Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party to hold Knesset primary on July 26

By Ariela Karmel

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7 July 2026, 3:41 pm

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an Israel Hayom conference in Jerusalem, July 5, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party announces that it will hold primaries on July 26 to elect its slate of candidates for the next Knesset, ahead of national elections set to be held by October 27.

The deadline for candidates to register is July 21, with voting open to all registered members.

The primary follows an internal leadership vote in September by the party’s central committee that reaffirmed Smotrich as party leader, meaning the upcoming contest will determine the slate from the No. 2 spot downward.

The party is one of only a handful in Israeli that elect their Knesset slate using an internal primary vote, in addition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, Yair Golan’s The Democrats, and Hadash led by Yousef Jabareen.

In a letter to party members, director-general Yehuda Wald says the accelerated timetable was chosen in light of the Knesset’s expected dissolution on July 17 and the upcoming August vacation period.

The primary is expected to shape the party’s electoral list ahead of the election. Among those expected to feature prominently is Zvika Mor, father of former hostage Eitan Mor, who joined the party in May after co-founding the Tikva Forum, a small group of hostages’ families who — unlike members of the larger Hostages and Missing Families Forum — consistently opposed partial hostage release agreements with Hamas that involved the release of Palestinian security prisoners and temporary ceasefires in Gaza.

The future of MK Moshe Solomon, meanwhile, remains uncertain after Smotrich removed him from all Knesset committees for breaking coalition discipline and voting against the government’s proposed Basic Law on Torah study last month.

Religious Zionism has been struggling in the polls, with much of the party’s decline attributed to frustration among its largely national-religious electorate — which serves in the military, including in reserve and combat units, at disproportionately high rates — over the party’s support for ultra-Orthodox legislation preserving draft exemptions for Haredi yeshiva students and shielding draft evaders from sanctions.

The party, which currently holds seven Knesset seats, has spent months polling around or below the electoral threshold, although some recent surveys have shown it recovering to four or five seats.