Far-right Israeli parliamentarian Itamar Ben-Gvir announced on Monday that his Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”) party would run separately from the Religious Zionism party in the upcoming election, to be held on November 1.
In the previous election, held in March 2021, Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit, and the Noam faction ran together under the Religious Zionism name, and won six seats. This was increased to seven seats when a lawmaker elected on the Likud list moved parties, joining Religious Zionism.
Ben-Gvir gained national attention as a fiery, radical youth leader in the outlawed Kach movement headed by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane.
While polls suggest that Ben-Gvir has risen in popularity since he entered the Knesset in April 2021, Otzma Yehudit’s split from Religious Zionism raises the possibility that one or both of the parties could fall below the electoral threshold and not be included in the next Knesset at all, which could tip the scales against the formation of a narrow right-wing government headed by the current opposition leader and former prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. If a party wins less than 3.25% of the votes cast in the election, it doesn’t enter the Knesset and any votes that the party received are essentially wasted.