Eight of Israel's incoming MPs have records on Gaza, statehood and collective punishment

Israel's projected next parliament includes figures who have called for cutting water and power to Palestinian villages, quoted scripture about infants to soldiers headed into Gaza, and joined a blockade of aid trucks on 22 October. Provisional results put eight such candidates on course to enter or return to the Knesset.

Hanamel Dorfman, a Jewish Power candidate and former chief of staff to Itamar Ben Gvir, came out of the settler movement. Haaretz quoted him at 17, at a protest against African asylum seekers in Tel Aviv, saying: "The only problem with the Nazis is that I was on the losing side." Video from his 2013 wedding showed him dancing with knives raised to songs calling for attacks on Palestinians.

Yitzhak Wasserlauf, also of Jewish Power, invoked a biblical passage about infants while soldiers prepared to enter Gaza. Jewish News reported that a recorded call captured him quoting Psalm 137 and its reference to seizing babies and dashing them against rocks.

Religious Zionism-Zehut candidates Tzvika Mor and Itamar Eitam have both addressed Palestinians directly in policy terms. Mor, a settler in Kiryat Arba, said in an October radio interview that he would cut electricity and water to Palestinian villages resisting Jewish occupation, expel their families and confiscate their property. Eitam, a reserve lieutenant colonel, has rejected the line between fighters and civilians in Gaza. In a July 2024 interview, he described Palestinians as evil and dismissed the idea that they seek peaceful lives and schooling for their children.

Yonatan Shalev of Together served as a combat reservist in Gaza. He told The Jerusalem Post that Bennett would not permit Palestinian statehood: "We're not going to pass Israeli territory to anyone." Merav Ben-Ari, also of Together, spoke in an October 2023 parliamentary debate about Palestinian children and their suffering; a subsequent UN inquiry cited her remarks in its review of rhetoric aimed at Gaza's children.

Yulia Malinovsky of Yisrael Beiteinu joined activists blocking Gaza-bound aid trucks on 22 October and publicized the blockade while accusing Netanyahu's government of feeding Palestinians rather than starving them. Matan Kahana of Yashar said in June 2022 he would press a hypothetical button to remove Arabs and send them to Switzerland.

The statements span parties across the incoming coalition's political spectrum and touch on aid access, statehood, and the treatment of civilians. Provisional results place these candidates in the Knesset.

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