Before the Knesset election: Young Israelis between trauma and worries about the future

Looking at the parliamentary election Young Israelis between trauma and worries about the future As of: October 23, 2026 • 11:33 a.m

Hamas' terrorist attack three years ago also left a deep mark on Israel's young voters. Security, identity and fear of the next war influence their voting decisions.

Israel has a relatively young population by international standards, and therefore young voters are important in the parliamentary elections on October 27th. Around 640,000 young Israelis will then vote for the first time - their votes will decide twelve of the 120 seats in parliament.

Tammy Hoffman of the Israel Democracy Institute just published a study on first-time voters and says for many years there was an assumption that young people vote like their parents.

That is no longer the case, says Hoffman. Overall, as several studies show, there has been a shift to the right among young Israelis in recent years. Because first-time voters make up almost ten percent of the total electorate, it will have an effect whether they go to the polls and which party they vote for.

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It seems like the boys are aware of this too. According to Hoffman's study, more than 60 percent want to vote. About 80 percent believe the election is important. This applies across all population groups and classes.

Tala Mansour, for example, describes herself as a Palestinian living in Israel. She has just finished school and, like everyone else from her generation, the crises of the past few years have shaped her. "It's not like the war started out of nowhere on October 7th. Everything that happened after October 7th raised our awareness and opened our eyes even more to the reality in which we have been living for so long."

After October 7, 2023, the terrorist attack by Hamas from the Gaza Strip, her generation saw even more clearly how bad the situation was, how things had gotten worse and worse, says the young woman, who lives just north of Tel Aviv.

All of this affected her, but it didn't fundamentally change the way she looked at politics. This is how many non-Jewish Israelis see it.

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Einav Donag lives in Nofit, a community in northern Israel. He has also just finished school - something has changed for him in the last few years. Since elementary school, no school year has been normal for him, says the 18-year-old, who grew up in a Jewish family.

First came Covid, then October 7th and the wars that followed. He says that he used to be on the left politically - now he describes his stance as "center-right." He begins his military service in November and has deliberately signed up for a combat unit.

He says he believes there is room for peace and a way for Jewish Israelis to live in peace with Palestinians, but he also objects: "I think in our current situation that's not necessarily possible. And so my ideas about how we should negotiate and deal with the Palestinians have changed. My opinion has changed more towards the right."

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Tammy Hoffman from the Israel Democracy Institute can show with numbers what has changed in the generation of first-time voters. She doesn't want to talk about a lost generation, but the great influence of the past three years on young Israelis is not yet fully understood and is therefore difficult to research.

But there is post-trauma, and October 7th undermined fundamental beliefs about the State of Israel, its strength and the role of the military.

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Tala Mansour has a completely different problem: As a young Palestinian, she feels unrepresented by Israeli politics. She says she has experienced racism and resentment recently. Nevertheless, she wants to vote, even if she has the feeling that things are changing only with difficulty: "We live in a chaos that is difficult to get out of. But at the same time, I encourage everyone to vote, even if they are not optimistic or believe that something will change. There is a chance."

Israel's young people are an important voice in the parliamentary election. Whether their voice will then be heard and whether the young people will be represented by a new government is another matter.

This topic in the program: NDR Info | News | Oct 19, 2026 | 4:35 a.m