Why Gadi Eisenkot Is Putting His Moroccan Roots at the Center of Israel's Election

Gadi Eisenkot, the leading challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is making his Moroccan family background a centerpiece of his campaign ahead of Tuesday's election in Israel, according to DW. The push is aimed at towns on the country's social and economic periphery that have traditionally backed Netanyahu's Likud party.

Eisenkot leads the liberal Yashar party. DW reported that its posters are the most visible in the southern city of Sderot, where they carry the slogan “Rosh Memshala Dialna.” It blends the Hebrew words for prime minister with a Moroccan Arabic phrase meaning “of our own.”

Why Sderot is a test case for the campaign

Sderot sits in the Negev desert, about 75 kilometers (45 miles) south of Tel Aviv and a kilometer from the Gaza border. DW described it as a city with a large Moroccan Jewish community and a long-standing bastion of Likud. In 2022, Likud won more than 40% of the vote there, compared with 23% nationwide.

Eisenkot grew up in Eilat, a city with a large North African Jewish population. DW reported that his party has accused Likud of sidelining its own Mizrahi politicians, a charge it has turned into a campaign message.

The Mizrahi divide behind the politics

Mizrahim are Jews who mostly come from Middle Eastern and North African backgrounds. Estimates cited by DW put them at half of Israel's Jewish population, or about 4 million people. The outlet said they have faced discrimination and neglect since the early days of the state.

After Israel's founding, the governing Mapai party, whose leadership was largely Ashkenazi, or of European origin, pursued policies that expected Mizrahim to give up their own culture and Arabic language, DW reported. Many Jews from Arab-speaking countries were sent to temporary transit camps, often in remote areas. Many of those sites later became underfunded development towns, and Sderot is among the best known.

That frustration helped Likud, founded in 1973, take power from the socialist camp under Menachem Begin. Mizrahim have often been tied to Likud since, according to DW, even though the party has never had a Mizrahi leader.

A remark that sharpened the issue

DW reported that the right-wing journalist Yinon Magal, one of Netanyahu's most vocal supporters, said on live television that Eisenkot was controlled by elitist Ashkenazim, and used a demeaning animal comparison about him. Netanyahu, who is of European origin, condemned the remark.

Daniel Ben-Simon, a Morocco-born journalist and former member of parliament, told DW that Magal's comments may have pushed Eisenkot to embrace his roots, but that the move still has historical value. Ben-Simon said Israeli society long tried to erase the Arab identities of North African Jews, and that Eisenkot's slogan helps create an Israeli-Moroccan identity.

Why it matters for the vote

Sderot has changed since the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, which hit the city especially hard and killed more than 50 people there, DW reported. Its population has grown by about 5,000 since then and now stands at 40,000, with many young families moving in.

DW said the national-religious community is becoming increasingly dominant in the city. That group tends to vote for Bezalel Smotrich's far-right Religious Zionism party, a main member of Netanyahu's coalition. Votes for that party are effectively votes for Netanyahu's bloc, even though Likud itself could lose ground in Sderot, according to the report.

Ben-Simon told DW that the ties of cities like Sderot to their Moroccan roots would grow stronger if Eisenkot wins. Whatever the result on Tuesday, DW noted, the city's image as a Moroccan Jewish center is unlikely to change soon.

Around Prague, based on reporting by DW