Eretz Yisrael Shelanu (Our Land of Israel)

No documented position found. Searches in Hebrew and English (Wasserlauf, Kroizer and Otzma Yehudit together with "יוקר המחיה", VAT, food prices, prices and the 2026 campaign, repeated during fact-checking) found no specific proposal or statement by Eretz Yisrael Shelanu's candidates on how to lower the cost of living, and no published Otzma Yehudit economic platform could be found or opened. Related actions do not address the question directly:

• Action: In May 2023 Otzma Yehudit threatened to vote against the state budget unless more funding went to Wasserlauf's Negev and Galilee ministry; the deal added NIS 250 million for the Negev and Galilee ^[55]. This was about regional funding, not prices.
• Action: Otzma Yehudit returned to the government on 19 March 2025, which brought the coalition to 68 MKs ahead of the 2025 state budget vote ^[18]. The budget passed on 25 March 2025 by 66 to 52 ^[56], and the Knesset record shows Wasserlauf and Kroizer both voting for it at the final reading ^[74]. Earlier, on 16 December 2024, while Otzma Yehudit was still in the coalition, both had voted against the 2025 Budget Law at its first reading, which passed 59 to 57 ^[72].
• Action: In October 2025 Kroizer promoted a bill to reduce imports of live sheep and goats, to protect local herders in the Negev, the Galilee and Judea and Samaria from what they call unfair competition from cheap imports, and to reduce animal suffering in long sea transport ^[65]. This concerns agriculture and animal welfare, not consumer prices, and it limits rather than opens imports in that market.

The party's candidates have consistently backed tougher enforcement tools, including powers normally used against terrorism.

• Action: Kroizer sponsored the Illegal Weapons Law, passed on 28 March 2023 by 20 to 6, and the Knesset record shows him voting for it ^[69]. For one year it allowed police to search homes suspected of holding illegal weapons without a judge's order and set a minimum sentence for illegal weapons possession. Kroizer said he hoped it would reduce casualties among "innocent citizens, women and children from Arab society" ^[44].
• Action: Kroizer and Otzma MK Almog Cohen sponsored the "protection law", passed on 30 July 2023 as a five-year temporary measure. It sets a minimum three-year prison sentence for protection-racket extortion, widens the offence so that a direct threat no longer has to be proven, and allows money collected as protection to be confiscated in a civil process ^[45]. The Knesset record shows the final reading passed by 9 to 0, with Kroizer voting for ^[70].
• Statement: In June 2023 Kroizer, then chair of the Otzma Yehudit faction, backed an Otzma bill to give the National Security Minister and the police commissioner the power to hold people in administrative detention (holding someone without trial) for reasons of public safety. He called it "one of the aggressive tools we demanded to fight an all-out war against crime organizations, both Jewish and Arab" and said the issue of crime in Arab society had been neglected for years ^[46].
• Change over time: In the same interview Kroizer acknowledged that his party had strongly criticised the use of administrative detention against right-wing activists, and Ynet noted that Ben Gvir had in the past called administrative detention immoral. Kroizer explained the difference: he said detention had been used against right-wing activists "even when there are no real suspicions and no evidence", while serious crime organizations exploit the weakness of the legal system ^[46].
• Action: On 15 July 2026 the government, in which Wasserlauf serves, approved a national plan led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, Minister May Golan and National Security Minister Ben Gvir that for the first time brings the Shin Bet (Israel's internal security service) into joint operations with the police against crime organizations. It moves about NIS 497 million from the five-year development plan for Arab society (Government Decision 550) to new Shin Bet and police units ^[47]. The report does not give a minister-by-minister vote.

Closest option(s): Extraordinary measures, including the Shin Bet and detention without trial for crime bosses (emergency-powers-shin-bet).

Both candidates have opposed the ceasefire and hostage deals and have called for Israeli settlement in Gaza and for encouraging Gaza residents to emigrate.

