coalition, a nonprofit organization based in the United States and founded in 2023. The coalition says its purpose is to strengthen democratic institutions in Israel. It maintains that it does not purchase flights for voters. Instead, it says it uses technology to identify lower-cost commercial itineraries, potential group fares and less conventional travel options.
The organization also offers practical guidance, including help with passport renewals, voter eligibility questions and travel planning. It says charter flights could be organized if enough people seek them or if ordinary commercial flights do not meet demand.
More than 35,000 people have registered with the initiative, the group says. Its internal surveys indicate that more than 50,000 Israelis may ultimately travel home to vote.
“Something bigger is happening here. There is an international movement from all over the world. It’s a national event,” said Batell Blaish Sultanik, a Fly & Vote co-founder.
Sultanik compared the response to the return of Israelis who came back to enlist after the October 7 attack in 2023. She said the project does not support a particular party and does not ask participants how they intend to vote.
“We do not ask or check who they are voting for behind the ballot box,” she said. “It’s about the right to vote.”
Dispute over discounts and political ties
Likud rejects that characterization. Its petition describes the coalition as a political organization that channels US donations to Israeli protest groups and alleges links to the opposition Democrats party. Both the coalition and the Democrats party deny such an affiliation.
The party’s challenge centers in part on the travel assistance itself. Likud argues that priority access to flights and discounts negotiated for groups may qualify as prohibited benefits under Israeli election law, even when individual travelers cover the cost of their own tickets. The petition frames those benefits as a possible form of election bribery.
Likud also cites another coalition project, FLY AND AID, which provides $250 gift cards to volunteers in Israel. The party argues that the separate program reinforces its view that the organization is trying to exert political influence.
The case will turn on the evidence presented to the Central Elections Committee and on how it interprets the distinction between helping citizens overcome travel barriers and giving them an improper election-related benefit. The issue reaches beyond one organization: it highlights the tension created by Israel’s rules for voting from abroad.
High stakes in a closely balanced election
For many expatriates, the dispute has added urgency to their plans. Adi Ayash, an Israeli digital content creator living in Thailand, said returning to vote was never in doubt for him because of his concern about the country’s present leadership.
“As someone who is very engaged and very worried by the reality of the (current) Israeli leadership, I feel that it is my duty,” Ayash said.
He said choosing not to vote because of travel costs or convenience would feel inconsistent with his belief in democratic participation.
Josh Drill, who plans to fly from New York with a Fly & Vote group, said the legal attempt to stop the initiative had strengthened his resolve.
“Every attempt to obstruct our democratic right to vote only strengthens our determination to get on a plane, cast our ballot, and take part in this election to help shape the future of Israel,” Drill said.
The election will be Israel’s first national vote after four turbulent years under Netanyahu’s right-wing and ultra-Orthodox coalition. That period included widespread demonstrations by liberal Israelis against a proposed judicial overhaul, followed by the October 7, 2023 attack and a three-year conflict across multiple fronts.
Those events have left voters facing unusually consequential questions about leadership, security, democratic institutions and the future direction of the country. Netanyahu’s coalition and the opposition remain short of a clear parliamentary majority in recent polling, making turnout a central concern for every major political camp.
Israelis abroad can represent a significant potential voting pool. At any given time, ordinary citizens outside the country may equal as much as 10% of Israel’s population. Not all will travel back, and their political preferences cannot simply be assumed. Still, a large-scale return could become important in an election decided by narrow margins.
The debate over Fly & Vote therefore concerns more than airfare. It raises a basic question about access: whether assistance that makes voting possible for citizens abroad is a neutral civic service, or whether organized travel support can alter an election in a way that requires intervention. The committee’s decision may shape not only this campaign’s final weeks, but also future efforts to mobilize Israelis living around the world.
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