Leaders of far-right parties running in the Israeli elections are openly campaigning on platforms that advocate expelling Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.

On the Haaretz Podcast, senior analyst Esther Solomon and correspondent Linda Dayan discussed the platforms of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and ex-general Ofer Winter, both of whom are wooing voters by attacking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government from the right. 

Ben-Gvir in particular is proudly “promoting a platform for ‘voluntarily‘ expelling Palestinians from every single part from Gaza and the West Bank,” Solomon said. 

Winter included his longtime support for “voluntary emigration” from Gaza in the platform of his new Amcha Israel party, in an effort Solomon described as being designed to appeal to far-right voters dissatisfied with Netanyahu, but “who are a little bit disgusted by some of the crude ways that Ben-Gvir operates. They like their candidates to look a bit nicer.” 

Dayan, who recently attended a Winter campaign event aimed at English-speaking voters, said that Winter’s party’s positions articulated by the candidates on his list and their supporters are “a profoundly bizarre rejection of reality.” 

Together with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Solomon and Dayan assessed the state of the race, which is increasingly shaping up into a likely deadlock, with neither the pro-Netanyahu nor the (Jewish, Zionist) anti-Netanyahu bloc coming close to achieving a 61-seat majority, according to the polls. 

Read more: 

Israel Election Poll: Eisenkot Bloc Continues Slump as Netanyahu's Coalition Gains Ground

Countdown to Election Day: A Road Trip Through a Country Deciding Its Future

America's Right Is Tired of Israel and Jews. NatCon Jerusalem Confirms It

This Leader of a Small, Far-Right Party Wants Netanyahu Fans to Take a Chance on Him