• Action: On 17–18 January 2025 Wasserlauf was one of eight ministers who voted against the hostage and ceasefire deal, which the government approved by 24 to 8 ^[16]. He then resigned from the government with Ben Gvir and Eliyahu on 19 January 2025. Their resignation statement called the deal "a surrender to Hamas" that released "hundreds of murderers" and withdrew the IDF from parts of Gaza ^[17].
• Statement: In a post on 17 January 2025, before the vote and his resignation, Wasserlauf wrote that he must act "according to the command of my conscience" and that, if he were not a minister, he would probably go and protest outside his own house against the deal ^[15].
• Action: Otzma Yehudit returned to the government on 19 March 2025, after Israel resumed intensive fighting in Gaza; Ynet reported that renewed fighting was one of Ben Gvir's conditions for returning ^[18].
• Statement: On 5 October 2025, after the US plan was presented, Ben Gvir said that if Hamas still existed after all the hostages were released, Otzma Yehudit would no longer be part of the government ^[21]. Days later, the Otzma Yehudit ministers voted against the deal (next item).
• Action: In the government vote on the US-backed ceasefire and hostage deal on 9–10 October 2025, Wasserlauf voted against, together with Ben Gvir, Eliyahu, Smotrich and Strock ^{[22, 23]}. Otzma Yehudit said it would stay in the coalition for now but warned it would "bring down the government" if Hamas is not dismantled ^[22].
• Statement: On 28 November 2024 Wasserlauf told Kan Reshet Bet that Israel should return to settle in the Gaza Strip: "There is an opportunity here to correct a historic injustice, there is no question here. We also aspire to encourage the emigration of Gazans to all kinds of places, but first we need to achieve the goals of the war" ^[24].
• Statement: On 28 January 2024 Wasserlauf attended, with Ben Gvir, the Jerusalem conference organised by the Samaria Regional Council, the Nachala movement and others calling for renewed settlement in the Gaza Strip; Otzma Yehudit announced that all its faction members would take part ^[25].
• Statement: On 5 January 2025 Kroizer said Israel was ready for a deal that frees the hostages through "effective pressure, stopping humanitarian aid and encouraging emigration from the Gaza Strip", and that Hamas would collapse if the IDF used six divisions instead of two ^[26].

Closest option(s): Return to war, take control of all of Gaza, encourage voluntary emigration and allow Israeli settlement there (resume-fighting-full-control).

The evidence shows support for Haredi enlistment in principle, combined with opposition to coercion and confrontation, and active outreach to Haredi voters.

• Statement: In February 2024 Wasserlauf said that "everyone needs to give their shekel to the state", that in his view "Haredim who don't study Torah need to enlist", and that public campaigns against Haredim are counterproductive. He argued for dialogue and agreements instead, citing Ben Gvir's plan to recruit Haredim into the police ^[30].
• Statement: In October 2024 Ben Gvir, the list's leader, told the Otzma Yehudit faction: "We believe in enlistment into the army, but not in coercion", and said the first step should be benefits for those who serve and for reservists ^[31].
• Statement: In August 2026 Ben Gvir said Otzma Yehudit had already recruited 1,400 Haredim into the Border Police, the police and national security bodies, and attacked The Democrats' leader over remarks about Haredi enlistment ^[32].
• Action: In September 2026 Ben Gvir placed Yossi Goldberger, a Haredi public figure, at No. 9 on the list as a "loyal and strong representative for the Haredi public" ^[33].
• No Knesset vote by Wasserlauf or Kroizer on an enlistment law was found; the issue's background notes that laws setting gradual enlistment targets did not pass before the Knesset dissolved.

Closest option(s): Mixed. Wasserlauf's call for non-studying Haredim to enlist through dialogue fits gradual targets by agreement (gradual-targets-by-agreement); the list leader's "enlistment, but not coercion" with incentives also points toward voluntary service with strong incentives (voluntary-service-for-all).

• Action: On 28 July 2026 the Knesset passed, in its final readings, the Planning and Building Law (Amendment No. 170), a government bill handled by the Interior Committee that Kroizer chairs; JDN described it as Kroizer's bill ^{[57, 82]}. It lets the national housing planning sub-committee approve changing land use from commerce and employment to housing, extends its temporary powers until December 2029, and requires the Interior Minister to report yearly to the committee on how many housing units were approved. According to Kroizer, the law releases planning bottlenecks for years ahead ^[57]. The Knesset record shows it passed by 11 to 0, with one MK present but not voting; Kroizer is not recorded as voting ^[82].
• Action: In June 2023 Kroizer, then Otzma Yehudit faction chair, submitted a bill to let communities of up to 1,000 households, instead of 400, use admissions committees, including in Judea and Samaria; the Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved it ahead of a preliminary reading. He said growing communities in the periphery, the Negev, the Galilee and Judea and Samaria is "first and foremost a national security interest". Wasserlauf backed the bill. IDI argued in a submission to the ministerial committee that it would harm equality towards minorities and disadvantaged groups ^[66]. No source fetched shows whether it became law.
• Action: As Minister of the Negev and the Galilee, Wasserlauf wrote in December 2024 that his ministry had allocated hundreds of millions of shekels during the war to economic development, emergency support for border communities, more than 210 municipal youth units, and settlement information centres in the Galilee, and that the post-war plan should include rebuilding damaged homes and infrastructure ^[54]. These are regional development measures, not housing-price measures.
• Action: In May 2023 Otzma Yehudit secured an extra NIS 250 million for the Negev and Galilee as a condition for supporting the budget; Ben Gvir said "residents of the Negev and Galilee cannot be discriminated against" ^[55].

