Ben Gvir supporters hand out gun-shaped keyrings to Israeli students

Ben Gvir supporters hand out gun-shaped keyrings to Israeli students

Submitted by Nadav Rapaport on Fri, 09/18/2026 - 14:20 Supporters of far-right minister's Otzma Yehudit party also try to distribute noose-shaped keyrings during mock election One of the gun-shaped keyrings bore the image of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (Screengrab) Off

Supporters of the far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir handed gun-shaped keyrings emblazoned with the words "Guns Save Lives" to students at an Israeli high school on Thursday during a chaotic mock election event.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the keyrings, which also function as bottle openers, were either in the shape of a gun or featured an image of Ben Gvir holding a gun.

Haaretz reported that supporters of Ben Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party also attempted to hand out noose-shaped keyrings but were prevented by the headmaster at the Blich High School in Ramat Gan.

Otzma Yehudit defended the distribution of the keyrings, saying it was "glad to make accessible to the younger generation in schools the importance of Minister Ben Gvir's weapons reform through innovative and special ideas".

The keyrings sought to promote the policies championed by Ben Gvir and his party in recent years. In January, Ben Gvir approved gun licences for Israelis living in 18 additional settlements in the occupied West Bank. In March, the Knesset passed a law making the death penalty the default punishment for Palestinians convicted by military courts of lethal attacks, legislation championed by Ben Gvir.

The keyrings were given out during Blich High School's traditional mock election, in which 11th- and 12th-grade students vote for political parties ahead of Israel’s national elections.

The event, which is intended to give students an opportunity to engage with Israel's political system, has become a closely watched fixture ahead of elections.

According to Haaretz, Thursday's event descended into disorder, with students and political activists describing shouting, physical altercations and disruptions during speeches by rival parties. Activists from the Jewish left-wing Democrats party told Haaretz that Otzma Yehudit supporters shoved and cursed at them and “elbowed” them during a speech by the party’s Knesset member Gilad Kariv.

"In the end, after the shouting, the curses, and the bottles thrown at the stage by Ben Gvir's supporters," Kariv said on his X account, "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nentyahu's bloc lost the mock elections in the high school."

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The elections, Kariv maintained, "proved, contrary to everything being said, that not all of the youth have swung sharply to the right."

Merav Ben Ari, a Knesset member from the centre-right Together party led by former prime minister Naftali Bennett, also said Ben Gvir supporters had behaved aggressively during the event.

"They threw a cup at me, screamed at me 'only Ben Gvir'," Ben Ari said on X.

She said the distribution of gun-shaped keyrings and noose-shaped pins had not translated into majority support for Ben Gvir among the students.

"The youth aren't stupid," Ben Ari said, adding that Ben Gvir's time in government had been marked by "violence and racism".

Netanyahu loses, Ben Gvir's party gains

In the mock vote, Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party came first with 32.2 percent of the vote, followed by Bennett’s Together party with 22.4 percent, and Netanyahu's Likud came third with 15.5 percent.

Otzma Yehudit came fourth with 9.4 percent, ahead of the Democrats on 7.1 percent.

While Kariv highlighted the result as evidence that young Israelis had not uniformly shifted towards the far right, the figures also showed stronger support for Ben Gvir’s party than in Blich’s previous mock election.

In 2022, when Otzma Yehudit was part of an alliance with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party, the alliance only received 4.6 percent of the vote at the school.

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This year, Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism together received 11 percent, while the new far-right Amcha Yisrael party, which is calling to expel all Palestinians from the occupied Gaza Strip, received 3.6 percent of the votes.

The school's headmaster told the Israeli newspaper Maariv that "civic education is also education for pluralism, tolerance, and the ability to conduct disagreement with respect and attentiveness".

The principal praised the students who took part in what he described as "a fruitful and enriching day".

The mock election comes as Israel's young voters prepare to participate in their first national election since the Gaza war began in October 2023.

Recent research has found high levels of anti-Palestinian sentiment among young Israelis, including support among some for excluding Palestinian citizens of Israel from Israeli society.

At the same time, students who publicly oppose Israel's genocidal war on Gaza have faced disciplinary action.

In July, a high school principal in Ramat Gan summoned an 11th-grade student to a disciplinary meeting after the student distributed flyers urging classmates to refuse military service.

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