Mapping the 2026 Israeli Elections

What can we learn from an extremely multi polar political system?

Israeli Election Billboards, 2026 | CFR

Israel, as keen blog readers will already know, has just held an election. A large-scale exercise to win over the minds of Israeli citizens. Israel elects its parliament by nationwide proportional representation, which makes geography largely irrelevant to commentators, but I thought it would be worth mapping how the results came out by area. With the latest results, alongside historical ones, there is a lot to take in.

So you can look for yourself and follow along, here's the link:

https://israel.weinbren.me/

The headline results were that the parties of the 2022 coalition lost their majority, though Likud is still the largest party.

Chart of the 2026 result. A bar of the Knesset's 120 seats shows the 2022 coalition's parties with 53, short of the 61 needed for a majority, and the other parties with 67. Seats by party: Likud 27, Yashar! 21, Together 12, Joint List 11, the Democrats 8, Ra'am 8, Yisrael Beiteinu 7, Otzma Yehudit 7, United Torah Judaism 7, Shas 6 and Religious Zionism 6. Turnout was 78%, the highest since 1999.

A lot of thought has gone into the classifications and cartography, but inevitably there will be disagreements about how to portray Israel fairly and ethically. I have used hatching for the occupied territories, alongside the Green Line and the line between East and West Jerusalem.

Two maps showing how the site marks the occupied territories. On a map of Israel coloured by the largest party in 2026, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights carry a faint grey hatch beneath the colours, with dashed lines for borders and the Green Line. A close-up of Jerusalem shows the 1949 line dashed between West and East Jerusalem.

Red Haifa: home of the dock workers whose sweat and labour built the state as we know it. In 1992, Labour led almost every neighbourhood. Since then, blue-collar workers have swung to the right, and much of the rest of the Jewish population to the centre. I have talked and written before about the decline of the Israeli left across much of society, and how this has greatly hurt the chances of peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Two maps of Haifa's neighbourhoods by largest party. In 1992 Labour led 41 of 42. In 2026 Yashar! led 24; Likud 12, among them working-class areas such as Kiryat Haim and Neve David; the Joint List 11; and United Torah Judaism 4. A line chart of the city's vote since 1992 shows the left falling from 56% to 10% and the centre rising to 35%, while the right ended about where it began, at a third.

We can also see how particular communities voted. Druze localities, for instance, voted disproportionately for Yisrael Beiteinu, a secular right-wing party built on immigrants from the former Soviet Union; only Yashar! did better there. There are several possible reasons. Druze men are drafted into the IDF, and Yisrael Beiteinu campaigns for military service for all. It has also had Druze MKs, such as Hamad Amar.

A map of northern Israel shaded by Yisrael Beiteinu's 2026 vote, darkest in the outlined Druze localities. A line chart since 2015 shows its share in Druze localities far above its national share at every election: 24% against 6% in 2026. Bars rank the 16 Druze localities, from 58.5% in Buq'ata, in the Golan, to 6.8% in Isfiya.

We also see a north–south divide among Arab-Israelis. In the north and centre, the Joint List leads; among the Bedouin of the Negev, in the south, Ra'am dominates.

Two maps of Arab-Israeli localities by the largest list in 2026. Outside the Negev, the Joint List led most towns, including Nazareth, Sakhnin and Umm al-Fahm; Ra'am won 25 of 90, among them Kafr Qasim and Galilee Bedouin villages such as Zarzir. In the Negev, Ra'am won 38 of the 39 Bedouin towns, villages and tribes. Outside the Negev the Joint List took 65% and Ra'am 30%; among the Negev Bedouin, Ra'am took 87% and the Joint List 11%.

Arab-Israeli turnout, arguably the story of the election, stands out too: in Arab-Israeli towns and villages, it was higher than the national rate for the first time in decades. That, and Balad's return to the Joint List, nearly doubled the Arab-Israeli parties' seats.

