A Palestinian state and the 2026 vote
Where the lists running on October 27 stand on a Palestinian state, and what Israeli and Palestinian surveys show about the idea since 2013.
- Oppose a Palestinian stateLikudShasUTJ (not said publicly)Religious Zionism–ZehutOtzma YehuditPeople of IsraelNoamB'YachadYisrael BeiteinuBlue and WhiteReservists–Economic77.5
- Not on the agenda nowYashar!21.0
- Separation in a regional dealThe Democrats9.0
- Support a Palestinian stateRa'amJoint List12.5
Answers in order from one end of the debate to the other. Seats are the current polling average; the tick is 61. A dotted outline marks a list that has not said its position publicly; it is read from the list's votes, deals or ministers' actions. Each list's own words and sources.
Facts checked October 5, 2026. Every number shows its source and date.
What is at stake
In Israel, left and right are defined mostly by positions on the Palestinians, the occupied territories and a Palestinian state, not by economics (CHES-Israel expert survey, 2021–22). Yet in the 2026 campaign almost no one argues for a Palestinian state. Of the lists running on October 27, only Ra'am and the Joint List say they support a Palestinian state (Jerusalem Post, Sept 1, 2026). The Jewish-majority lists oppose one, say it is "not on the agenda", decline to answer, or, in the case of The Democrats, speak of "separation" (Ynet party questionnaire, Sept 30, 2026).
The Knesset put this on record before the campaign began. On July 17, 2024 it passed, 68–9, a resolution stating that "the Knesset of Israel firmly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state west of Jordan." Unlike a February 2024 resolution, which rejected only unilateral recognition, it rejected a state even as part of a negotiated settlement. Coalition parties were joined by members of Benny Gantz's National Unity; the nine votes against came from Ra'am and Hadash–Ta'al, and Yesh Atid and Labor left the chamber (Times of Israel, July 2024). The Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza, whose state is the question, are not Israeli citizens and have no vote in this election (see who votes, and who doesn't).
Since then, Knesset votes have been about annexation rather than partition. On July 23, 2025 a non-binding declaration in favor of annexing the West Bank and the Jordan Valley passed 71–13 (Ynet, July 2025). On October 22, 2025 a bill by Noam's Avi Maoz to annex the settlement areas of the West Bank passed a preliminary reading 25–24 (Times of Israel, Oct 22, 2025). The West Bank page covers settlement and annexation in detail.
Abroad, the question moved the other way. By late September 2025, 157 of the 193 UN member states had recognized the State of Palestine, among them the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and France in September 2025 (Al Jazeera, Sept 23, 2025). In Israel the recognitions united the main Jewish-majority parties rather than dividing them: Yair Lapid called it "a harmful step, and a reward for terror", Yair Golan called it "destructive", and Itamar Ben-Gvir called it "a prize for the murderous terrorists" (Times of Israel, Sept 22, 2025).
When the Israel Democracy Institute asked voters to name their most important considerations, Jewish respondents chose foreign affairs and security (39%), the economy and cost of living (38%) and conscription (27%). The Palestinian issue was not offered as a separate answer (IDI, Aug 31–Sept 3, 2026). In the campaign, Netanyahu has put the question this way:
Do you want a Palestinian state? (or) do you want a Jewish state?
What Israelis think
In 2026, 17% of Israelis and 16% of Jewish Israelis think Israel and a Palestinian state can coexist peacefully, down from 50% of all Israelis in 2013. For the first time in Pew's polling, more than half (56%) say coexistence is not possible (Pew, Sept 15, 2026). Pew says the share has not changed significantly from 21% in 2025. Pew's question asks about feasibility, not preference.
"Do you think a way can be found for Israel and an independent Palestinian state to coexist peacefully with each other?" Percent saying a way can be found. This asks whether coexistence is possible, not whether people want it.
