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התאמת מפלגות

זהות - תנועה ישראלית יהודית

הציונות הדתית בראשות בצלאל סמוטריץ׳ וזהות בראשות משה פייגלין
יו״ר
משה פייגלין
רשימה
הציונות הדתית בראשות בצלאל סמוטריץ׳ וזהות בראשות משה פייגלין
המחקר נכון לתאריך
7 באוקטובר 2026

רצה ברשימה משותפת עם האיחוד הלאומי - תקומה ו-עתיד אחד - עתיד טוב לישראל בשם הציונות הדתית בראשות בצלאל סמוטריץ׳ וזהות בראשות משה פייגלין.

המחקר על המפלגה הזו מוצג בינתיים באנגלית. הגרסה העברית תתווסף בהמשך.

Overview

What Zehut is. Zehut ("Identity"), registered as "Zehut – Israeli Jewish Movement" (זהות - תנועה ישראלית יהודית), is a party founded and led by Moshe Feiglin, a former Likud member of the Knesset [1, 38]. The party describes itself as resting on two linked foundations, Jewish identity and personal freedom: a clearly Jewish state that intervenes as little as possible in the lives of individuals, combined with a free-market economy, "full sovereignty in the Land of Israel and Jerusalem" and "peace through victory" [29]. Its 2026 platform, titled "Returning the State to the People: Israel – Operating Instructions", is a 188-page document; the party publishes a long online overview and a summary of it [28, 29, 30]. The party says the 2026 platform is based on the one it presented in 2019, with major updates after the October 7 attack, which it says moved the "identity" foundation to the centre of its message [29].

Founding and predecessors. Feiglin's public activity began in the 1990s: in 1993 he and Shmuel Sackett founded the "Zo Artzeinu" ("This Is Our Land") protest movement against the Oslo Accords [38, 41]. He later founded the "Manhigut Yehudit" (Jewish Leadership) faction inside the Likud [38, 42]. He entered the Knesset on the Likud list in 2013 [18, 40]. After he finished 36th in the Likud primary for the 2015 election, Feiglin announced on January 5, 2015 that he was leaving the Likud and would form a new political movement; at the time it was reported that the new party was unlikely to run in the March 2015 election [8, 9]. The party's own materials, and later press reports, date the founding of Zehut to 2015 [38, 41].

Electoral history.

  • April 2019 (21st Knesset): Zehut ran on its own under the ballot letter ז. It received 118,031 votes (2.74%) and won no seats, because it did not pass the electoral threshold [10, 18], which has been 3.25% since 2014 [66].
  • September 2019 (22nd Knesset): On August 29, 2019 Feiglin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an agreement under which Zehut would withdraw from the race. Netanyahu said Feiglin would be a minister in his government and that a bill to legalise medical cannabis would be brought to the Knesset [15]. Zehut members approved the deal on September 1, 2019 by 77% [16, 17]. JNS reported that under it the Likud also promised to adopt parts of Zehut's platform and to cover the party's debt of about NIS 3 million from the April campaign [16]; Srugim, by contrast, reported that the agreement contained no commitment on the party's debts [17]. The CEC results for that election show the Zehut list (letters זן) with zero votes [11]. After the deal, three senior figures from Zehut's 2019 slate (Gilad Alper, Libby Molad and Dr. Refael Mines) announced their support for the rival Yamina list of Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked; Molad had already left Zehut before the lists closed [17].
  • 2020, 2021 and 2022 (23rd–25th Knesset): No Zehut list appears in the CEC's national results for these three elections [12, 13, 14]. After the 2019 failure Feiglin joined the Likud and called on his supporters to join it, and in July 2022 he announced that he would run in the Likud primary [18].
  • January 2025 relaunch: On January 16, 2025, at a conference in Petah Tikva, Feiglin announced that Zehut would run in the next election, saying "Netanyahu must go" [19].
  • 2026: On May 6, 2026 Feiglin and former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari announced a joint run [20]. The alliance was dissolved by the end of August 2026; Channel 14 reported that Ben-Ari, focused on his ongoing criminal trial, released Zehut from the commitment [22]. On September 1, 2026 Zehut reached a joint-run agreement with Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism [4].

Current seats. Zehut has never won Knesset seats and holds no seats in the outgoing 25th Knesset: it won none in April 2019 and did not run in 2020–2022 [10, 11, 12, 13, 14]. None of the Zehut candidates on the 2026 list [1] appears in the Knesset's own list of its 120 current members, checked on 12 October 2026 [63].

The 2026 joint list. Zehut runs on the joint list "Religious Zionism led by Bezalel Smotrich and Zehut led by Moshe Feiglin", ballot letter ט, approved by the Central Elections Committee (CEC) on September 27, 2026 [2, 3]. The CEC filing shows the list was submitted by three parties: National Union–Tkuma (the registered party of Religious Zionism, led by Bezalel Smotrich), Zehut – Israeli Jewish Movement, and Atid Echad – A Good Future for Israel, whose only candidate is Orit Strock [1]. The top of the list is Bezalel Smotrich (1), Moshe Feiglin (2), Orit Strock (3), Simcha Rothman (4) and Tzvi Mor (5) [1].

  • Terms of the alliance. Ynet reported that the two sides agreed the alliance would be strictly "technical": each party runs its own campaign, and after the election they are expected to split and conduct any coalition negotiations separately. Feiglin received places 2, 8, 10 and 11 [4]. Religious Zionism's central committee approved the agreement on September 6, 2026 [5]. Feiglin himself said on September 3, 2026: "We are running in a technical bloc. We are a completely separate party from Religious Zionism ... After the elections each one goes his own way, unequivocally" [6].
  • Zehut candidates on the CEC list. The CEC page marks each candidate's sponsoring party. Read from the layout of that page, Zehut's candidates are at places 2 (Moshe Feiglin), 8 (Rabbi Yitzhak Hai Zaga), 10 (Omer Pazinyash-Waldman), 11 (Arkady Mutter), 13 (Roi Kirshberg), 15, 17 (Shirel Nahir), 19 (Iris Bernstein), 21, 23, 25, 27, 29 and 31–34 [1]. When the agreement was reached, Ynet reported that places 8, 10 and 11 were considered unlikely to win seats [4].
  • History of splitting. Zehut and National Union–Tkuma have not run together before (Zehut ran alone in April 2019, withdrew in September 2019 and did not run in 2020–2022) [10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15], so there is no record of these partners splitting after a past election. In June 2019 Feiglin publicly ruled out joining the Union of Right-Wing Parties led by Rabbi Rafi Peretz and Bezalel Smotrich, while seeking a technical bloc with Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked [23]. The 2026 agreement itself provides for the parties to separate after the election [4, 6]. Zehut's own earlier alliances were short-lived: the August 2019 arrangement with the Likud ended Zehut's run in that election [15, 16], and the May 2026 alliance with Michael Ben-Ari dissolved within about four months [20, 22].