A map of northern and central Israel shaded by the change in turnout since 2022, darkest in Arab-Israeli towns such as Nazareth, Umm al-Fahm and Tira. Turnout in Arab-Israeli localities was 80.3%, up 26.6 points. A line chart since 1996 shows it below national turnout at every election until 2026, when it passed it, 80.3% against 78.0%; its low was 44.5% in 2021.

Nowhere is the secular–religious divide clearer than between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Judaism's holiest city. You can explore it in the Census tool, and see it in how the two cities vote.

Two maps shading neighbourhoods by the share of residents in mainly secular areas: 97% in Tel Aviv-Yafo, almost all of it dark, against 11% in Jerusalem, mostly light, where most live in mainly traditional or Haredi areas. Bars of the 2026 vote by bloc: in Tel Aviv-Yafo the secular centre took 44% and the left 21%; in Jerusalem the Orthodox parties took 47% and the right 28%.

Likud, once known as the party of "Second Israel", now draws on the middle of Israeli society. Meanwhile the centre and left tend to do better in less deprived areas. In contrast, the Orthodox and Arab-Israeli parties do far better in deprived ones.

Dot chart of where each party's 2026 votes were cast on the socio-economic index, from poorer on the left to richer on the right. United Torah Judaism, Ra'am, the Joint List and Shas sit towards the poorer end; Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionism, Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu sit near the middle, around the median for all votes; Reservists, Yashar!, Together and the Democrats lean richer.

Tel Aviv, the city at the centre of the early Zionist project, is broadly split between a more affluent north and a more deprived south. Its vote shows this too: the north and centre went for Yashar! and the Democrats, the south-east for Likud, and Ajami for the Joint List.

A map of Tel Aviv-Yafo's neighbourhoods by largest party in 2026. Yashar! led 29 and the Democrats 9, between them most of the north and centre; Likud led 12, mostly in the south-east, such as HaTikva and Neve Hen; the Joint List led 3 in Jaffa, among them Ajami.

Bnei Brak, right next to Tel Aviv, is overwhelmingly Haredi and far poorer than its neighbours. Whenever I map deprivation in Israel, it stands out.

Two maps of Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan and their neighbours. On the socio-economic index, Bnei Brak is a block of poorer areas among richer ones. By largest party in 2026, United Torah Judaism led almost all of Bnei Brak, which gave it and Shas 86% of its vote, while Yashar! led most of Ramat Gan. Bnei Brak is in socio-economic cluster 2 of 10, with a median annual wage of ₪74K; Ramat Gan is in cluster 8, at ₪131K.

We can also go back in time and see how the Israeli settlements in occupied Gaza voted in 2003. Most of their votes went to the religious right. In 2005, Ariel Sharon evacuated every one of them.

A map of the Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2003, each coloured by its largest party: the National Religious Party or the National Union in nine, including Netzarim, Kfar Darom and Neve Dekalim; Likud in five, including Elei Sinai and Nisanit; Shas in Morag. Across the 15 settlements, the National Religious Party took 30%, the National Union 27%, Likud 22% and Shas 9%.

Today's West Bank settlements, central to any peace deal, also back the religious right, and their two biggest towns are Haredi. In these deeply conservative communities, a new vision of Zionism is emerging.

A map of the West Bank's Israeli settlements by largest party in 2026: Religious Zionism led 82 of 130, Likud 25, Yashar! 13, United Torah Judaism 6, Shas 3 and the Democrats 1. Bars show half their voters live in eight towns, the two largest the Haredi towns of Modi'in Illit and Beitar Illit. Religious Zionism took 24% of the settlements' vote against 5% nationwide, and United Torah Judaism 21% against 5%.

The development towns, built for Jewish immigrants, soon became places of marginalisation in Israeli society. In 1992, Rabin campaigned hard there and promised these communities investment. Today, little of the left remains.

Two line charts comparing the vote in 23 development towns with the national vote since 1992. Likud ran above its national share in the towns at every election, taking 33% there in 2026. Labour, now the Democrats, fell from 31% in 1992 to 2% in 2026, below its national share every time.

As a final note - the hope of many of us around the world watching these elections is that the Israeli and Palestinian people can live in peace and security. To all those who voted in this endeavour, thank you.