Ben Gvir Calls for Denying Voting Rights to People He Deems Disloyal to Israel

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called on October 29 for withholding voting rights from people he considers disloyal to Israel. He published the statement on his own X account on Thursday morning, two days after the October 27 Knesset election. The post presents a political demand rather than announcing a change in voter eligibility. “Anyone who is not loyal to the State of Israel must not be given the right to vote,” Ben Gvir wrote. He did not define disloyalty, identify a group to which the restriction would apply, or describe a procedure for deciding who would lose the vote. The statement set out no draft bill, implementation timetable or institution responsible for applying such a test. An Israeli Foreign Ministry election notice published by the embassy in Latvia provides background on registration for the 2026 vote. In its explanation of the Knesset Elections Law, updated August 12, it lists Israeli citizenship when the register is extracted, registration of the person and their address as a resident in the Population Registry, and reaching age 18 by election day. Ben Gvir had urged supporters to vote on October 27 in an evening message on his official Telegram channel, directing them to ballot letter ב. Thursday’s statement instead calls for a loyalty condition on the right to participate in elections.