Base of support. In 2019 Zehut drew attention for combining nationalist positions with libertarian ones, especially cannabis legalisation; JTA reported at the time that it was drawing interest from voters across the political spectrum [46]. In 2026 the party's candidates include reservists, settlement activists, a Russian-speaking commentator and a former Channel 14 reporter [36, 39, 54]. The party says it has no state party funding and relies on small donations and membership fees [26].

סקרים

ממוצע הסקרים: 4.7% (נכון ל־2 באוקטובר 2026). מקור: Mean of 5 polls published 2026-09-28 to 2026-10-02

הסקרים שנכללו בממוצע
  • Lazar Research (led by Dr. Menachem Lazar) · Maariv · 2026-09-30–10-01 · 602 משיבים · טעות דגימה ±4.0% · פורסם ב־2 באוק׳ 2026
  • Next Data · Channel 14 (Arutz Achshav 14) · 2026-10-01 · 2145 משיבים · טעות דגימה ±2.1% · פורסם ב־1 באוק׳ 2026
  • Direct Polls (led by Tzuriel Sharon) · i24NEWS (Middle East News 24 Ltd.) · 2026-10-01 · 504 משיבים · טעות דגימה ±4.3% · פורסם ב־1 באוק׳ 2026
  • Maagar Mochot (led by Prof. Yitzhak Katz) · Channel 16 · 2026-09-29 · 550 משיבים · טעות דגימה ±4.2% · פורסם ב־29 בספט׳ 2026
  • Next Data · Channel 14 (Arutz Achshav 14) · 2026-09-28 · 573 משיבים · טעות דגימה ±4.1% · פורסם ב־28 בספט׳ 2026

Leadership and key candidates

Moshe Feiglin (No. 2 on the joint list; Zehut founder and chair).

  • Background. Feiglin served in the IDF as a combat engineering officer, reached the rank of captain and fought in the First Lebanon War [41]. JTA described him in 2019 as a settler living in northern Samaria [46]; the party's office is in Karnei Shomron [26].
  • UK exclusion (2008). A British decision of 2008 to exclude him from the United Kingdom is described in the Legal section [43].
  • Zo Artzeinu and conviction. In 1993 he co-founded Zo Artzeinu, whose protests against the Oslo Accords included large road blockades [41]. In 1997 he was convicted of sedition; press reports describe the sentence as six months' imprisonment served as community service work (עבודות שירות) (see Legal section) [41, 42].
  • Likud years. He founded the Manhigut Yehudit faction in the Likud [38, 42]. In the Likud primary of November 2012 he placed 15th [40] and was elected to the 19th Knesset in 2013. He served as a deputy speaker of the Knesset and a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee [18, 38]. As an MK he sponsored a bill to let family doctors prescribe medical cannabis [49], initiated a Knesset plenary debate on Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount in February 2014, which he described as the first such debate [50], and in July 2014 published a plan for the Gaza Strip [51] (see Track record). He left the Likud in January 2015 [8, 9].
  • Since 2015. He founded Zehut in 2015, led it in the 2019 elections, then joined the Likud and ran in its 2022 primary, and returned to lead Zehut after the October 7 attack [18, 19, 38]. He founded the content channel "Israel Tomorrow" (ישראל מחר) [18, 26]. His grandson, Sgt. Yair Levin of the Givati reconnaissance unit, was killed in Rafah in the Gaza Strip in 2024; Feiglin spoke about his death in June 2024 [44, 52]; the party presents this as a personal vow behind his campaign [26]. He has said he wants to be defence minister [21, 25].
  • Statements on Rabbi Meir Kahane. In a September 2026 radio interview Feiglin called Rabbi Meir Kahane "a righteous man" and said that "after the seventh of October it is hard to say honestly that he was not right in most of the things he said" [58].

Rabbi Yitzhak Hai Zaga (No. 8). A rabbi, lawyer and economist who founded and heads the "Ruach Yerushalmit" movement, which teaches the thought of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. He studied at the Merkaz HaRav and Sha'alvim yeshivas, served as a Givati soldier, and holds law degrees and an MBA from Bar-Ilan University. He worked as a lawyer, strategic adviser and company director, acted in land purchases for settlement in Judea and Samaria, and founded "Lechatchila", a network of arbitration courts based on Jewish civil law. He previously ran for the leadership of the Jewish Home and in Religious Zionism primaries, and joined Zehut in 2026. He lives in Peduel in Samaria [37].

Omer Pazinyash-Waldman (No. 10). A 29-year-old reserve officer who has served since October 7 as an artillery liaison officer, and a co-founder of the reservists' protest group "The Reservists – Generation of Victory", which campaigned for decisive military outcomes [39].

Arkady Mutter (No. 11). A 55-year-old IT project manager, settlement activist and political commentator known among Russian-speaking Israelis [36].

Other Zehut candidates. Roi Kirshberg (13), a resident of the Jordan Valley [36, 1]; Shirel Lalom-Nahir (17), a former Channel 14 reporter covering Judea and Samaria who began in Zehut's youth wing [36, 54]; and Iris Bernstein (19), a resident of Kfar Maimon near the Gaza border [36, 1]. Zehut's own announcement of its first eight candidates lists Sima Hasson, chair of the "Mothers' March – Parents for Fighters until Victory" organisation, sixth, between Roi Kirshberg and Shirel Lalom-Nahir [36, 54]. The corresponding Zehut place on the CEC list, 15, is filed under the name "Hasson Simon" (חסון סימון) [1]. The sources checked do not explain the difference in the first name, so this document does not assert that the two entries are the same person.

Joint-list partners. The list is headed by Bezalel Smotrich of National Union–Tkuma; Orit Strock (No. 3) is the only candidate filed on behalf of Atid Echad [1]. Those parties are researched separately.

Positions on the issues

Cost of living

Zehut's answer to the cost of living is to open markets and shrink the state's role in the economy.

  • Formal commitment: The 2026 platform says prices will fall "dramatically" through "cancelling tariffs and unnecessary standards, opening imports and removing monopolies" [28]. The economy section commits to dismantling import barriers and tariffs, fighting monopolies and cartels "in deeds, not declarations", and a "dramatic simplification" of bureaucracy and regulation [31].

  • Formal commitment: The platform summary commits to gradually cancelling tariffs and import quotas, to abolishing agricultural production quotas (eggs, milk, honey) and the production boards, and to dismantling monopolies the state created by granting special rights to those it chose, while not hindering entrepreneurs from advancing [29, 30].

  • Formal commitment: On taxes, the platform calls for a "flat tax" at a single rate "as low as possible", a uniform cut in corporate tax, restraint in public spending and a systematic reduction of the national debt [29, 30]. The party's question-and-answer page says Zehut supports "broad tax cuts" because "money in the citizen's hands works better than money in an official's hands" [35].

  • Formal commitment: The platform rejects price supervision and subsidies as the main tool: it says the state should stop investing in development projects and giving grants and benefits to companies whose customer is not the state [29], and it describes state involvement as what "makes every product more expensive" [28].

  • Statement: On September 29, 2026 Feiglin published a video campaign against what Zehut calls the "Israeli Soviet Union", filming the milk, poultry, honey and flower production boards, which he said raise food prices well above European and American levels, and calling for the Israel Land Authority to be dismantled [60].

