Who votes, and who doesn't
Citizenship, not residence, decides the Knesset vote. Who holds it, who does not, the Palestinian elections, and the legal findings about the gap.
| Status | KnessetCitizenship, 18+, on the register | Israeli municipalCitizen or permanent resident, 17+, local register |
|---|---|---|
| Israeli citizenLiving in Israel, including Palestinian and Druze citizensSubject to the relevant voter register. Religion and ethnicity do not create different citizenship-based voting rights. | Can vote: Eligible from 18 | Can vote: Eligible from 17 |
| Israeli permanent resident, without citizenshipFor example, many Palestinians in East Jerusalem; check each person's actual statusMunicipal voting requires residence and registration in the relevant local authority. Naturalization changes the national-vote position. | Cannot vote: Not eligible | Can vote: Eligible from 17 |
| Golan resident: citizenship must be checkedDruze communities in the Israeli-annexed Golan HeightsBeing Druze or living in the Golan does not establish whether a person has Israeli citizenship. Local voter-register conditions apply. | Depends on status: Citizen: eligible from 18; noncitizen: not eligible | Depends on status: Permanent residents: eligible from 17 |
| Israeli citizen in a West Bank settlementThe occupied West BankCitizens can vote in Knesset elections from settlement polling places. Local council arrangements should not be inferred from the national rule. | Can vote: Eligible from 18 | Depends on status: Check local council rules |
| Palestinian resident without Israeli citizenship or permanent residencyThe West Bank or GazaPlace of residence alone does not confer Israeli voting rights. Palestinian elections are a separate system, described below. | Cannot vote: Not eligible | Cannot vote: No Israeli municipal right on that basis |
| Israeli citizen abroadOutside Israel on election dayThere is no general overseas absentee vote. Most registered voters must return to vote; limited official overseas categories have special arrangements. | Depends on status: Check registration and voting location | Depends on status: Check residence and the local register |
Rules checked October 5, 2026: Basic Law: The Knesset, §5; CEC voter-register guidance (2022 election); government explanation of national and municipal status rules; Interior Ministry local-register conditions (2025); IDI on citizenship and residency. Age is measured on the relevant election day; the voter register decides each person's entitlement. See how to vote for voting locations and exceptions.
Facts checked October 5, 2026. Every number shows its source and date.
Citizenship decides the vote
Israeli citizens aged 18+ listed in the voter register can vote for the Knesset (Ynet, Oct 31, 2022), Palestinian citizens of Israel and Druze citizens on the same terms as Jewish citizens (Inter-Agency Task Force, updated Dec 2022). Settlers who are citizens vote where they live (CEC, 2022). Most Israelis abroad must come home to vote (Times of Israel, Aug 15, 2026); see how Israelis vote.
East Jerusalem. Israel annexed East Jerusalem after 1967. The UN Security Council declared Israel's measures altering Jerusalem's status "null and void" and decided "not to recognize" the 1980 law proclaiming Jerusalem Israel's capital (Resolution 478, Aug 20, 1980). Most of the city's 375,600 Arab residents (end of 2021, Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research) hold permanent residency, not citizenship. They can vote in Jerusalem's municipal elections, though most do not, and cannot vote for the Knesset (Inter-Agency Task Force). They may apply for citizenship (Times of Israel, Jan 13, 2020).
The Golan Druze. Israel offered citizenship to the Druze of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights in 1981, and most long declined it. Since 2020, 6,779 have applied, 3,750 of them in 2025 (Times of Israel, Mar 15, 2026). See the Druze page.
The West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians living there who are not Israeli citizens cannot vote for the Knesset; Palestinian elections operate separately (Inter-Agency Task Force; see below). The West Bank is occupied. Area C, more than 60% of it, is under full Israeli control (Times of Israel/AFP, July 20, 2025). Outside East Jerusalem, West Bank Palestinians live under Israeli military rule beside settlers who have Israeli citizenship and the Knesset vote; the International Court of Justice found that "Palestinians in the West Bank are thus subject to military law and military courts, whereas settlers benefit from the criminal law and criminal justice system applicable to civilians in Israel" (ICJ, July 19, 2024, para. 136). In all, about 5.4 million Palestinians, counting all ages, live in the West Bank, East Jerusalem included (3.3 million), and Gaza (2.1 million) (OCHA, Dec 16, 2025); the Knesset vote depends on Israeli citizenship and voter registration. See the West Bank page.
Palestinian elections
The Palestinian Authority's last national elections were in 2005, when Mahmoud Abbas won the presidency, and 2006, when Hamas's list won 74 of 132 legislative seats (Palestinian Central Elections Commission, 2005; 2006). Hamas took control of Gaza "in a violent coup against Fatah in 2007" (Times of Israel, Apr 25, 2026).
Abbas called elections for May and July 2021 (CEC, Jan 15, 2021), then postponed them: "we decided to postpone the date of holding legislative elections until the participation of Jerusalem and its people is guaranteed" (Al Jazeera, Apr 30, 2021). Israel's Foreign Ministry called the elections "an internal Palestinian issue" (Al Jazeera, Apr 30, 2021). The Times of Israel gives two reasons for the cancellation: the lack of guarantees for voting in East Jerusalem, and "prospects of Hamas gains at the expense of Fatah" (July 9, 2026).