The numbers: Who thinks a way can be found for Israel and an independent Palestinian state to coexist peacefully, 2013–2026
| Year | All Israelis | Jewish Israelis | Palestinian citizens of Israel |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 50% | 46% | 74% |
| 2014 | 40% | 37% | 64% |
| 2017 | 44% | 40% | 61% |
| 2023 (spring, before October 7) | 35% | 32% | 41% |
| 2024 | 26% | 19% | 49% |
| 2025 | 21% | 16% | 40% |
| 2026 | 17% | 16% | 23% |
Source: Pew Research Center, Global Attitudes surveys, as published in its Sept 15, 2026 report, Spring of each year; 2026 fieldwork April 5–May 6, 2026, 2026: 1,001 Israeli adults. Pew's label for the third column is "Arab Israelis". In 2026, 46% of Arab respondents gave no answer; 26% said a way cannot be found. Pew says the 2026 overall figure (17%) has not changed significantly from 2025 (21%). The 2014 figure for Jewish Israelis (37%) is from this Global Attitudes series; Pew's separate 2014–15 survey of religion in Israel, asking the same question, found 43% (see the note on the page).
In Pew's 2025 survey, 54% of Israelis on the left, 29% in the center and 7% on the right said a way can be found for Israel and a Palestinian state to coexist. Among Jewish Israelis, 25% of Hilonim (secular), 11% of Masortim (traditional) and 9% of Haredim (ultra-Orthodox) and Datiim (religious), counted together, said peaceful coexistence is possible (Pew, Feb–March 2025).
Tel Aviv University's Peace Index asks a different question: how far people support or oppose each of several outcomes. Among Jews, support for "the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel" fell from about 38% a month before October 7, 2023 (read from the Peace Index chart) to 23% in March 2026. Support for "annexation of the occupied territories and the creation of one state under Israeli rule with limited rights for Palestinians" rose from 30% to 38%, though in November 2025 half of Jews said they opposed it (Peace Index, Nov 2025). Whatever they prefer, 48% of Jews expect the current situation to continue (Peace Index, March 2026).
"Regarding each of the following solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, please state to what extent you support or oppose each of them." (March 2026 wording.) Percent of Jewish respondents who very much or moderately support.
Sept 2023Nov 2025Mar 2026
- "The creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel"
- "Annexation of the occupied territories and the creation of one state under Israeli rule with limited rights for Palestinians"
- "Continuing the existing situation"
- "The creation of a binational state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea with full and equal rights for Jews and Palestinians"
The numbers: Jewish Israelis who support each outcome, Peace Index, 2023–2026
| Option (Peace Index wording) | Sept 2023 | Nov 2025 | Mar 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| "The creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel" | 38% | 20% | 23% |
| "Annexation of the occupied territories and the creation of one state under Israeli rule with limited rights for Palestinians" | 30% | 38% | 38% |
| "Continuing the existing situation" | 28% | 30% | 31% |
| "The creation of a binational state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea with full and equal rights for Jews and Palestinians" | 11% | 9% | 8% |
Source: Peace Index, Tel Aviv University (Nimrod Rosler and Alon Yakter), Aug 29–Sept 5, 2023; Nov 6–13, 2025; March 23–28, 2026, About 610 Israeli adults per wave, online (March 2026: 504 Jews, 103 Arabs). Each option is rated separately, so the shares do not add up to 100. Sept 2023 values are read from the Peace Index chart; March 2026 values are rounded from 22.7, 37.7, 31.1 and 7.5. Sept 2023 report: en-social-sciences.tau.ac.il; Nov 2025 report: en-social-sciences.tau.ac.il
Support for "the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel", among Jewish respondents who gave an opinion, by self-placement on the political spectrum.
Source: Peace Index, Tel Aviv University, March 23–28, 2026, 504 Jewish respondents; shares among those who gave an opinion. Among opinion-holders only, so these figures are not comparable with the 23% of all Jewish respondents in the chart above.
The answers depend on the menu. When the Institute for National Security Studies offered a single choice that included "separation from the Palestinians", separation led among Jews at 32%, level with "full annexation without granting civil rights" at 31% (INSS, June 16–22, 2026).
Palestinian citizens of Israel are far more favorable. In the March 2026 Peace Index, 71% of Arab respondents supported a Palestinian state alongside Israel, from a small subsample of 103; in the INSS survey, 57% of Arab respondents chose two states. Their own first voting concern is crime in Arab society (53.5%) (IDI, Sept 2026). The Palestinian citizens page has more.