  • Dated background (2013; action as a Likud MK): On December 9, 2013 Feiglin voted for the Law for Promotion of Competition and Reduction of Concentration at its final reading; it passed 72–0 with one abstention [64, 65, 67]. The law limits business pyramids to two tiers and separates large financial and non-financial companies [67]. On May 8, 2013 he voted for a private bill to set VAT at zero on basic food products, which was rejected at the preliminary reading 24–40; he was the only Likud–Yisrael Beytenu MK who voted for it [64, 65].

Closest option(s): Open the market to more competition and imports (open-market-competition-imports), together with cutting taxes and government spending (cut-taxes-and-government-spending).

Crime in Arab society

Zehut frames violent crime, protection rackets and illegal land takeovers in Arab communities, the Negev, the Galilee and mixed cities as a threat to state sovereignty rather than ordinary crime.

  • Formal commitment: The platform says protection rackets are "a sovereign threat, not ordinary crime". Zehut would define them as terrorism of the most serious level, transfer the handling of them to the Shin Bet (Israel's internal security service), act to revoke the citizenship of those involved and of their first-degree relatives, and increase punishments and asset forfeiture [29, 30]. The party's security page commits to "defining protection rackets, nationalist crime and hostile takeover as terror", and to full governance in the Negev, the Galilee and the mixed cities [27, 32].
  • Formal commitment: The platform commits to a "determined operation against illegal weapons, most of which are in the hands of Arabs", alongside widening gun licences for law-abiding citizens [29, 30].
  • Formal commitment: On policy toward Arab citizens generally, the platform says those who accept Israel as a Jewish and sovereign state will "live here with dignity, equality before the law and security", while those who refuse may choose "voluntary emigration with generous compensation"; it also says there will be "no more affirmative action that favours a minority over the majority" [28]. It does not propose new investment programmes for Arab communities.
  • Formal commitment, limiting the powers it supports: The same platform says "the use of administrative detention will be abolished" [29, 30]. Administrative detention is holding someone without trial. So while Zehut supports bringing in the Shin Bet, it opposes the detention-without-trial power included in the most far-reaching option.
  • Statement: Rabbi Zaga (No. 8) says he joined Zehut to lead a "determined confrontation with nationalist crime and the Arab revolt from within" [37].

Closest option(s): Bringing in the Shin Bet against organised crime (emergency-powers-shin-bet), but the party's platform opposes administrative detention, which that option includes, and it goes further by proposing revocation of citizenship; it rejects the investment-first approach (invest-in-arab-communities-first). The evidence therefore fits the first option only in part.

Gaza Strip policy

Zehut calls for conquering the Gaza Strip, applying Israeli sovereignty there and building Israeli communities. In the party's own words, its slogan is "conquest, expulsion, settlement" (כיבוש, גירוש, התיישבות) [56, 62]. Its platform says "the enemy will be expelled" and offers Arab residents of areas under Israeli sovereignty an emigration package, residency or citizenship (see below) [28, 29]. "Expulsion" is the party's word and is quoted as such; where the party speaks of people leaving by choice, this document uses "voluntary emigration".

  • Formal commitment: The platform summary's stages are: cancel the Oslo Accords; "in Gaza – following October 7 – conquest, expulsion and settlement"; and full Israeli sovereignty over all the "liberated territory" [29, 30]. The party's online overview of the platform says Zehut will apply sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and the Gaza area, and that "in any area of our promised land from which we are attacked and which falls into our hands as a result, the enemy will be expelled and full Israeli sovereignty will be applied" [28].

  • Formal commitment: Arab residents of areas under Israeli sovereignty would be offered three options: "a generous emigration package" for those who wish to leave (described as the preferred option), permanent residency, or Israeli citizenship after "careful examination and proof of loyalty" [28, 29].

  • Formal commitment: On hostages, the platform says they will be released "only by military means"; Zehut "will not negotiate the release of hostages" [29, 30]. It also rejects temporary ceasefires ("We will not settle for temporary ceasefires!") [28].

  • Statement: At the January 16, 2025 relaunch Feiglin said "there is no victory except conquest, expulsion, sovereignty and settlement" [19].

  • Statement: On May 20, 2025, responding in a Channel 14 interview to the government's decision to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, Feiglin called the aid "direct aid to the enemy" and, as quoted in English by The Yeshiva World, said: "Every child in Gaza is the enemy ... We need to conquer Gaza and settle it – and not one Gazan child should remain there. There's no other victory" [52].

  • Statement: In August 2026 Feiglin said Israel should have cut off water and electricity to Gaza after October 7 ("whoever wants a glass of water should come out with a hostage, and all the rest should start walking toward El-Arish"), that "we should not have seen a single Arab in Gaza", and criticised what he called placing Israel's security "in American hands" [25]. In September 2026 he said he opposed the hostage-release deals and still does, because "this deal will lead to the next kidnappings" [6].

  • Statement: He said Zehut would have left the government "the moment the first grain of rice" was transferred to Gaza [58], and that if he recommends Netanyahu he will set red lines: "with me there will be no supply trucks for Hamas" [59]. On October 7, 2026 he refused to remove campaign billboards reading "Conquest. Expulsion. Settlement.", writing: "Whoever rises to destroy us – we will expel him. His land – we will conquer" [62].

  • Dated background (2013; action as a Likud MK): On July 10, 2013 Feiglin voted for a private "reciprocity regarding security prisoners" bill, rejected at the preliminary reading 9–53; he was the only Likud–Yisrael Beytenu MK who voted for it [64, 65]. On July 28, 2014, during the Gaza operation, he voted for the first reading of the Government Law (Amendment 9); it passed 27–10 with one abstention [64, 65]. The amendment set the rules for releasing prisoners for foreign-relations or security reasons, including in hostage deals: such releases need a decision of the whole government, may not include murderers whom a court found to have acted in exceptionally severe circumstances, and can be reversed [69]. No vote by him is recorded at the bill's final reading the next day [64, 65].

Closest option(s): Go back to war, take control of all of Gaza, encourage residents to leave and rebuild Israeli communities there (resume-fighting-full-control). The party goes further than that option: in their own words, its platform and leader speak of "expulsion", not only of voluntary emigration, and of applying full Israeli sovereignty to Gaza.

Haredi military enlistment

Zehut's position combines opposition to large-scale compulsory conscription with a stated principle that Haredim, like everyone, should serve.