Closest option(s): Build more and faster by cutting planning red tape (speed-up-planning-and-construction), alongside developing the periphery (develop-periphery-and-transport).

• Statement: On 13 August 2024 Kroizer called for Israel to strike Iran first rather than wait for an Iranian attack: "The army knows how to strike the enemy and it is good that it does so as soon as possible – not only the enemy on the Lebanese border." He said Iran "needs to pay a heavy price" for its proxies, from Hezbollah to the Houthis ^[27].
• Statement: On 25 November 2024, as a new security cabinet observer, Wasserlauf promised the heads of northern border councils that he would "do everything" to prevent the emerging ceasefire arrangement in Lebanon and would voice their opposition in the security cabinet ^[28].
• Statement: At a security cabinet meeting reported by Walla on 9 June 2026, held after an order to hold fire in Lebanon, Wasserlauf said "a disproportionate response is needed in Lebanon, and more munitions. Lots of munitions", and pressed the Finance Minister to release funds for military procurement ^[29].
• No statement by either candidate supporting a negotiated agreement with Iran or Hezbollah was found.

Closest option(s): Keep attacking Iran, Hezbollah and their allies until they can no longer threaten Israel, with no deals in the meantime (military-pressure-until-threats-removed).

• Formal commitment: The party's registered name refers to the "wholeness of the Torah, the people and the land" ^[1]. IDI's profile of Otzma Yehudit, the list both candidates belong to, summarises its ideology as support for the whole Land of Israel and for applying Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria ^[6].
• Action: On 22 October 2025 a bill by MK Avi Maoz to apply Israeli sovereignty to "all areas of settlement in Judea and Samaria" passed a preliminary reading by 25 to 24, against the position of the Prime Minister and Likud ^{[49, 50]}. Ben Gvir praised the "historic bill" and said Likud "should have voted in favor" ^[51]. The Knesset record shows 25 for, 24 against and one MK present but not voting, with Wasserlauf and Kroizer both voting for ^[76].
• Statement: In July 2023 Kroizer said that anyone "who acts against the worldview of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel" is not fit to be a judge ^[36].
• Contradiction: Otzma Yehudit's stated aim, as summarised by IDI, is applying Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria ^[6], and on 22 January 2025, days after Otzma Yehudit left the government, Wasserlauf voted for a bill by Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, which was rejected by 56 to 32; Kroizer is not recorded as voting ^{[84, 17]}. Yet on 31 December 2025, after Otzma Yehudit had returned to the coalition, Wasserlauf voted against a bill to apply sovereignty to Beitar Illit, which was rejected by 45 to 8 with three MKs present but not voting ^[85]. It was an opposition bill, and he voted with the coalition. Kroizer also voted against it ^[85]; because he is not recorded in the January 2025 vote, this item rests on Wasserlauf's two votes. No explanation by either was found.
• Change over time: Earlier, on 15 March 2023, Wasserlauf and Kroizer had voted, with the rest of the coalition, against the same Jordan Valley bill, which was rejected by 66 to 14 ^{[83, 86]}. Before the 2023 vote the Ministerial Committee for Legislation had decided that the coalition would not support the bill; replying for the government, Minister Orit Strock called it a "trolling bill" and said "the whole coalition supports sovereignty. We will advance it at the appropriate time" ^[86]. Wasserlauf's votes on this bill thus followed Otzma Yehudit's place in or outside the coalition: against in 2023, for in January 2025. No dated Otzma Yehudit position on applying sovereignty from before this vote was found. The party's coalition agreement with Likud, signed on 28 December 2022, has no clause on applying sovereignty; the government guidelines annexed to it say the government "will advance and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel", including Judea and Samaria ^[87].
• No statement by either candidate on the future of the Palestinian Authority was found.

