Gap year students excited about first time voting

All three, from the Hevruta pre-military academy and gap year program of the Shalom Hartman Institute, were keen to exercise their democratic right for the first time, and did so with gusto.

By JEREMY SHARON
The slips used to vote in the 2019 elections, April 9th, 2019 (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The slips used to vote in the 2019 elections, April 9th, 2019
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Having deliberated carefully on their electoral choice in their first elections in which they were eligible to vote, three first-time Israeli voters who voted for three different parties were unanimous in their verdict; it was a pretty exciting experience.
All three, from the Hevruta pre-military academy and gap year program of the Shalom Hartman Institute, were keen to exercise their democratic right for the first time, and did so with gusto.
Noa Pitkowsky, 18, voted early and voted for Labor.
“It was an exciting atmosphere, you could feel the election vibe with all the election fliers and posters,” said Pitkowsky.
She said that “it would be amazing” if the Left-wing and centrist parties could form a government and said that she was “optimistic that there will be a change in government,” but that at the very least the next coalition will lean more leftwards than the previous one.
Shahar Citron, 18, said it had been “very exciting to vote for the first time in the Jewish state,” and that he was happy with his choice of Zehut because of his and the party’s conviction in the supremacy of the idea of freedom of the individual.
Yarden Dvir, 18, who voted for Blue and White, was similarly enthusiastic, and said that voting had been exciting and emotional.
She said that if Blue and White does well enough to get a chance at forming a government she would be “very happy,” and if the opposite happens then it would be “a pretty big bummer,” but one that she would get over.
“If Bibi returns to power, I don’t think he’ll be prime minister for more than a year because of the criminal indictments against him,” she added.
All three plan to stay up and watch as the initial results come in to see how their votes impacted their first election in Israel in which they could affect political change.