With Israel’s Knesset election scheduled for October 27, a growing number of Israelis living abroad are booking expensive flights home for one purpose: to vote.
Social media has filled in recent days with screenshots of airline tickets purchased by Israelis who plan to return specifically for election day.
Because Israeli law does not allow most citizens to vote from abroad, they must physically travel to Israel to cast a ballot, even when doing so requires long flights, vacation days and thousands of shekels in expenses.
For many, the cost is part of what they see as a responsibility to influence the country’s future.
Ira Gomershtat Levy, 40, moved to Belgrade with her husband and two children about two years ago and plans to return to Israel for the election.
“We had wanted for a long time to move and experience relocation,” she told ynet. “At first I was less enthusiastic about the idea, and at some point we simply decided to take the plunge. This will be the first time we come to vote in an election as residents abroad.”
She said voting remained important because of her continuing connection to Israel.
“It is important for me to vote because we are Israelis, because we are Jews, and there is only one Jewish state,” she said. “It is an inconvenience and also a financial expense, but the country’s future matters to us, for me, for our children and for our families. It is important for me to have an influence.”
Gomershtat Levy said she had not yet decided whom she would support.
“For me, voting means taking part in the future of the country and of the people around me,” she said. “Israel is always home for me, no matter where in the world I live. We will want to return to Israel in the future, though we do not yet know when.”
She added: “Personally, I think everyone who is able to come and vote must do so. It is our moral obligation as Israelis toward the state and our people.”
Dozens of Israelis abroad have joined the online trend, posting flight confirmations on X and announcing that they too will return for the election.
One Israeli woman named Jenny shared a screenshot of her tickets and wrote: “The children will be here too.”
Another Israeli posted details of a flight from Athens and wrote: “Joining the trend.”
Among those planning to travel is Bar Luzon, 32, who left Israel in 2018 to pursue a doctorate in philosophy at New York University and now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Bar Luzon’s ticket to Israel ahead of the election
(Photo: X)
“I studied for six years and then received a job offer from MIT, so I decided to stay in the United States,” she told ynet. “Professionally, it was an offer I could not refuse.”
This will be the first time Luzon travels to Israel specifically to vote.
“These elections are decisive,” she said. “The country is not functioning, and Israel is not a country that can afford not to function.”
“I do not have much influence as one person, but there is one thing I can do to try to make my country a better place to live, and that is vote,” she said. “I feel it is my moral and national duty to do everything I can so that things will be better.”
Luzon said she already knew which party she would support.
“I will vote for the Democrats,” she said. “I am voting for a future of hope and peace.”
“Israel is my country, and it always will be,” she added. “I moved to the United States for professional reasons, and I am happy with the life I chose, but that does not mean I have a new country. It means I live far from the only place I truly care about, and I spend a great deal of money flying there every year.”
The X trend of Israelis posting flight tickets as they return to vote in the election
(Photo: X)
“I have no other country, and voting is my way of trying to make it a better place to live,” Luzon said.
She described herself as someone who had not previously been deeply political, but said that changed after the October 7 attack and its aftermath, particularly the struggle to bring the hostages home.
“I think now that this was a somewhat naive outlook,” she said. “You cannot be completely apolitical, at least not as an Israeli.”
She said she hoped Israel could eventually return to a reality in which politics did not consume so much time and emotional energy.
(Photo: X)
“I do not want us to open our phones in fear every morning to read the news,” she said. “I do not want us to spend months crying because of disasters, and I do not want us to fear every day for the lives of our families and friends.”
“I want to live a normal life, and as long as Israel remains in its current condition, that is impossible.”
Despite living far away, Luzon said Israel remained the center of her identity.
“It is the only place where I am a citizen, and it is also the only place I care about,” she said. “I visit for several weeks every year, consume Israeli media and culture and miss Israel every day.”
She said her current decision to remain in the United States was driven by her career but hoped more Israelis abroad who could afford the journey would return to vote.
“I think everyone understands how important these elections are,” she said. “The financial burden of flying to Israel right now is enormous, but I hope that those who can afford to come and vote will do so.”