Netanyahu attends a session of the Knesset in Jerusalem before the start of the election recess [Getty]
Around a quarter of Israelis have said they would consider leaving Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is re-elected this year, according to a poll on Israeli television.
According to the Channel 12 poll, 23 percent said yes when asked whether they or any of their relatives are considering leaving Israel if the Likud Party leader won the October elections.
Sixty-eight percent said they would not leave, with the remaining nine percent saying they were unsure.
More than two thirds of survey participants said they opposed various laws passed by the Netanyahu-led governing coalition this week, including enshrining Torah study as a a quasi-constitutional value and approving legislation to shield ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers from arrest.
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, dissolved yesterday after passing a marathon of bills, including more illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, in the last moments of Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
The Knesset, which began its summer recess on Friday, will not reconvene before the elections scheduled on 27 October.
The expected dissolution comes as Netanyahu is struggling to hold onto power ahead of the next elections as Israel grinds into nearly three years of genocide in Gaza and wars with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran and military operations in Syria. The same period has seen large-scale attacks on the Houthis in Yemen and strikes elsewhere in the region.
Israeli polls are showing a groundswell of support for opposition parties, led by former premier Naftali Bennett and a popular centrist former military chief.
Completing a full, four-year term is a rare occurrence throughout Israel’s 78-year history.
The last time Israel’s government fulfilled a full term without breaking for early elections was in 1988. Israel has no term limits, and Netanyahu – wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Gaza and also facing domestic corruption charges – has served more terms than any other prime minister in the country’s history.
Israelis have been to the polls five times between 2019 and 2022.
