Israelis have described the election to be held on Oct. 27 as the most important in their history. For Palestinians in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the stakes are just as high — even though they do not have a vote.
In previous elections, Palestinians tended to dismiss the candidates to be Israel’s leader as a choice between bad and worse. This time, in the first election since the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, ignited the devastating war in Gaza, many say that replacing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is imperative.
“These elections are existential,” said Nidal Kuhail, 32, a Palestinian who lives in a 6-by-4 meter tent with his three sisters and parents in Gaza after being displaced by the war. “It’s now become a matter of to be or not to be.”
Mr. Netanyahu has vowed to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state, and his government has built Israeli settlements in the West Bank at a breakneck pace.
Gadi Eisenkot, Mr. Netanyahu’s main opponent, has also rejected Palestinian statehood. But he has promised to curb settler violence in the West Bank and engage with the Trump administration’s cease-fire plan to rebuild Gaza.
The split is one reason Palestinians are paying particular attention to this election, even though their plight is not a major election topic for Israelis in the campaign. In interviews with Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, they have made clear they do not expect Mr. Netanyahu’s opponents to radically change things for the better. But they are desperate to avoid another four years of Mr. Netanyahu, whose government — the most right-wing since Israel was established in 1948 — has made life almost unbearable.
Netanyahu’s pressure campaign
In Gaza, the Israeli government has waged a relentless bombing campaign even after reaching a cease-fire with Hamas just over a year ago. Israeli strikes since then have killed more than 1,400 people, according to local health officials, and Israel has expanded the area of Gaza it controls. The Israeli military says it is targeting Hamas militants and protecting nearby communities in Israel.
In the West Bank, Israeli settlers have built outposts, harassed Palestinians and set homes and mosques ablaze. Settler attacks on Palestinians have escalated there during the annual olive harvest of recent weeks, which is a cultural touchstone for Palestinians and an economic lifeline for many families. On Monday, the Israeli police said they had detained at least 10 Israelis after settlers assaulted Palestinians, along with an American press photographer and European diplomats, during the olive harvest. But the government has largely done little to quell the violence, analysts and rights groups say.
Mr. Netanyahu has occasionally denounced the extremist attackers, but the assaults have continued. He recently hailed the establishment of more than 100 new settlements in the West Bank and pledged that “more were on the way” as part of an effort to entrench Israeli rule across the territory.
“This government made a massive effort to realize this generations-old dream,” he told a conference of settlers in August. In the decades since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have moved there and established communities, widely known as settlements, that are broadly considered illegal under international law.
The Israeli government has also waged economic warfare against the Palestinian Authority, which administers major Palestinian cities in the West Bank. Since the Oct. 7 attacks, the Israeli government has largely banned Palestinians from working in Israel, cutting off a crucial source of income.
The government has also withheld billions of dollars in tax revenue from the Palestinian Authority, after accusing it of using the money to fund terrorism. Palestinian officials deny the accusation.
Mr. Eisenkot has said he broadly supports Israeli settlements. But he has vowed to dismantle any that were built in parts of the West Bank that are supposed to be administered by the Palestinian Authority under the interim peace agreements reached between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel in the 1990s.
The West Bank squeeze
Spurred by Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right allies, Israel has established new settlements in parts of the northern West Bank where Israelis have not lived in recent years. Settlers have also erected many more outposts that are illegal even under Israeli law.
Israeli extremists residing at the outposts have routinely carried out acts of violence — for instance, stealing livestock and cutting down olive trees — which have forced entire communities to flee. In interviews this month, many Palestinian residents said that they hoped a new Israeli government would curb the violence.
Haitham Abdel Jaber, 47, was hospitalized last week with a head injury after settlers assaulted him. Mr. Abdel Jaber, an American citizen, said on Sunday that he was harvesting olives with relatives near his home in Burqa, a village close to Ramallah, when masked assailants hurled stones at them.
Mr. Abdel Jaber said he was hit by a rock while he and his relatives tried to run away. As he was on the ground, he said, his attackers beat and kicked him before fleeing.