  • Formal commitment (2026): The platform's section "the whole people an army" proposes "compulsory service of about a month for everyone, including basic training and release home with a weapon and a safe (as in Switzerland)", a short annual reserve stint, and "expanded career service for those suitable who want it", with training expanded in emergencies [29, 30]. The overview adds: "No more forced conscription based on artificial equality – but service based on identity and purpose ... out of choice" [28].
  • Formal commitment (2026), yeshiva funding: The platform says Torah study is "a founding national value" and that government funding of the humanities justifies funding yeshivas "and vice versa"; the goal is "a gradual and symmetrical reduction" of both kinds of institution's dependence on state support [29, 30]. It does not tie yeshiva funding or benefits to enlistment.
  • Dated background (2019; formal commitment): JTA reported in March 2019 that Zehut's platform called for "an end to almost all mandatory military service, to be replaced by a professional volunteer army" [46].
  • Statement: In October 2024 Feiglin wrote that "it is clear that the Haredim need to enlist", and also secular Tel Avivians who avoid service; he said the difficulty is integrating a Haredi lifestyle into what he called a progressive IDF culture, praised the creation of the Haredi brigade as "an important step", and said the current public fight over Haredi enlistment pushes Haredim away and "turns Religious Zionism against the Haredi public" [45].
  • Dated background (2013; action as a Likud MK): On June 12, 2013 Feiglin voted for a private bill to abolish compulsory conscription ("ביטול גיוס חובה"). It was rejected at the preliminary reading 13–60; Feiglin was the only Likud–Yisrael Beytenu MK who voted for it, alongside Haredi and Arab-party MKs [64, 65].
  • Dated background (2014; action as a Likud MK): On March 12, 2014 he voted for the coalition's Security Service Law (Amendment 19), which removed most exemptions for yeshiva students and set criminal sanctions from 2017 for yeshiva students who do not enlist, at both its second reading (66–1) and its final reading [64, 65, 66]. The opposition boycotted the vote [66]. (For the final reading the mirror's vote header gives 63–1, while its per-member rows list 65 votes for and 1 against; JTA reported the result as 65–1 [66]. Feiglin is recorded as voting for in both readings.)
  • Dated background (mixed record): As a coalition MK, Feiglin thus voted both for abolishing conscription (2013) and for the 2014 law imposing enlistment targets and criminal sanctions on yeshiva students. No statement by him explaining the 2014 vote was found. Both votes predate Zehut's platforms, so this is reported as a mixed record rather than as a contradiction of a later stated position.
  • Change over time: The 2019 platform called for a professional volunteer army [46]; the 2026 platform adds a roughly one-month compulsory basic-training period for everyone while keeping longer service voluntary [29, 30]. The party has not explained the change in the sources found.

Closest option(s): No one should be forced into long military service; service should be voluntary with incentives (voluntary-service-for-all), with the caveat that the 2026 platform includes a short compulsory basic-training period for all. This rests on the 2026 platform, which does not propose sanctions for non-service. Feiglin's October 2024 statement that Haredim "need to enlist" sits alongside it. His 2013 and 2014 votes as a Likud MK, one for abolishing conscription and one for a law with criminal sanctions, are older than 2021 and are dated background only; they do not decide this line.

Housing

Zehut blames high housing prices on the state's control of land and planning, and proposes releasing state land directly to citizens.

  • Formal commitment: The platform says the root of the housing crisis is "the over-concentration of the state (the Israel Land Authority)", which holds a monopoly on land and planning. Zehut would "break this monopoly", "release the land and distribute it directly to the citizens of Israel", move planning powers to the local and community level and "drastically" cut bureaucracy [29, 30]. The economy page commits to "dismantling the Israel Land Authority and releasing land for free construction" [31].

  • Formal commitment, scope: The overview says state land "will be transferred by lottery to every Jewish family", and that "land for construction will be raffled to every Jewish citizen for free building" [28]. The party's "way" page adds "affirmative action for those who serve and carry the burden" in land allocation and an end to "zero prices" for those who, in its words, "do not lift a finger and sometimes join the enemy" [27]. As written, the land distribution applies to Jewish citizens, not to all citizens.

  • Formal commitment: The platform says purchase tax, levies and other building taxes "will be cancelled", and that Judea and Samaria, the Negev and the Galilee will be opened to large-scale Jewish construction with transport infrastructure [28]. It says opening the housing market in Judea and Samaria will lower prices nationwide [29].

  • Statement: On September 29, 2026 Feiglin went to the Israel Land Authority offices in Tel Aviv to film a campaign video; he wrote that the authority must be dismantled and the land returned to "the people of Israel" [60].

  • Dated background (2014; action as a Likud MK): On July 7, 2014 Feiglin voted for the first reading of the government's zero-VAT bill for first-time home buyers, which gave larger benefits to those who had done military or civilian service; it passed 31–18 with one abstention [64, 65, 68].

Closest option(s): Build much more, faster, by releasing state land and cutting bureaucracy and fees (speed-up-planning-and-construction). The plan also has an element of direct help to buyers, since land would be distributed to Jewish families with preference for those who served (direct-help-for-buyers). Feiglin's 2014 vote for a zero-VAT benefit for first-time buyers is dated background only.

Iran, Hezbollah and the region

Zehut calls for military decision against Israel's enemies and for independence from US military aid and diplomatic constraints.

  • Formal commitment: The platform identifies "a strategic threat from the Islamic powers in the region – Iran, Egypt and Turkey". Against Iran, "besides hitting its military capabilities and leadership, it is necessary to severely hit the civilian infrastructure that economically fuels the aspiration to destroy Israel". It calls for publicly declaring Egypt in breach of the peace agreements and demanding withdrawal from Sinai, and for publicly supporting the Kurds and Druze against Turkey [29, 30].
  • Formal commitment: The platform's security concept is "victory, not managing rounds": "No more endless rounds, no more 'arrangements' with an enemy that continues to arm ... We will not settle for temporary ceasefires" [28, 32].
  • Formal commitment: Zehut would pursue "graduated security independence": self-financing defence and freeing the defence industry from the restrictions attached to US military aid [29, 30]. The security page describes the goal as "gradual weaning and independence" [32]. The platform also says Israel will leave the UN [29].
  • Statement: In August 2026 Feiglin said that three years after October 7 "there is no decision on any front", and criticised what he described as placing Israeli security and sovereignty "in American hands" [25].
  • No specific statement on the Lebanon ceasefire arrangements of 2026 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). The party explicitly rejects reliance on US-backed arrangements.

Judea and Samaria

Zehut supports applying full Israeli sovereignty to all of Judea and Samaria and dismantling the Palestinian Authority.

  • Formal commitment: The platform says Zehut will "apply sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and the Gaza area" and "eliminate the 'Authority' model" (the Palestinian Authority) [28]. Its political plan calls for cancelling the Oslo Accords and, in Judea and Samaria, "a return to the situation before the agreements"; Israel would return to "full and exclusive control" and apply full sovereignty [29, 30]. "No additional Arab state will ever be established between the Jordan and the sea" [28].

  • Formal commitment, residents: Arab residents would choose between an emigration package, permanent residency without automatic voting rights, or citizenship after proof of loyalty. The platform says its opposition to automatic voting rights on applying sovereignty is "a matter of principle" [28, 29].

  • Formal commitment: Zehut would strengthen settlement and strategic infrastructure in Judea and Samaria as part of applying sovereignty [29], and close army units it says weaken Jewish presence there, naming the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) [29, 30].

  • Statement: At the January 2025 relaunch Feiglin said Zehut would sit only in a government committed to cancelling the Oslo Accords, applying full sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and leading broad settlement [19]. The May 2026 alliance programme with Michael Ben-Ari included "full Israeli sovereignty" and renewed settlement "in all areas of the Land of Israel" [20]. In August 2026 Feiglin called for dismantling the Palestinian Authority and encouraging emigration [25].