What Palestinians think. Pew asked the same question of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, its first survey there in several years; it could not survey in Gaza. 21% said a way can be found for Israel and an independent Palestinian state to coexist peacefully and 68% said it cannot, against 17% and 56% of Israelis (Pew, fieldwork March 30–April 28, 2026, 1,038 adults). Asked why, they diverged. In Pew's summary, "While Israelis explain that an independent Palestinian state would pose a threat to Israel, many Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem say coexistence is not an option while they live under Israeli control." One Palestinian man told Pew: "They are an occupying force who took our land and separated us from each other with checkpoints."
The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) in Ramallah, which also interviews in Gaza, found in August 2026 that 44% supported and 50% opposed "the two-state solution" when it was offered without details, with almost the same support in the West Bank and Gaza. Offered three options, 56% chose "the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders" (52% in the West Bank, 61% in Gaza), 14% a confederation and 10% "one state in which Jews and Palestinians live with equal rights"; 58% said the two-state solution is no longer practical because of settlement expansion. Asked for the most effective way to end the occupation and establish a state, 44% chose negotiations, the highest share in four years, and 27% armed struggle, the lowest. Asked how Israeli policy toward Gaza and the West Bank would change if the Israeli opposition won and Netanyahu lost, 34% said it would not change, 33% said it would get worse and 28% better (PCPSR, Aug 5–8, 2026, 1,270 adults: 830 in the West Bank, 440 in Gaza).
The last survey found that put the same questions to both publics, the Palestinian-Israeli Pulse (fieldwork July 17–29, 2024), found 40% of Palestinians and 21% of Jewish Israelis supporting a two-state solution; 6% of Palestinians and 10% of Jewish Israelis agreed that it is possible to trust the other side (PCPSR and Tel Aviv University, July 2024). No joint survey since then was found.
What the parties say
The table gives each list's answer in its own words, mostly from Ynet's questionnaire on the West Bank. Only Ra'am and the Joint List name a Palestinian state as a goal. Likud declined to answer.
Should there be a Palestinian state?
Oppose a Palestinian state77.5 seats
Likud22.1 seats
Declined Ynet's questionnaire ("does not participate in questionnaires"). Netanyahu's campaign video: "Do you want a Palestinian state? (or) do you want a Jewish state?"
Ynet, party questionnaire; Jerusalem Post on the video of Sept 18, 2026, Sept 2026. On the record, because the party did not answer the questionnaire
Shas7.6 seats
Opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state; does not make West Bank settlement policy a central campaign issue. As one of the "founders of the right-wing bloc," it has supported initiatives promoted by Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit.
Ynet, party questionnaire, Sept 30, 2026
UTJ7.6 seats
Not said publicly: Has not answered on a Palestinian state; it told Ynet it has no unified West Bank policy. UTJ co-sponsored the Knesset resolution of July 18, 2024 that "opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state on any piece of land west of the Jordan River," which passed 68 to 9. In July 2025 its MKs voted for the non-binding motion calling for sovereignty over the areas of Jewish settlement.
JNS, Jul 18, 2024; Ynet, Jul 23, 2025; Ynet, party questionnaire, Sept 30, 2026, Jul 18, 2024
Religious Zionism–Zehut5.7 seats
"We have carried out an enormous, unprecedented revolution in settlement in Judea and Samaria that has, in practice, eliminated the idea of a Palestinian state." Supports "applying full Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria."
Ynet, party questionnaire, Sept 30, 2026
Otzma Yehudit7.4 seats
"We will work to apply full Israeli sovereignty, dismantle the Palestinian Authority of its assets and weapons, and use all security and government mechanisms to encourage voluntary migration from Judea and Samaria and Gaza." "Otzma Yehudit supports establishing new communities in all parts of Judea and Samaria, and certainly opposes evacuating communities and farms."
Ynet, party questionnaire, Sept 30, 2026
People of Israel4.2 seats
"Our position is that a Palestinian state will never be established alongside us."
Ynet, party questionnaire (Amcha Yisrael), Sept 30, 2026
Avi Maoz: "Establishing a Palestinian state in the heart of the country will lead to the production of terror throughout Israel" (translated). He called for a right-wing government that would prevent a Palestinian state and annex the West Bank.
Channel 14, Sep 7, 2026. On the record, because the party did not answer the questionnaire
B'Yachad10.6 seats
"We support Jewish settlement anywhere it is carried out legally. We oppose a Palestinian state and the transfer of territory." "Area C is viewed as a future sovereign part of the State of Israel. Obviously, discretion must be exercised regarding the timing."
