Moshe Feiglin, founder and chair of the Zehut (Identity) party, and former Otzma Yehudit chair Michael Ben-Ari agreed on Wednesday to run together in a joint list in the upcoming elections, marking the first political alliance to be established on the Right.
The party said the alliance was born out of the understanding that the faith-based nationalist public in Israel currently “needs a strong political home.”
It added that the party will not compromise on the values of freedom, sovereignty, and Jewish identity.
Zehut ran in the 2019 elections and was expected to surpass the electoral threshold, with polls projecting it could win between eight and ten seats. However, the party ultimately failed to cross the threshold and enter the Knesset.
Feiglin had previously been a member of Likud, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, before resigning after he did not secure a high slot in the party’s primaries.
He later founded the Zehut party in 2015, promoting a platform centered on Jewish identity alongside personal liberty. The party advocated for far-right security policies, including the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza, while also supporting libertarian economic policies and the legalization of cannabis.
Ben-Ari had co-founded the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, which National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir now leads.
Ben-Ari had previously been a member of the Kach party, which was banned in 1985 for inciting racism. The High Court of Justice also disqualified Ben-Ari from running in the 2019 elections on grounds of racism, and he was later indicted in 2024 for allegedly inciting racism against Arabs.
New joint party seeks to end ‘containment and conflict management’
Feiglin and Ben-Ari’s alliance is said to operate according to a set of core principles.
The party said it seeks a decisive military victory and “an end to the policy of containment and conflict management.”
“Our policy advocates total defeat of the enemy, conquest of all territories from which we have been attacked that are within the borders of the biblical Land of Israel, expulsion of terrorist elements there, and the application of full Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza,” the party stated.
The party also called for renewed Jewish settlement throughout the country, describing it as “a supreme national and strategic value.”
It further stated that it seeks to strengthen the character and identity of Israel as a Jewish state and restore “sovereignty, power, and governance to the people and their elected representatives.”
The party said this includes reducing the number of government ministries, “freeing the citizen from the shackles of bureaucracy,” and ensuring the individual’s freedom from the apparatus of the state.
The party also said it would actively encourage aliyah, absorb Jews from the diaspora, and strengthen the Jewish people’s historical connection to their homeland.
Announcing the alliance with Ben-Ari, Feiglin said that after the October 7 Hamas attacks, it was necessary to join forces and work to prevent the attacks from recurring.
“The union of the Zehut party with Dr. Michael Ben-Ari gives the national camp the clear direction it has so lacked, and the ideological and intellectual depth that will allow us to throw the bloody Oslo Accords into the trash bin of history and finally offer a true alternative from the Right,” Feiglin said.
“We call on all who want to combine a solid Jewish identity with true personal freedom to join the Zehut Party and help build for our children a secure and prosperous Jewish state.”
Ben-Ari also said that the October 7 attacks underscored the importance of the alliance running in the election.
“We seek to serve as an ideological wall providing all that is necessary to maintain Israel as a Jewish state,” he said.
Ben-Ari added that a joint headquarters has already begun formulating the party’s full slate of members, which is expected to include “well-known and respected figures from the faith-based intellectual and security spheres.”