  • Dated background (2014; action as a Likud MK): On May 28, 2014 Feiglin voted to refer to committee a motion for the agenda titled "Applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley"; the vote passed 7–1 [64, 65].

Closest option(s): Make all of Judea and Samaria officially part of Israel, expand the settlements and dismantle the Palestinian Authority (full-sovereignty).

Judicial system

Zehut supports a sweeping reduction in the power of the courts and the attorney general.

  • Formal commitment: The platform summary says Supreme Court justices "will be elected directly by the public once every ten years"; the High Court of Justice "will not be allowed to strike down a law passed by the Knesset"; the reasonableness standard "will be abolished"; standing will be limited to those personally harmed; and "not everything is justiciable" [29, 30].

  • Formal commitment: The attorney general "will be an adviser only", the role will be separated from that of chief prosecutor, and the attorney general will be appointed and dismissed by the government [29, 30]. A referendum law would be used to decide fundamental questions and constitutional crises [29].

  • Formal commitment: The party's governance page also says Zehut supports "a constitution that protects individual liberty and sets clear limits on government power, with real separation of powers" [34, 35]. The overview says courts "will judge according to the values of the nation" and "will not be able to cancel policy decisions or intervene in value questions" [28].

  • Formal commitment: The platform proposes reviving Jewish civil law (mishpat ivri) as a voluntary, parallel civil court system whose rulings would have equal legal force, operating only with the consent of both sides [29].

  • Statement: In September 2026 Feiglin said the Supreme Court "has revealed itself as a clearly political tribunal" and that he would not appeal to it if the CEC disqualified him [56].

  • Dated background (2013; action as a Likud MK): On December 17, 2013 Feiglin cast the only vote against sending to committee a bill requiring adequate representation of women on the Judicial Selection Committee; the vote passed 10–1 [64, 65]. No explanation of this vote was found. No other plenum vote by Feiglin on judicial selection or the powers of the courts was found in the data [64, 65].

Closest option(s): Give the government and the Knesset more power over the courts (continue-judicial-changes). Zehut's own proposals, such as direct election of justices, go beyond the changes described in that option.

October 7 inquiry

  • Statement: On May 10, 2026 Feiglin said: "The Likud is right that the inquiry cannot rely on one of the main culprits in the situation that was created – and that is the High Court" [21].
  • Statement: On September 3, 2026 he said: "An inquiry commission must be established. At the same time, the High Court is a political party. On this particular issue I definitely agree with the Likud" [6].
  • Statement: He has said that responsibility for the October 7 attack is shared "equally" between the left, which signed the Oslo Accords, and the right, which came to power in 1996 and did not cancel them; he also said Netanyahu should have resigned on October 8, 2023 [6, 59]. He has blamed past IDF chiefs of staff for removing the value of victory from the army's ethics code [45].
  • What was not found: No Zehut platform text or detailed proposal setting out who should appoint the commission's members was found on the party's website or in news coverage searched in Hebrew and English.

Closest option(s): The statements rule out a state commission whose members are picked by the President of the Supreme Court (state-commission-under-existing-law). They do not specify whether the members should be picked by the Knesset (commission-appointed-by-knesset-balance) or by a neutral mechanism (commission-chosen-by-neutral-mechanism); Feiglin's stated agreement with the Likud's position leans toward the Knesset-appointed model, but the evidence is limited to statements.

Religion and state

Zehut combines a Jewish national character for state institutions with less religious regulation of private life. Its positions do not map neatly onto a single option.

  • Formal commitment (2026), state institutions: The platform says state institutions are bound by Jewish religious law precisely because they are state institutions; state bodies such as the IDF will keep a Jewish character (for example, activity on Shabbat only for operational needs and kosher food). Privatised companies would decide for themselves how to operate [29, 30].

  • Formal commitment (2026), less coercion: The party says the state's Jewish identity "will be expressed through freedom and choice and not through coercion" and that it will reduce state intervention in the lives of citizens and communities [27, 29]. Local authorities would be divided into small communities, each deciding "the character of the public space", including "the character of Shabbat at the community level" [29, 30].

  • Formal commitment (2026), conversion and Law of Return: Zehut would change the Law of Return to bring it closer to "the national-halachic definition" of Jewishness and, if necessary, prefer "fully halachic but lenient" conversion [29]. JTA reported in 2019 that the platform would stop granting citizenship to non-Orthodox converts and to non-Jews with Jewish ancestry [46].

  • Formal commitment (2019), Rabbinate and marriage: According to an April 2019 report in Hidabroot, a Haredi news site critical of Feiglin, which quoted the 2019 platform as published on the party's website, Zehut called for ending what it called the Chief Rabbinate's "monopoly": the Rabbinate "should stop being a monopoly, and instead provide a standard" for kashrut that private bodies could certify against, and state marriage registration would be abolished ("the state does not need to determine what marriage is, who is married and who is not"), so that "every couple can marry as it wishes, in the type of ceremony it chooses" [47]. The original 2019 platform text could not be retrieved for this check, and equivalent text on marriage registration was not found in the 2026 platform summary [29].

  • Dated background (2019; statement): According to the same report, Feiglin opposed the 2018 "minimarkets law" on Shabbat opening, writing on Facebook that the public space of a community should be decided by the community alone: "A community that wants open – will be open. A community that wants closed – will be closed" [47].

  • Formal commitment, Temple Mount: The platform describes the Temple as the "supreme expression of sovereignty and Jewish identity" and hopes it will be built "together", not by coercion [29]. See also "Temple Mount" below.

  • Dated background (2013; action as a Likud MK): On June 19, 2013 Feiglin voted against a private bill titled "Basic Law: Preserving the Status Quo in Israel", which was rejected at the preliminary reading 9–48 [64, 65]. On November 6, 2013 he voted for a private bill to let city and local-council rabbis perform conversions, which passed its preliminary reading 45–16 [64, 65].

Closest option(s): Mixed. In the 2026 platform, community-level decisions on Shabbat and the stated aim of expressing Jewish identity "through freedom and choice and not through coercion" are closest to letting people choose alternatives with local decisions (more-choice-local-decisions). But the same platform prefers "fully halachic but lenient" conversion and wants state institutions to be bound by Jewish religious law, which matches parts of strengthen-jewish-character. The 2019 plan on kashrut certification and on abolishing state marriage registration is older than 2021, is not restated in the 2026 platform summary, and is dated background only.

