With elections around the corner, tens of thousands of Israelis living abroad are travelling to Tel Aviv to vote on Tuesday.

Israeli expats are spending thousands of dollars to fly to their home country after years. Their decision to vote reflects concerns over the Benjamin Netanyahu-led government’s handling of the wars in West Asia, its failure to prevent the October 7 (2022) Hamas attacks and its support for exemptions from military service for the ultra-Orthodox community, according to multiple media reports.

Netanyahu first became prime minister in 1996 and has since served for about 18 years across six terms, making him Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.

This is the first election since the October 7 attacks and the wars that followed, putting Netanyahu’s leadership under scrutiny. Israeli law does not allow most citizens living abroad to vote by post or online, with exceptions for diplomats and certain official emissaries. As a result, those seeking to cast their ballots must travel to Israel. The 2026 election is widely perceived as a referendum on Netanyahu’s handling of the wars and the extreme right-wing turn Israel has taken.

Several expats who are travelling to Tel Aviv echoed the same sentiments to Associated Press and The Telegraph — to bring Netanyahu out of power. Adam Pines, who lives in Los Angeles, travelled about 7,500 miles to Israel, spending $2,900 on flights and around $3,500 on accommodation. “I feel Israel has lost its moral compass,” the 47-year-old told The Telegraph. Pines says he has become reluctant to tell people he is Israeli because of his country’s actions.

Pines’ blamed Netanyahu for a failure to prevent the October 7 attacks. Reports have claimed that Israeli officials received warnings about the threat from Hamas before the attack. “Bibi (Netanyahu) demonstrated a failure in safeguarding Israel which led to the atrocities of October 7. That is a massive, unprecedented failure of leadership, especially in light of all the reports that emerged about the attempts to alert Israel about the attack,” he said.

Apart from that, Pines is irked by what Israel’s actions mean for Jewish and Israeli communities globally. “Today, I don’t even say that I’m Israeli. It’s potentially dangerous,” he told The Telegraph. ‘One last chance to save Israel’Orit Eyal-Fibeesh, who moved to the UK 24 years back, has also reached Tel Aviv along with her husband and son, spending 1,000 euros on flights. The 55-year-old charity worker plans to vote for the opposition Democrats, led by Yair Golan.

“It would be safe to say that all of my friends… are flying to vote because we believe we have one last chance to save Israel from a really disastrous government,” she told The Telegraph.

Eyal-Fibeesh co-founded We Democracy, a grassroots organisation, after Netanyahu proposed judicial reforms in 2023. She has also organised protests against his government in the UK.

She said the rise in anti-Semitism had affected her life abroad. “It’s devastating and it’s also affecting our lives here, the rise in anti-Semitism. When I first came here, being an Israeli was something to be proud of, and now I’m hearing people who are feeling the need to hide any Jewish symbols,” she said.

Lior Suchoy, a PhD scholar in the UK, strongly opposes the war and says he is ashamed of being Israeli. Suchoy told The Telegraph, “I’m very, very worried about the fact that the title of Israel is almost diabolical today. I suffer from it every day.”Suchoy, 39, who returned to Israel, said, “This country is rotting from within. I oppose the war, I oppose Israel’s control over Palestinians. I oppose how they destroy Israeli society from within. I think they’re corrupt.”

He added: “I’m more ashamed of being Israeli because of what my country is doing” and further said he did not know anyone who planned to vote for Mr Netanyahu, whether they lived in Israel or abroad.

First vote in years Yuval Yashiv, 62, has not voted in an Israeli election since 1999. This time, he has returned with his wife, paying about 750 euros each for flights. “It’s really critical, and we feel in a way, an obligation to our family and friends in Israel to do that, and for Jews and Israelis here, Jews around the world.”Yashiv said Israel had reached a “major junction.”He was also concerned about compulsory military service, an issue that has drawn attention during the wars.

Images of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, bottom, and U.S. President Donald Trump decorate wind spinners displayed at a shop in the Mahane Yehuda market ahead of Israel’s general election, in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026.

Yael Natra, who lives in Canada, had not returned to Israel to vote in two decades. The 61-year-old said she would vote for parties that do not support Netanyahu’s government. “The Israel that I grew up in is disappearing,” she told AP. “If something won’t change this time, I don’t know what’s going to be.”Natra, who used to be a Netanyahu voter in the 1990s, finds the government’s inability to take responsibility for the failures that led to the October 7 attacks and his support for the ultra-Orthodox community that has influenced her change in political stance. Can overseas voters sway the election?

Citing AID coalition, a US-based non-profit organisation, an AP report said as many as 67,000 voters are returning to Israel. “Many Israelis who have left over the years — and especially since October 7 — are exposed to the isolation and animosity toward the country much more palpably than those inside, and as such are likely to want to vote out Netanyahu,” said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group told AP.

According to surveys and registration data gathered for AID coalition’s “Fly&Vote” initiative, about half are flying in from the United States, with others from Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. “It doesn’t matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on, everyone views these elections as going to be critical,” said Jonathan Barsade, AID Coalition’s president.

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Data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics show that emigration has increased in recent years. The trend began in 2022 and continued during the wars that followed the October 7 attacks.

Israel has more than 7.3 million registered voters, and opinion polls suggest a close contest. Previous elections have turned on narrow margins, leaving the potential impact of overseas voters uncertain.

People walk past a Likud party campaign billboard featuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alongside opposition party leaders and bearing the Hebrew slogan “Right or Palestine,” ahead of Israel’s general election, in Beni Brak, Israel, Sunday.

Netanyahu’s hold on power is under looming threat owing to a series of corruption charges and allegations that he attempted to circumscribe the powers of the Supreme Court, which many Israelis believe would have given the government untrammelled power, according to an ABC report.

With all 120 seats in the Knesset up for election on Tuesday, recent polling has projected 52 seats for the opposition bloc and 50 for Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist alliance.