26 Seats

NO. to Violence Against Women uses the language of electoral power to make the scale of abuse impossible to overlook.

Two and a half weeks before the Israeli national election, nonprofit NO. to Violence Against Women has launched “26 Seats”, a campaign that translates the scale of domestic violence into a number politicians understand: parliamentary seats.

Ahead of Israel’s October 27 election, public debate is dominated by Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future and the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attacks. The campaign aims to bring violence against women into that conversation, making it an issue candidates and voters are asked to address.

The copy presents a simple thought experiment:

If every woman who has experienced domestic violence voted for the same party, it would win 26 seats.

To put that number in perspective, polling cited by the campaign places the leading party at around 22 seats. With 26 out of parliament’s 120 seats, this hypothetical party would be the largest party in parliament.

The figure draws on a 2026 survey in which 27% of women reported experiencing abuse by a partner or family member. The campaign converts the estimated number of women affected into seats using the 2022 election’s votes-per-seat benchmark.

The campaign will run throughout the two and a half weeks leading up to election day across newspapers, billboards, posters, digital and social media.