Voting (in) Israel
The political voice of post-Soviet immigrants
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Since the early 1990s, one million people have emigrated to Israel from the Soviet Union and its successor states. When majorities are slim, their votes have a major influence over the outcome of elections. Over the past 30 years, a third of them have voted for an immigrant party; in particular, in the last 15 years, for Yisrael Beitenu led by Avigdor Liebermann. These voters are of above-average age, with lower levels of education and lower incomes com-pared to immigrants to Israel overall, and live away from the centre of the country. A further third voted for moderate right-wing parties, particularly Likud. There is almost no support for religious parties. Within this group, the level of popularity of the left-wing parties has decreased more markedly than among the population overall.
(Osteuropa 9-11/2019, pp. 101–121)