Israelis Who Returned From Abroad Especially for Election Day

In depth

According to TheMarker, the Fly&Vote initiative claims it helped 67,000 Israelis living abroad get to Israel to vote. Over the next three days, some 55,000 passengers are expected to depart from Israel, most of them apparently Israelis. According to Calcalist, a gap of about 77,000 between arrivals and departures is expected in the two weeks before the election.

According to the telecom company Bezeq, 18% of the company's subscribers living abroad are currently in Israel, compared with 3% on a regular day last October. The company estimates that some 90,000 Israeli residents of abroad are currently staying in the country. According to Calcalist, the data do not directly indicate the purpose of the visits.

According to Arutz 7, on Monday a special Fly&Vote flight from Lisbon landed at Ben Gurion Airport with more than 100 Israelis aboard. According to Ynet, Gali Mazor Biton was on a flight from Portugal and said: "We want to return to the country, so it is important to us to be part of it."