Gadi Eisenkot is invoking his Moroccan family history in Israel’s Oct. 27 parliamentary campaign, as a multilingual slogan appears in Sderot, where Likud won 41.52% of valid votes in the last general election.
DW reported seeing a Yashar! campaign poster with “Rosh Memshala Dialna” in Sderot. Ynet and Atlasinfo reported comparable signs in other peripheral towns. The phrase joins Hebrew words for “prime minister” with Moroccan Arabic for “of our own”; DW translated it as “a prime minister of our own.”
Ynet and Atlasinfo described the slogan as aimed at Mizrahi, Moroccan and Likud voters in towns outside Israel’s main centers. Those reports describe a campaign strategy, not how voters will respond.
Israel’s Education Ministry says Eisenkot was born in Tiberias in 1960 to parents who immigrated from Morocco, and grew up in Eilat. The Israel Democracy Institute identifies him as the leader of Yashar!, which is running for the 26th Knesset. The party’s website says Eisenkot founded it in 2025 and is its chairman.
In Sderot’s 2022 election, Likud received 6,329 of 15,242 valid votes. Its nationwide share was 23.41%. Those results offer a past-election benchmark; they do not show how Sderot residents will vote this year.
Israelis elect party lists to a 120-member Knesset rather than choosing the prime minister in a direct vote. The Knesset says a government must secure parliamentary support, making coalition formation part of the process after the election.
The Israel Democracy Institute says Mizrahi is a broad term for Jews with roots in the Middle East and North Africa. In its historical account, people of Asian and North African descent made up 40% of Israel’s Jewish population after immigration in the late 1940s and early 1950s, while Ashkenazi communities held much of the political influence. The institute describes 1977 as a point when Mizrahi protest entered party politics and contributed to Likud’s victory under Menachem Begin.
Sderot was also a site of fighting on Oct. 7, 2023. An Israeli government summary says combat at the city’s police station lasted 20 hours. Daniel Ben-Simon, a Morocco-born Israeli journalist and former member of parliament, told DW, “People don't use terms like ‘Dialna’ with pride.”
Israel’s election is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 27. The Central Elections Committee timetable sets Nov. 4 for publication of results.
