- Title: Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank vote in Israeli elections
- Date: 17th September 2019
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) SHMAYA FINN, 38-YEAR-OLD CAMERAMAN FROM NOKDIM, SAYING: "We are thinking about a government that is going to leave everyone here. I think this land is our land, anywhere you are looking at. We hope to stay and to grow and to have more people coming here." FAMILY ARRIVING AT POLLING STATION
- Embargoed: 1st October 2019 10:24
- Keywords: Israel election settlers vote settlements West Bank politics far-right leader Ayelet Shaked
- Location: NOKDIM AND TEKOA, WEST BANK/ TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
- City: NOKDIM AND TEKOA, WEST BANK/ TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA003AX1PNIF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank voted on Tuesday (September 17) in Israel's national election, in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a battle for political survival that could end his 10-year domination of national politics.
Opinion polls put former armed forces chief Benny Gantz's centrist Blue and White party neck-and-neck with Netanyahu's right-wing Likud, and suggest the far-right Yisrael Beitenu party could emerge as kingmaker in coalition talks.
The two main parties' campaigns in Israel's second parliamentary election in five months point to only narrow differences on many important issues: the regional struggle against Iran, ties with the Palestinians and the United States, and the stable economy.
An end to the Netanyahu era would be unlikely to lead to a big change in policy on hotly disputed issues in the peace process with the Palestinians that collapsed five years ago.
Netanyahu has announced his intention to annex the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinians seek statehood. But Blue and White has also said it would strengthen Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank, with the Jordan Valley as Israel's "eastern security border".
However, the walls at polling stations in the Jewish settlements of Nokdin and Tekoa were covered with election posters of the local Lieberman and former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked who leads the new far-right alliance "Yamina", Hebrew for to the Right.
The election was called after Netanyahu failed to form a coalition following an April election in which Likud and Blue and White were tied, each taking 35 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, or parliament.
(Production: Dedi Hayou, Lee Marzel) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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