Ynet, party questionnaire, Sept 30, 2026
Yisrael Beiteinu8.2 seats
"The Palestinian Authority has become a terrorist organization specializing in diplomatic terrorism, and we must think intelligently about how to cancel the Oslo Accords and dismantle the Palestinian Authority." "We support applying Israeli sovereignty to Area C."
Ynet, party questionnaire, Sept 30, 2026
Benny Gantz, in a New York Times op-ed: "opposition to the recognition of Palestinian statehood stands at the heart of [the Israeli] consensus"; "any path forward for broader Palestinian civil autonomy" must first show "a proven long-term track record of accountable governance." In the campaign (Arutz Sheva, Sep 28, 2026): "These elections are not about a Palestinian state."
Times of Israel, Sep 24, 2025; Arutz Sheva, Sep 28, 2026, Sep 24, 2025. On the record, because the party did not answer the questionnaire
Reservists–Economic4.1 seats
Yoaz Hendel, in August 2026, before his list merged with Yaron Zelekha's party: "We will not allow a Palestinian state to be established, and we support a free economy."
Jerusalem Post, Aug 11, 2026. On the record, because the party did not answer the questionnaire
Not on the agenda now21.0 seats
Yashar!21.0 seats
"The establishment of a Palestinian state is not on the agenda as far as we are concerned." Supports strengthening the settlement blocs and new communities, legally.
Ynet, party questionnaire, Sept 30, 2026
Separation in a regional deal9.0 seats
The Democrats9.0 seats
"Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, and in order to remain so we must strive for separation as part of a regional move," with the United States and moderate Arab states. Would evacuate illegal outposts.
Ynet, party questionnaire, Sept 30, 2026
Support a Palestinian state12.5 seats
Ra'am4.8 seats
Supports advancing a negotiated two-state solution in which a Palestinian state would be established alongside Israel; opposes extending Israeli sovereignty over West Bank territory.
Ynet, party questionnaire, Sept 30, 2026
Joint List7.7 seats
Jabareen has said the list would push for renewed negotiations with Palestinian leadership to advance the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel (as reported by the Jerusalem Post). To Ynet: "All settlements, which constitute a violation of international law and are even defined as a war crime, must be evacuated immediately and without delay."
Jerusalem Post, Sept 1, 2026; Ynet, party questionnaire, Sept 30, 2026, Sept 2026
Most rows are the parties' answers to Ynet's questionnaire of Sept 30, 2026, which asked about the West Bank. Likud declined it; its row adds Netanyahu's campaign video. The Joint List's answer did not address statehood; its row adds the Jerusalem Post's report of Jabareen's position. The Reservists–Economic, Blue and White and Noam rows quote their leaders outside the questionnaire; Hendel's predates his list's merger. UTJ has not said where it stands; its row is marked not said publicly and rests on the Knesset resolution it co-sponsored in 2024.
Misreadings
The election is not a referendum on two states. No Jewish-majority list running on October 27 campaigns for a Palestinian state. Two of Netanyahu's leading opponents, Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar! and Naftali Bennett's B'Yachad, answered Ynet that a state is "not on the agenda" and "We oppose a Palestinian state", respectively.
Left and right do not mean what they mean in the United States. As the CHES survey above found, Israel's left-right axis is the Palestinian question. Bennett and Eisenkot oppose Netanyahu but are not on the left on this question, and the Knesset's 68 votes against a state in 2024 included centrists from Gantz's party.
Young Israelis are not the most dovish. In the Palestinian-Israeli Pulse of December 2022, the latest age breakdown found, 20% of Jewish Israelis aged 18–34 backed the two-state solution in general, against 47% of those over 55 (Pulse, TAU and PSR, Dec 2022).
American Jews answer differently. Asked Pew's same question before the war, 63% of American Jews thought a way could be found for Israel and an independent Palestinian state to coexist peacefully (Pew, fieldwork Nov 2019–June 2020). The Israeli Jewish figure in 2026, from a different survey taken after the war began, is 16%; no Pew figure for American Jews on this question since 2020 was found.
Opposing a state is not the same as backing annexation. Among Jews, opposition to a Palestinian state is far larger than support for any single alternative. The status quo and separation draw large shares, and the outcome Jews most often expect, the current situation, is not the one they most often prefer.