High Court Rejects Expatriates’ Petition to Vote in October Election

Israel’s High Court dismissed on Wednesday a petition filed by Israeli expatriates who sought to vote in the October 27 election after learning they had been removed from the voter rolls due to an obscure Interior Ministry classification that designates them as nonresidents.

Around 100 Israeli expatriates filed the petition, contesting their removal from the voter rolls under Interior Ministry classification “Code 51,” which designates them as non‑resident citizens.

The petitioners asserted they never voluntarily relinquished Israeli residency and questioned the legal basis, criteria, and procedures used to impose the classification, noting that many only learned of the designation when checking their voting eligibility before the election.

The court declined to address the factual dispute, dismissing the petition on procedural grounds. Justice Yechiel Kasher noted the filing occurred a week before the voter registry deadline and that petitioners had not pursued the statutory appeal process for challenging registration. Moreover, the petition provided no detailed factual record explaining how each individual received Code 51.

The case emerged as tens of thousands of Israelis residing abroad plan to return for the October 27 election, the first national vote since the October 7 Hamas attack. Over 30,000 expatriates had registered with Fly&Vote, a program assisting Israelis in arranging election travel, which has already secured seven dedicated flights to Israel.

The Interior Ministry explained that Code 51 is assigned to citizens who notified a population‑registry official of their departure from Israel and requested that they remain non‑resident. The petitioners contested this, stating they never requested cancellation of their Israeli residency.

Ilana Mittman, a retired social scientist based in Baltimore and a petitioner, learned this summer that her residency status had been altered to Code 51 on March 7, 1986—the day she visited the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco to register her newborn son.

Mittman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that consular officials took her Israeli ID card during the 1986 appointment without explanation. “I recall how terrible it felt to hand over that document,” she said. “It seemed as though I had given away a part of myself, and I later realized my most fundamental right as a citizen—the right to vote—had been stripped away.”

The petition also contested the residency‑based voting eligibility requirement, asserting that it conflicts with Israel’s Basic Law governing the Knesset, which guarantees every Israeli citizen aged 18 or older the right to vote unless a court has removed that right. The court declined to rule on this issue, and Justice Kasher said petitioners may raise it again after the election.

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