Local Israelis to Fly Home for Elections

On July 12, the Israeli election date was finally set for Oct. 27, 2026.

But even before the date was clear, many Israelis living in Atlanta were already preparing – one way or the other – to fly back to Israel to vote. Israeli citizens must physically be in Israel to vote, unlike other democracies that allow for remote voting, such as the U.S. Only Israelis in diplomatic missions overseas, and Israeli sailors on Israeli ships at sea can vote abroad.

Some local Israelis made plane reservations on their own. But many others signed up with an initiative known as Fly&Vote, organized by a nonpartisan, nonprofit group called AID (Aid Israel Democracy) Coalition. The goal of the group was to help bring as many as 50,000 voters to Israel.

In a WhatsApp message days after the election date was set, Fly&Vote reported: “Since the initiative’s announcement, tens of thousands of Israelis with voting rights living outside Israel have turned to the Fly&Vote initiative. Twenty-five thousand-plus of them have already registered, with 5,000 registering in the last 24 hours since the election date was announced.

“Israelis from all over the world have already registered: half of them from the U.S., 10 percent from the Netherlands, 6 percent from Switzerland, 4 percent from Britain, 4 percent from Canada, 4 percent from France, 2 percent from Australia, 2 percent from Portugal, 2 percent from Thailand, and 2 percent from Germany,” the statement added. “For comparison, in the previous elections held in 2022, about 10,000 Israelis abroad participated.”

The Fly&Vote website states that even if Israeli citizens have lived outside Israel for a number of years, they are still eligible to vote; they just need to show their Israeli passports or identity cards. Fly&Vote helps Israeli expats determine if they are eligible to vote and where they can cast ballots. Now that an election date is set, the initiative has started helping those registered to secure seats on flights to Israel. It does not pay the travel costs for participants.

Days after the election date was set, notices sent to those registered with Fly&Vote stated that the participants can choose their “preferred flight date and route. There are flights available, and we have alternatives.” Those alternatives may include charter flights from key locations to which participants can travel. “Fly&Vote has a clear goal: to bring Israelis to Israel for the elections – at an affordable price.”

This initiative is not the first of its kind, by any means. In several Israeli elections, planes have been organized to transport ultra-religious Jews – mostly from the New York area – to travel to Israel to vote. In 1999, a grassroots organization was loosely formed to facilitate Israelis who wanted to return to Israel to vote. In that case, how those Israelis planned to vote was not a consideration.

Apparently concerned about which Israelis will fly via charter flights, Israeli left-leaning newspaper Haaretz reported that officials in the country’s Transportation Ministry indicate that they are beginning to discuss possible ways to limit charter flights to Israel before the election.

Many Israelis now living in Atlanta report that flying back to Israel to vote is not new for them. Guy Tessler, recently named volunteer chair of the Atlanta-Ra’anana Sister City Committee, said he voted in the 2015 Israeli election, and he plans to vote in October.

“This election is different in the sense that it’s post-Oct. 7, and with things happening with Iran and the rise of religious regulations and tendencies in Israel,” Tessler said it’s more important to vote in the coming election.

Another local Israeli who plans to travel to Israel to vote is Meirav Mayer. Although she signed up with Fly&Vote, she already bought her own plane ticket separately. “But if they will be able to get better options, I’ll fly through them,” she added.

“I voted in the last four of five elections,” said Avishay Ben Zvi, noting he missed the election during the COVID pandemic. “I went in coordination with my work, so I had to go anyway.” His wife, Shirley Shani Ben Zvi also has repeatedly flown back to vote. “This is not new for us.”

The Ben Zvis signed up with Fly&Vote but made their flight reservations separately because they thought it would be easier with the whole family flying.

“This election is crucial,” emphasized Shirley Ben Zvi. “There’s no way that the people who ran the country when the disaster happened on Oct. 7, 2023, should still be in power. Every one of them should have resigned on Oct. 8. This is not the Israel I grew up in. If I want my daughters to have the option to be there, this one right now is not an option. I want the option to exist.”

The Ben Zvis used to live on Kibbutz Nir Oz, less than two miles from the Gaza border, which was mostly destroyed on Oct. 7. Avishay’s 80-year-old father, Amitai, was killed Oct. 7. About a quarter of the 400 residents were either killed or kidnapped that day.

Initially, Shai Robkin said it was doubtful he and his wife, Judy, would fly to Israel for the election because they already had plans to fly there in November. However, “while I was relatively certain that the election would be on Oct. 27, now that the date has been officially set, I have been overwhelmed with a sense of guilt about not going.” He said the sense has only intensified since the date was set. “That said, the likelihood of our going back to vote is now 50-50. The timing is far from ideal for us personally, but we are seriously giving it consideration.”

The Robkins own an apartment in Jerusalem that they rent out, but they have friends with whom they can stay if they decide to go vote. Shai said they had not registered with Fly&Vote but noted that their passports are up to date.

According to Tessler, however, current Israeli passports do not guarantee the citizens can vote. “I know some friends who have been here for a while and were purged [from the voter registry] even though they still have an Israeli citizenship and a passport.”

That’s the concern of a number of local Israelis. And it is one reason why they sign up with Fly&Vote. The organization checks the individual’s Israeli identity number and passport number to verify eligibility. However, Israel is not required to publish its approved list of registered voters until 54 days before the election, or early September.

Many local Israelis contend that despite the risk of traveling to Israel and still not being allowed to vote, it is still worth it. One Israeli, who did not want to be identified, acknowledged that he had not flown back to vote previously, but feels that this election is critical. If his vote were to help change the direction of the country, he wouldn’t just be “saving Israelis but saving the world from [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”

He added that this election is also the first time he’s heard from Israelis in Israel urging him to come vote. Tessler has heard the same from friends and family back in Israel to which he travels three to four times a year. There’s an urgency, he said, with them telling him that they’re counting on him to come vote.

In past years, some Israelis said that those who live abroad should not be allowed to vote because they are not serving in the military and not paying taxes. However, after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, many Israelis abroad flew back to either serve in the military or volunteer in whatever capacity they could. And many Israelis, like the Robkins, own homes in Israel and thus pay taxes. At one point, Netanyahu went on record promoting voting rights for Israelis abroad.

But it’s not just individual Israelis who are encouraging those abroad to travel to Israel to vote. Several professional organizations in a wide range of fields, including high-tech, are scheduling conferences in Israel around the time of the election to provide another incentive to come to Israel.

Indeed, dozens of academic organizations have scheduled conferences days before the Oct. 27 election. According to Haaretz, “no less than 44 conferences” have been scheduled, most “under the rubric of Israel’s Science and Academia Week, an event that organizers hope will draw tens of thousands of participants.”

Tessler acknowledged that one election will not save Israel because the demographic trends are going against his preferences of a liberal, secular Israel. “It may delay the trends but I’m doubtful,” he said. “I will do my best to delay the process but I’m not optimistic.”

Echoing local Israelis, Yohanan Plesner, president of the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute, stated: “Every election in Israel is important, but the 2026 election will be among the most consequential in decades. It will be the first national vote since Oct. 7 and the judicial overhaul crisis, amid unresolved questions over the integration of the ultra-Orthodox, and at a time of profound regional security challenges and opportunities. Israelis will not only be asked to decide who should govern, but the very nature of our democracy will also be on the ballot. At stake is the democratic character, social cohesion, and future direction of the world’s Jewish state and the Middle East’s only democracy.”