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IrelandViral Gaza-expulsion interview prompts Guardian report on young Israeli voters
William Christou places one woman's remarks alongside other street interviews and young crowds at a Ben-Gvir rally.
The Guardian
Story of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 261,473 views a day, 52 times a normal first day on this channel (5,012).
Israel elections: what this viral clip says about young people's opinions
Atara Serwatien's call for Gaza to be carpet bombed, settled and annexed traveled far beyond the Tel Aviv rally where she was interviewed. In a follow-up Short, Guardian reporter William Christou asks how much her remarks reveal about other young Israeli voters.
Serwatien, a young Israeli-American woman from Texas, advocates expelling Palestinians from Gaza. Christou describes her past involvement in the youth movement associated with Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right leader of Otzma Yehudit.
The report has drawn about 170,000 views in 11 hours, an unusually fast start for a Guardian Short. It follows the channel's longer film, "We asked Israelis what they think ahead of the election", made ahead of Israel's first election since the Hamas attacks of October 2023.
Christou's answer goes beyond the viral excerpt. He shows young crowds cheering Ben-Gvir at a rally and describes encountering similar hardline sentiments in interviews across Tel Aviv. His account points to a rightward shift among the young people he spoke with, rather than offering a nationwide measure of opinion.
The contrast comes from older interviewees: some expressed shock at how far right the younger generation had moved. In the longer film, an older voter describes that generational pattern as the reverse of the one he grew up expecting.
Israel’s national security minister and leader of Otzma Yehudit, a far-right, anti-Arab party that is part of the governing coalition.
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- Channel
- The Guardian
- Subscribers
- 2,650,000 ▲ 10,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 3,570,827
- Channel views, pace per day
- 746,815 (on a normal day: 402,315)
- Video published
- October 27, 2026
- Video views so far
- 169,067 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 261,473
The numbers
The Short's early views are far above the Guardian's usual start for that format. Its comment section is also much busier than on a typical first day.
