In prominent West Bank settlement, voters speak of uniting a fractured country

In the prominent Israeli settlement of Efrat in the occupied West Bank, voters said they were focused on uniting a country that has grown more fractured and divided over the last four years.

“I hope my children will have a good place to grow up, that there will be brotherhood among us, not just wars,” Elinor Veinglas told CNN. She said she hopes “that we will remember to come together and that will be our foundation here in this country.”

Even so, Veinglas said she would only decide for whom to vote “when I see the ballots.”

Her husband, David Veinglas said he would vote for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rival, Gadi Eisenkot. “I believe whatever comes in the end will be fine,” he told CNN. “I hope for a united government.”

Meanwhile, Haviva, who declined to give her last name, said she prays for “the people of Israel, especially that there will be unity and that they will first find what they have in common between right and left.”

Just south of Jerusalem, Efrat is more ideologically diverse community than settlements deep in the West Bank that are aligned with far-right parties. Israeli settlements are considered illegal under International law by most of the international community and the United Nations.

Zvolon, who also declined to give his last name, said he was voting for far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. “The people of Israel were exiled for 2,000 years living among the non-Jews. We had no government. Today we come and vote. I can say it seems my ancestors dreamed of this day,” Zvolon said.