Other notable positions

Jewish nation-state, citizenship and minorities

  • Formal commitment: The first law Zehut says it will pass is renaming the state "Israel: The State of the Jewish People". The platform says every resident, Jewish or not, is entitled to equal human rights, but "national rights in its sovereign territory are reserved only for the Jewish people" [29, 56].
  • Formal commitment: Citizenship would be conditional on loyalty: "loyalty to the Jewish state = full rights; hostility to the Jewish state = no political rights" [28]. Druze, Christians and Circassians who "have proven loyalty" would receive full recognition and rights [28]. National Insurance would stop serving as "a channel for funding and encouraging non-Jewish communities hostile to the State of Israel" [28].
  • Dated background (2013; action as a Likud MK): On June 26, 2013 Feiglin voted against a private bill titled "Basic Law: Equality of the Arab Population", which was rejected at the preliminary reading 34–58 [64, 65]. On June 24, 2013 he voted against the first reading of the government's bill to regulate Bedouin settlement in the Negev (often called the Prawer plan), which passed 43–40 [64, 65]. No statement of his reasons for the Bedouin-settlement vote was found.
  • Formal commitment: Ban "affirmative action" aimed at integrating Arab doctors, which the platform says lowers professional standards [29].
  • Statement: Responding in September 2026 to a request to disqualify him, Feiglin said Israel's proper system "is indeed democracy, but it is not a substitute for Jewish identity but a governing tool of the Jewish sovereign", distinguishing basic human rights from "national and civil rights reserved for the Jewish people in its land" [56].
  • Statement: On October 4, 2026 Feiglin argued that anyone who accepts an "Israeli" national identity in place of a Jewish national identity "must also accept the invention of the Palestinian national identity", adding that he has "great sympathy for an Arab who served in the IDF and made a covenant with us" but that policy after October 7 cannot rest on sympathy [61].

Temple Mount and Jerusalem

  • Dated background (2014; action as MK): On February 25, 2014 Feiglin initiated a Knesset plenary debate on Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount, which he described as the first time the Knesset had discussed the issue, calling on the government "to apply the full sovereignty of the State of Israel in the entire Temple Mount" and to let any Jew enter through any gate and pray [50].
  • Formal commitment: The platform calls for a united, sovereign Jerusalem with state institutions based there and full Israeli sovereignty "in all its parts" [28, 29]. Answering whether the Temple is a "messianic fantasy", the party says it does not seek religious coercion but to stop "running away from national identity" [35].

Small government and constitutional structure

  • Formal commitment: Cut government ministries from 31 to 11 and abolish the office of President, moving its few powers to existing bodies [29, 30].
  • Formal commitment: Zehut "will vote against any bill that has no real need", work to repeal unnecessary laws and demand a Treasury cost estimate for every bill [29].
  • Formal commitment: Devolve powers to small communities, including choosing the local police commander [29, 30]; adopt a constitution with clear separation of powers [34].

Education

  • Formal commitment: School vouchers: the education budget would follow the pupil to a school chosen by the parents, schools would have management independence, shorter holidays aligned with the economy, and higher teacher pay. The voucher would require a limited core curriculum in technical subjects [29, 33].
  • Formal commitment: Families who choose to skip core studies, such as Haredi families, would not receive the voucher and would bear responsibility for their choice [28].

Welfare, National Insurance and health

  • Formal commitment: Encourage a shift to private insurance, with National Insurance providing a safety net only where the market cannot; strengthen the rights of the elderly; abolish the income-supplement allowance, which the platform says "punishes those who worked and saved"; and limit budgetary (state-funded) pensions [29, 30]. "No essential allowance will be taken from those entitled to it" [29].
  • Formal commitment: Leave the World Health Organization; investigate those who imposed COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccination requirements while in contact with pharmaceutical companies; widen competition among health funds and insurers; and ease the licensing of qualified immigrant doctors [28, 29].

Cannabis

  • Dated background (2013; action as MK): In 2013 Feiglin sponsored a bill to let family doctors prescribe medical cannabis to patients with chronic illnesses. The Israel Medical Association opposed it, and the health minister asked the Ministerial Committee for Legislation in October 2013 to defer it while her ministry prepared an alternative; in December 2013 Feiglin wrote to ministers that the ministry's proposal would bury patients in bureaucracy and create a single monopoly marketer [48, 49].
  • Dated background (2013; action as a Likud MK): On June 19, 2013 Feiglin voted for a private bill to add cannabis to the list of substances with medical use under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance; it was rejected at the preliminary reading 19–48 with two abstentions, and he was the only Likud–Yisrael Beytenu MK voting for it [64, 65].
  • Dated background (2019; action): The August 2019 agreement with the Likud included a commitment to bring a cannabis legalisation bill in the first Knesset session and to expand medical cannabis [15, 16].
  • Formal commitment (2026): The current platform says Zehut "will work for a sensible regulation of the use of cannabis" [29, 30].
  • Change over time: In 2019 Zehut called for legalising cannabis and made it a central campaign issue [41, 46]; the 2026 platform summary uses the more limited wording "sensible regulation" [29]. No explanation for the change was found.

Civil liberties: guns, privacy and money

  • Formal commitment: Expand gun rights: every army veteran without a violent record would be entitled to a licence, discharged soldiers would leave with their weapon, eligibility would be extended to all qualified citizens, and legal protection would be set for those who act in self-defence [29, 32].
  • Formal commitment: Repeal the biometric database law and destroy the database, replacing it with a smart card storing encrypted biometric data locally [29].
  • Formal commitment: Oppose restrictions on holding cash and a central-bank digital currency, which the platform sees as tools of state surveillance; trade in cryptocurrencies is treated as free trade [29].
  • Formal commitment: Distinguish non-violent civil disobedience from violent protest, use force only against actual violence, and end what it calls selective enforcement [29].

Media and freedom of expression

  • Formal commitment: Close or privatise public broadcasting and all state-held media, close the Second Authority for Television and Radio, and license broadcasters rather than grant franchises; only incitement to violence would be banned [28, 29].

Military doctrine and the IDF

  • Formal commitment: Replace the IDF's current ethics code with a "moral code of the Israeli army" that requires striving for victory "and protecting the lives of soldiers first"; close what the platform calls "progressive" units, naming the IDF Spokesperson's Unit and Army Radio [29, 30].
  • Formal commitment: Define the enemy clearly: "an enemy will be eliminated, taken captive or expelled"; prisoners of war would be released at the end of a war; an enemy who violates moral norms "will be put to death without trial", while criminals would be tried with a fair trial [29, 30].
  • Formal commitment: Recognition and full rights for soldiers and reservists, and removal of bureaucratic burdens on them [32, 35].
  • Statement: In August 2026 Feiglin said he had no trust in "the old and progressive generals of the IDF who denied the idea of victory", that "anyone who smelled Wexner needs to leave the system" (a reference to the Wexner Foundation), and that "for that I need to be defence minister" [25].

Foreign policy and the Diaspora

  • Formal commitment: Withdraw from the UN; refuse foreign state intervention in Israel's affairs; avoid selling weapons to countries that do not respect human rights; and encourage immigration (aliyah) of individuals and communities [29].
  • Formal commitment: Relations with the US should be based on "true partnership, not dependence" [28].

Environment and energy

  • Formal commitment: Withdraw from international climate commitments; keep environmental decisions at the national or local level; end subsidies for renewable energy, which the platform says harms open spaces most; encourage further gas exploration; and promote small nuclear reactors for electricity [29].
  • Formal commitment: Protect nature reserves and open spaces from what the platform calls illegal Arab construction, through agricultural farms and grazing, and enforce environmental law in Judea and Samaria [29].