Closest option(s): Apply Israeli sovereignty to all of Judea and Samaria and expand settlements (full-sovereignty). The evidence covers sovereignty and settlement; no documented position on dismantling the Palestinian Authority was found.

• Action: On 24 July 2023 the Knesset passed the amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary (Amendment No. 3) limiting the courts' use of the "reasonableness" standard. JNS reported that "all 64 members of the coalition" voted for it while the opposition boycotted the vote ^[34]. The Knesset record shows 64 for and none against, with Wasserlauf and Kroizer among those voting for ^[71].
• Action: On 27 March 2025, eight days after Otzma Yehudit returned to the coalition, the Knesset passed the law changing the Judicial Selection Committee by 67 to 1, with the opposition boycotting. Walla reported that the law will increase politicians' control over the selection of judges ^[35]. The Knesset record shows 67 for, 1 against and 2 MKs present but not voting, with Wasserlauf and Kroizer both voting for ^[75].
• Action: Kroizer was elected the Knesset's coalition representative on the Judicial Selection Committee in July 2023 ^[36]. On 26 January 2025 he, Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Minister Orit Strock boycotted the committee session that elected Justice Yitzhak Amit as Supreme Court President. Their joint statement called the election "a moral disgrace" ^[37].
• Action: On 4 August 2025 the government, in which Wasserlauf serves, unanimously approved Justice Minister Levin's proposal to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara; Netanyahu did not attend because of a conflict of interest, and the Supreme Court froze the decision the same day ^[38]. The report does not list the ministers present. On 14 December 2025 the High Court annulled the dismissal decision and the government's earlier change to the dismissal procedure ^[67].
• Statement: When asked in July 2023 about judicial appointments, Kroizer said a judge should hold "a Zionist and Jewish worldview", and asked why someone who does not respect the anthem and the flag should be allowed to judge ^[36].
• Statement: After the High Court rejected, on 30 May 2024, a petition Wasserlauf had filed alleging selective law enforcement in the handling of protests (including road blockages), he wrote that the ruling was "astonishing in its poverty and its theatrical blindness" and that the Supreme Court was creating "two separate systems of law" ^[39].
• Formal commitment: IDI's party profile lists choosing Supreme Court justices by politicians and incorporating Jewish law into the legal system among Otzma Yehudit's initiatives ^[6].

Closest option(s): Continue the changes, giving elected officials more power over the courts and the attorney general (continue-judicial-changes).

No direct statement by Wasserlauf or Kroizer on how the October 7 inquiry should be chosen was found (searches in Hebrew for each name with "ועדת חקירה" and "ועדת חקירה ממלכתית", repeated during fact-checking). The evidence comes from decisions of the government and coalition they belong to, and from their recorded votes on one coalition bill; government decisions are not personal votes.

• Action: On 5 May 2025, after Otzma Yehudit had returned to the government, the government decided not to set up a state commission of inquiry at that time, and decided that the government and the Knesset would draft a bill for a special commission of inquiry that would represent different views in the public and win the trust of most of the public ^[68].
• Action: On 16 November 2025 the government, in which Wasserlauf serves, decided to set up an inquiry commission with full powers that is not a state commission of inquiry, and a ministerial committee to define its mandate ^[42]. In January 2026 the government told the High Court that it was advancing a "state–national commission of inquiry" and that the court has no authority to order a state commission of inquiry ^[43].
• Action: On 24 December 2025 the Knesset passed in a preliminary reading MK Ariel Kallner's bill for a "state–national" commission of inquiry, by 53 to 48. Its members would be chosen by agreement between coalition and opposition with 80 MKs' approval, or failing that split equally between them, with four bereaved family members as monitors ^{[40, 41]}. Srugim reported that the Agudat Yisrael faction did not take part in the vote ^[41]; the Knesset record lists one abstention, by Agudat Yisrael MK Meir Porush ^[77]. The Knesset record shows Wasserlauf and Kroizer both voting for the bill ^[77].

Closest option(s): An inference from the decisions of the government and coalition the candidates belong to and from their recorded votes for the Kallner bill at its preliminary reading, not from anything they said: a commission appointed through the Knesset with balance between government and opposition (commission-appointed-by-knesset-balance). The candidates have not stated their own positions.