Local elections were held on April 25, 2026, including in Gaza's Deir al-Balah (CEC, 2026); Hamas boycotted them in the West Bank (Times of Israel, Apr 27, 2026). On July 9, 2026, Abbas set legislative elections for November 28, 2026, which, "if they take place, would mark the first such vote in two decades." Candidates must accept the PLO's program, "which includes recognition of Israel and support for a two-state solution" (Times of Israel, July 9, 2026).
The legal findings about the gap
Three human rights organizations have concluded that Israel's rule over Palestinians amounts to apartheid. The Israeli group B'Tselem wrote in January 2021 that "a regime that uses laws, practices and organized violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another is an apartheid regime," and that Israel's rule from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean meets that bar (B'Tselem, Jan 12, 2021). Human Rights Watch found that "Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution" (HRW, Apr 27, 2021). Amnesty International's secretary general, Agnès Callamard, said Israel's "cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid" (Amnesty, Feb 1, 2022).
In a July 2024 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice found that Israel's "continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful" (11 votes to 4), that Israel must end it "as rapidly as possible," and that it is obliged "to cease immediately all new settlement activities, and to evacuate all settlers" (14 to 1). On Article 3 of the UN convention against racial discrimination, which covers "racial segregation and apartheid," the court found that Israel's measures "impose and serve to maintain a near-complete separation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem between the settler and Palestinian communities," a breach of the article. It did not say which of the two it was (ICJ, July 19, 2024). In their own statements, President Nawaf Salam wrote that Israel's policy is "tantamount to apartheid"; Judge Georg Nolte wrote that the opinion "cannot be understood as finding that the prohibition of apartheid has indeed been violated."
Israel rejects these findings: its Foreign Ministry called the HRW report a "propaganda pamphlet" (NPR, Apr 27, 2021) and Netanyahu answered the court that "the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land" and that "no false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth" (Times of Israel, July 19, 2024).
The Gaza legal record
ICJ. In South Africa v. Israel, brought under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the court ordered provisional measures on January 26, 2024, by votes of 15–2 and 16–1: that Israel "take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II" of the convention, and enable "urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance" (ICJ). It added measures on March 28 and May 24, 2024 (ICJ). These are interim orders "ahead of a final decision" (UN News, Jan 26, 2024), not a ruling on the merits. The court's then-president, Joan Donoghue, later said it had found that Palestinians had a "plausible right" to the convention's protection, and had not ruled on whether South Africa's claim was plausible, though it saw a risk of irreparable harm to that right (BBC, Apr 26, 2024). Israel's March 2026 filing argued that the court lacks jurisdiction and should dismiss the case (Times of Israel, Mar 21, 2026).
ICC. On November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, finding reasonable grounds that they bear responsibility for "the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts" (ICC). It also issued one for Mohammed Deif of Hamas, whose case was closed in February 2025 after his death (ICC). Israel's jurisdiction challenge was sent back for a new ruling in April 2025, and in December 2025 the warrants remained in place (ICC, Apr 24, 2025; Times of Israel, Dec 15, 2025). Netanyahu's office called the accusations "antisemitic" and rejected them "with disgust" (same source).
Famine. On August 22, 2025, an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis found that "more than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine" and projected famine to spread "from Gaza Governorate to Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis Governorates" (WHO, Aug 22, 2025). Netanyahu's office called it "an outright lie" (Times of Israel, Aug 23, 2025). In December 2025 the IPC found famine conditions no longer prevailing, though food security "remain[s] critical"; Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said the report portrayed a "distorted, biased and unfounded picture" (Times of Israel, Dec 19, 2025).
UN inquiry. On September 16, 2025, the UN Commission of Inquiry concluded: "The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza." Israel's Foreign Ministry said the report came from "Hamas proxies" (Times of Israel, Sept 16, 2025).
The tolls
Israel. In the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, attackers killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 (Times of Israel, Oct 1, 2026). On October 4, 2026, the Defense Ministry reported 1,318 security personnel added to its official fallen roll since October 7, 2023. JNS's October 4 report attributes 1,029 civilians killed in terrorist attacks over that period to the National Insurance Institute. Both counts include October 7.
Gaza. The Gaza Ministry of Health, which operates under the Hamas-run authorities, reports 73,922 Palestinians killed as of September 23, 2026, 1,402 of them since the October 2025 ceasefire. OCHA attributes the count to the ministry, noting that figures "yet-to-be verified by the UN are attributed to their source"; the ministry had fully identified 71,444 of the dead by December 31, 2025, among them 21,283 children (OCHA, Sept 23, 2026; OCHA, Sept 25, 2026).
West Bank. From January 2025 to August 2026, OCHA recorded that Israeli forces killed 284 Palestinians in the West Bank, Israeli settlers killed 25, and forces or settlers killed 13 more; Palestinians killed 20 Israelis there, 8 of them members of Israeli forces, and Palestinians from the West Bank killed three Israelis inside Israel in 2025 (OCHA, Sept 14, 2026). See the war and hostages and West Bank pages.
Misreadings
"Arabs can't vote in Israel." Palestinian citizens of Israel can; Ra'am and the Joint List are on the 2026 ballot (Al Jazeera, Oct 2, 2026). Those without a Knesset vote are non-citizens: most East Jerusalem residents, and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. See Palestinian citizens of Israel.
"West Bank Palestinians have no elections." They have Palestinian Authority elections, but none for the presidency since 2005 or the legislature since 2006; a legislative vote is set for November 28, 2026 (Times of Israel, July 9, 2026).
"The ICJ has decided South Africa's case." It has not ruled on the merits. Its 2024 orders were interim measures, and the case is pending (UN News, Jan 26, 2024).