Transport

  • Formal commitment: Open transport to full competition, cut government involvement and subsidies, remove barriers to ride-sharing services such as Uber, and adopt autonomous-vehicle networks [29].
  • Dated background (2019; statement): Gilad Alper, then No. 3 on the Zehut list, said that under privatised public transport "travel on Shabbat will of course be part of the service where there is demand" [47].

LGBT rights and family law

  • Formal commitment: The platform says "there will be no institutional discrimination against LGBT people, just as there will be no imposition of an LGBT agenda on society as a whole", and each community may shape its own life and values [28].
  • Formal commitment: Reduce state intervention in family autonomy; promote shared parenting, on the view that a child's welfare requires both parents; protect victims of domestic violence while acting "severely" against false complaints [29].
  • Statement: In September 2026, responding to criticism of his remarks about the LGBT community, Feiglin said: "I am not against anyone's rights ... Zehut brings uncompromising personal freedom to every citizen", while objecting to public funding of Pride flags, which he called "progressive coercion" [6].
  • Dated background (2019; statement): Hidabroot reported in 2019 that the platform's plan to abolish state marriage registration would also allow LGBT couples to marry in Israel; asked about this in an interview, Feiglin said: "This voice too has a place in Zehut" [47].

Culture

  • Formal commitment: End political control over culture funding so that funding follows public choice [29].

Coalition stance

Stated positions, 2025–2026.

  • January 16, 2025: Feiglin called on right-wing party leaders to leave the coalition and bring down the government, and said Zehut "will sit only in a government that commits to cancel the Oslo Accords, apply full sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and lead a policy of broad settlement" [19].
  • May 10, 2026: "Zehut will not lend its hand to forming a left-wing government in any scenario" [21].
  • July 7 and August 3, 2026: Feiglin said Zehut would "run to the end, with or without a union" [24, 25].
  • September 2026 (reported September 6): In a Makor Rishon interview after the joint-run agreement, Feiglin said Zehut will recommend a right-wing government, and if the national camp still chooses Netanyahu, "out of no choice I will choose him" [7].
  • September 28–29, 2026: Feiglin said he would recommend Netanyahu to form a government but would then set "very, very clear red lines", including no supply trucks to Hamas, and that Zehut would have left the government over aid to Gaza [58, 59].
  • Separate negotiations: Under the joint-list agreement, Zehut and Religious Zionism are expected to conduct coalition negotiations separately after the election [4, 6].

Change over time.

  • On Netanyahu: In January 2025 Feiglin said "Netanyahu must go" [19]; in September 2026 he said he would recommend Netanyahu if the right-wing bloc chooses him. Feiglin's explanation is that he committed "months ago" not to form a left-wing government, and that when the choice is between a right-wing and a left-wing government he will recommend the right [7, 59].
  • On joining Smotrich: In June 2019 Feiglin ruled out joining the Union of Right-Wing Parties of Rabbi Rafi Peretz and Bezalel Smotrich, saying a connection with that stream would "cancel Zehut's message" [23]. In September 2026 he signed a technical joint-run agreement with Smotrich, describing it as technical and temporary [4, 6].

Track record of keeping pledges. In the April 2019 campaign Feiglin said Zehut did not see itself in terms of right and left and did not rule out a left-leaning coalition [46]. In August 2019 he withdrew the party from the September race in return for a promised ministerial post and policy commitments from the Likud [15, 16]. No source was found showing that the promised appointment or the cannabis legalisation bill was carried out; the party's 2026 materials describe Feiglin as a former MK and deputy speaker, with no ministerial role [38]. Zehut has never been part of a government coalition, so there is no record of keeping or breaking post-election coalition commitments.

Track record

Zehut has never been in the Knesset or in government. Its record consists of Feiglin's single Knesset term as a Likud MK and of its electoral conduct.

Feiglin as a Likud MK (2013–2015). The Likud was the leading coalition party in this period, but Feiglin held no government post.

  • Medical cannabis bill: His 2013 bill to let family doctors prescribe medical cannabis was deferred at the Ministerial Committee for Legislation in October 2013 at the health minister's request, while the ministry prepared its own government proposal; Feiglin strongly criticised that proposal in December 2013 [48, 49]. No source was found showing that his bill passed.
  • Temple Mount: He initiated the February 2014 plenary debate on Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount; Ynetnews reported that the debate had only declarative purposes and that Arab MKs boycotted it [50].
  • Gaza plan (July 2014): During the 2014 Gaza operation he published a seven-point plan: an ultimatum to the population, heavy bombardment of military and infrastructure targets, a full siege allowing only exit, conquest of the Strip, a "generous emigration package" for residents, and then Israeli sovereignty and settlement, with remaining residents recognised as permanent residents [51]. The 2026 platform's Gaza chapter follows the same structure [29].
  • Knesset votes: The Knesset's own website was not reachable from this research environment, so his record was taken from the Open Knesset mirror of plenum votes [64, 65]. Counting the raw per-member rows, the mirror records Feiglin voting in 1,072 of the 2,557 19th-Knesset plenum votes it holds: 713 for, 351 against, 7 abstentions and 1 entry with another result code (result codes 1, 2 and 3 were confirmed as for, against and abstain by matching the per-member rows against the vote totals in the header file). In the data, 880 of these votes are recorded under the faction name "Likud Beytenu" (הליכוד ביתנו) and 192 under "Likud" (הליכוד). As a coalition MK he voted against all 114 no-confidence motions on which he is recorded, and for the first reading of the 2013–2014 budget on June 18, 2013 [64, 65]. The votes that bear on Zehut's positions are listed under the relevant issues above: the 2013 bill to abolish conscription and the 2014 Haredi draft law, the Concentration Law, the zero-VAT housing bill, prisoner-release restrictions, Judea and Samaria sovereignty, cannabis and religion-and-state bills. On four private bills he was the only Likud–Yisrael Beytenu MK to vote in favour: abolishing compulsory conscription (with Shas, United Torah Judaism, Hadash and Ra'am–Ta'al MKs), reciprocity regarding security prisoners (with Shas MKs), cannabis as a medical substance (with MKs from Shas, United Torah Judaism, Labor, Meretz, Hadash and Balad) and zero VAT on basic food (with MKs from United Torah Judaism, Labor, Meretz, Hadash, Balad and Kadima). In each case every other member of his faction who voted, voted against [64, 65].

Electoral conduct. Zehut ran once on its own (April 2019) and did not pass the threshold [10]; it withdrew from the September 2019 race under a deal with the Likud [11, 15, 16], did not run in 2020–2022 [12, 13, 14], relaunched in January 2025 [19], and runs in 2026 on a joint list with Religious Zionism [1, 4].

Promises versus delivery. Because Zehut has never held seats or ministries, there is no record of delivering on its platform. The one negotiated arrangement, the 2019 Likud deal, promised a ministerial post, medical cannabis expansion and free-market reforms [15, 16]; no evidence was found that these were implemented [38].