The Israeli military said that it sent troops to the area after a report of “friction” between Israelis and Palestinians, including rock throwing.
“We hope Netanyahu loses in the elections,” Mr. Abdel Jaber said. “It’s not that Eisenkot will work for the sake of the Palestinians, but the situation might get better.”
The Israeli economic restrictions have pushed the Palestinian Authority close to bankruptcy.
Nasser Osaily, an entrepreneur active in real estate and importing, said the authority owes him millions of dollars in reimbursements for business he has done with foreign donors. Business owners that occupy stores in his properties, meantime, were struggling to pay rent because Palestinian consumers had little money to spend in them, he added.
“It’s a policy of strangulation. It’s like being grabbed by the neck,” Mr. Osaily said in his office in Hebron.
Bezalel Smotrich, a settler leader now serving as Israel’s finance minister, has urged the next government to crack down even harder. In a podcast interview this month, he said that Israel should “go to war” in the West Bank and do “what we did in Gaza,” a reference to the military campaign that has razed large parts of the enclave.
Mr. Netanyahu’s opponents stress they would seek stability in the territory. Yoram Cohen, who is a senior member of Mr. Eisenkot’s party and a former Israeli intelligence chief, said this would include clamping down on Israeli extremists who attack Palestinians and easing the economic pressure. “We have no interest in igniting a new front,” he said at a party event in Tel Aviv this month.
Palestinian officials in the West Bank, who generally avoid endorsing Israeli candidates, are openly advocating a change of government.
Ahmed Majdalani, a senior Palestinian official, said there was “a huge difference between Netanyahu and Eisenkot,” adding that he hoped Mr. Eisenkot would release confiscated funds to the Palestinian Authority.
“We’re not even saying ‘let’s establish a state’ at this point. We’re saying ‘let’s solve these problems,’ because this can restore trust between the two of us,” Mr. Majdalani said. “If Netanyahu is re-elected, though, it will be a disaster for us and the Israelis.”
Gazans desperate for change
Palestinians in Gaza, living under near-daily bombardment, hope they will gain if Mr. Netanyahu loses.
The prime minister has largely refused to cooperate with President Trump’s Board of Peace for Gaza, which has sought to push ahead with a plan to disarm Hamas in exchange for Israel withdrawing from the Palestinian enclave.
Now, senior members of Mr. Netanyahu’s governing coalition say Israel will encourage Gazans to “voluntarily emigrate” en masse if it is returned to power in the elections. Mr. Smotrich, the finance minister, called last month for Israel to keep conditions in Gaza as miserable as possible so as to “take away their hope.”
Palestinians in the enclave are still living in the rubble of damaged or destroyed buildings and tents, which they fear will become permanent homes.
“Life in Gaza has totally stopped as people await the Israeli elections,” said Jaser Abu Mousa, a political analyst from Gaza.
It is unclear what Mr. Eisenkot would do differently, as many Israelis agree the government should maintain tight restrictions on the movement of goods into Gaza and continue airstrikes against Hamas. Mr. Eisenkot’s allies say they will engage more closely with the Board of Peace in an effort to dislodge Hamas.
Saed Abu Aita, 46, has lived with a piece of shrapnel lodged in his chest since early in the war. It occasionally causes a sharp pain, reminding him of the Israeli attack that he said killed his father, Hamed, and two daughters, Mira, 8, and Tala, 13, and left him unconscious.
Mr. Abu Aita and his wife have not been able to visit their graves, which are in the portion of Gaza that Israel controls. The past three years, he said, have been “a catastrophic journey of torture.”
“I’ve lost everything and I can’t get anything,” he added.
The Israeli elections, he said, will not bring a comprehensive solution for Gaza. But he hopes that removing Mr. Netanyahu from power would ease the worst of the daily struggles.
“If the extremists go, perhaps we will be able to return to our homes, get better health care and more humanitarian supplies,” he said.
The post Why Palestinians Hope Israelis Will Oust Netanyahu in Pivotal Election appeared first on New York Times.