• Formal commitment: The party's full name commits it to the "wholeness of the Torah, the people and the land" ^[1]. IDI lists incorporating Jewish law into Israel's legal system among Otzma Yehudit's initiatives ^[6].
• Statement: In 2022 Wasserlauf said that the Reform movement "brought enormous destruction to American Jewry" and "makes a mockery of religion", and that in Israel Reform communities "just make noise" ^[11].
• Action: Wasserlauf went up to the Temple Mount with Ben Gvir on Tisha B'Av, 13 August 2024, when Ben Gvir said "our policy is to allow prayer" there; the Prime Minister's Office said there is no private policy of any minister on the Temple Mount, that the morning's event was "a deviation from the status quo", and that Israel's policy on the Temple Mount had not changed ^[52]. Wasserlauf and Kroizer went up again with Ben Gvir on Jerusalem Day, 26 May 2025 ^[53].
• Action: On 13 July 2026 the Knesset passed Basic Law: Torah Study by 63 to 52; according to its explanatory notes, it anchors Torah study as "a fundamental value in the heritage of the Jewish people and in the State of Israel" ^[59]. The Knesset record shows Wasserlauf and Kroizer voting for the bill at its preliminary reading on 10 June 2026 (56 to 43), its first reading on 1 July 2026 (63 to 53) and its final reading ^{[79, 80, 81]}.

Closest option(s): A larger role for Jewish religious law and the Orthodox establishment (strengthen-jewish-character). No specific statements on Shabbat transport, civil marriage or conversion were found.

• Action: Wasserlauf has run the Ministry of the Negev, the Galilee and National Resilience since the start of the 37th government, apart from January–March 2025 ^{[6, 17, 18]}. In December 2024 he wrote that the ministry was a central partner in a NIS 3 billion government plan for the north, and in decisions on firefighting, aid grants for Ofakim and Netivot, support for Katzrin, the Golan and Druze local authorities, and protective shelters in Bedouin authorities ^[54].
• Action: In May 2023 Otzma Yehudit made its budget support conditional on an extra NIS 250 million for the ministry ^[55].
• Action (State Comptroller finding): The State Comptroller's April 2026 follow-up report on governance in the Negev found that the Ministerial Committee for the Development of the Negev, the Galilee and National Resilience, chaired by the minister, "did not convene at all" in the two years from its creation in March 2023 to February 2025, so that governance in the Negev was not discussed by any ministerial committee. It recommended that the minister convene it, including to strengthen national and social resilience in the Negev ^[58].

• Action: The death penalty for terrorists is a flagship Otzma Yehudit policy ^[6]. On 30 March 2026 the Knesset passed, by 62 to 48, a law setting the death penalty for a terrorist who commits premeditated murder as part of terrorist activity. Walla described it as initiated by Otzma Yehudit and Ben Gvir, who called it "a historic, formative moment"; Otzma MK Zvika Fogel, chair of the National Security Committee, welcomed its passage ^[48]. The Knesset record shows 62 for, 48 against and one abstention, with Wasserlauf and Kroizer both voting for ^[78].

• Statement: Wasserlauf's public activity before entering politics centred on the campaign to deport African asylum seekers and migrants from south Tel Aviv, and he presents south Tel Aviv's problems as a symptom of neglect of Israel's periphery ^{[10, 12]}.

• Action: Both candidates have gone up to the Temple Mount with Ben Gvir: Wasserlauf on 13 August 2024, when Ben Gvir was filmed passing people prostrating themselves, although the police had said a week earlier that the rules on the Mount had not changed, and Wasserlauf and Kroizer on 26 May 2025 ^{[52, 53]}.

• Action: In October 2025 Kroizer promoted a bill to reduce imports of live sheep and goats. He said it would protect herders and farmers in Judea and Samaria, the Negev and the Galilee, and the animal-welfare group Israel Against Live Shipments welcomed it as a way to reduce animal suffering in sea transport. Kroizer accused the Haredi parties of opposing it under pressure linked to a dominant importer and kashrut interests; Arutz Sheva attributed that claim to unnamed political sources and to Kroizer ^[65].

• Statement: Kroizer said in January 2025 that Otzma Yehudit was "not against deals" but against frameworks "in which we don't see all of them" returned ^[26]. In February 2024 Wasserlauf explained his opposition to an earlier deal by arguing that while Israel had momentum it should demand all the hostages ^[30].
• Action: Wasserlauf voted against both the January 2025 and October 2025 deals in the government ^{[16, 22]}.

• Action: Ynet reported that the party was registered inside the Otzma Yehudit list in order to receive an additional state funding unit, worth about NIS 1.83 million a year ^[2]. The State Comptroller's audit confirms it was funded as a separate faction in the 25th Knesset ^[3].