Legal or ethical matters involving leaders

Moshe Feiglin – 1997 sedition conviction (completed). In 1997 Feiglin was convicted of sedition and of publishing seditious statements in connection with the Zo Artzeinu protests against the Oslo Accords [41, 42]. Press reports describe the sentence as six months' imprisonment served as community service work (עבודות שירות) [41, 42]; no court document was found for this check. Status: the sentence was served [42].

  • Before the 2003 election, the then CEC chair, Justice Mishael Cheshin, disqualified his candidacy on the Likud list on the grounds that the conviction carried moral turpitude (קלון); the next CEC chair, Justice Yaakov Turkel, changed that decision, ruling that a person who protests on an important public issue without violence does not bear a moral stain [42].
  • In May 2005 an expanded five-justice panel of the High Court of Justice, headed by President Aharon Barak, heard the Attorney General's petition to cancel Justice Turkel's ruling and deferred a decision. The report noted that the question would become moot about six weeks later, when seven years had passed since he completed his sentence [42].

CEC chair ruling on campaign material (September 2026). In a decision reported on September 7, 2026, the CEC chair, Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg, upheld a petition by a lawyer, Yaron Meiri, against Feiglin and Zehut over a TikTok post that used the official state emblem. The petition relied on section 2A of the Elections (Propaganda Methods) Law, which bars using public assets for campaigning; case law treats the state emblem as such an asset. The chair ordered the image removed in its current form and ordered Feiglin and Zehut to pay NIS 5,000 in costs to the petitioner [53]. Status: decided.

Disqualification request rejected (September 2026). On September 15, 2026 the Zulat Institute, together with former defence minister Moshe Ya'alon and other former ministers and public figures, asked the CEC to disqualify Bezalel Smotrich, Moshe Feiglin and Tzvi Sukkot and the Religious Zionism list under section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset, citing statements they said amounted to incitement to racism and rejection of Israel's democratic character [55]. The CEC heard the disqualification requests on September 23–24, 2026 [57] and rejected the request to disqualify the Religious Zionism–Zehut list; the list, whose name includes Feiglin's, was approved on September 27, 2026 [2, 3]. Status: rejected. The reporting checked does not describe a separate ruling on the three individual candidates or any appeal.

UK exclusion (2008; act of a foreign government, not an Israeli proceeding). In March 2008 the British Home Office informed Feiglin by letter that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had excluded him from the United Kingdom because his presence "would not be conducive to the public good", citing his past remarks; Feiglin replied that he had never intended to visit [43]. Status: no information was found about whether the exclusion is still in force.

What was checked. Searches in Hebrew and English covered indictments, convictions, investigations, CEC decisions, court rulings, State Comptroller findings and Knesset Ethics Committee decisions involving Feiglin and Zehut's leading 2026 candidates. Apart from the items above, no indictments, convictions or official inquiries involving Zehut's leaders were found.

Sources

  1. Candidate list "Religious Zionism led by Bezalel Smotrich and Zehut led by Moshe Feiglin" (26th Knesset), copy hosted by IDI. Central Elections Committee, 2026-09-08. https://www.idi.org.il/media/32318/%D7%94%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%93%D7%AA%D7%99%D7%AA.pdf
  2. ועדת הבחירות המרכזית פרסמה את הפתקים של כל המפלגות לכנסת ה-26. Ynet, 2026-09-27. https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/s1ibdii5fe
  3. בנט ביקש – אבל בן גביר קיבל את האות המיתולוגית: אלה הפתקים של כל המפלגות. Ynet, 2026-09-27. https://www.ynet.co.il/news/elections2026/article/sjmed8uqgx
  4. Smotrich, Feiglin agree on joint election run in bid to clear Knesset threshold. Ynetnews, 2026-09-01. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/h19j11ueogl
  5. Religious Zionist Party's central committee approves: Smotrich to pursue further alliances. Israel National News, 2026-09-07. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/432809
  6. משה פייגלין: "קצת לפני ה-7 באוקטובר הייתה כאן בגידה נוראית". Maariv (103FM), 2026-09-03. https://www.maariv.co.il/news/politics/article-1362554
  7. פייגלין חושף: זה האיש שעליו אמליץ לראשות הממשלה. Srugim, 2026-09-06. https://www.srugim.co.il/101010407-%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%99%D7%92%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9F-%D7%97%D7%95%D7%A9%D7%A3-%D7%96%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%90%D7%99%D7%A9-%D7%A9%D7%A2%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%95-%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%A5-%D7%9C%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA
  8. Moshe Feiglin leaving Likud (JTA). St. Louis Jewish Light, 2015-01-05. https://stljewishlight.org/world-news/moshe-feiglin-leaving-likud
  9. Moshe Feiglin announces departure from Likud. The Jerusalem Post, 2015-01-05. https://www.jpost.com/Israel-Elections/Moshe-Feiglin-announces-departure-from-Likkud-386742
  10. National results, elections to the 21st Knesset. Central Elections Committee, 2019. https://votes21.bechirot.gov.il/
  11. National results, elections to the 22nd Knesset. Central Elections Committee, 2019. https://votes22.bechirot.gov.il/
  12. National results, elections to the 23rd Knesset. Central Elections Committee, 2020. https://votes23.bechirot.gov.il/
  13. National results, elections to the 24th Knesset. Central Elections Committee, 2021. https://votes24.bechirot.gov.il/
  14. National results, elections to the 25th Knesset. Central Elections Committee, 2022. https://votes25.bechirot.gov.il/
  15. פייגלין הסיר את מועמדותו, נתניהו: "הוא יהיה שר בממשלתי". Maariv, 2019-08-29. https://www.maariv.co.il/elections2019/news/Article-716180
  16. Zehut members vote 3-1 to accept Likud deal and bow out of Knesset race. JNS, 2019-09-02. https://www.jns.org/israel-news/zehut-members-vote-3-to-1-to-accept-likud-deal
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Information availability

Enough public information exists to describe Zehut's positions in depth. The party publishes a detailed 2026 platform (a long online overview, a summary page, a summary PDF and topic pages; the full 188-page document is available only after registration and was not read) [28, 29, 30], and its leader has a long public record, including one Knesset term (2013–2015), the 2019 campaign and extensive 2025–2026 media coverage.

Gaps:

  • Zehut has never held Knesset seats or government posts, so almost all evidence on its positions is at the Formal commitment or Statement tier; the only Action-tier evidence comes from Feiglin's 2013–2015 term as a Likud MK and from the 2019 and 2026 electoral agreements.
  • The Knesset website and its vote data service were blocked from this research environment. Feiglin's 19th-Knesset votes were taken from the Open Knesset mirror [64, 65], but his full list of sponsored bills could not be checked, and the mirror does not include the final plenum votes on the March 2014 Governance Law and Basic Law: Referendum, so his votes on those two laws could not be checked.
  • No detailed party position on the appointment mechanism for an October 7 inquiry, or on the 2026 Lebanon arrangements, was found.
  • Some specific 2019 positions (for example on marriage registration and the Rabbinate) are documented only through press reports quoting the 2019 platform, and could not be compared with the full 2026 platform text.