Israel: "Yeshua Israel Ben David", head of the Gan Eden list, runs in the legislative elections with priestly symbols

What is reported

On September 7, 2026, a man calling himself Yeshua Israel Ben David ("Jesus/Joshua Israel son of David") registered the "Gan Eden" ("Garden of Eden") list at the Knesset for the legislative elections of October 27, 2026. He is its founder and heads the list, and the party's website presents him as a candidate for Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. According to Ynet, that day he wore a breastplate-shaped badge recalling that of the high priest, said he wanted to become a priest in a future Temple and, failing that, to "start with the Knesset", which he calls "a Sanhedrin". The list had requested the letters "יה" (an abbreviation of the divine name) for its ballot; on September 27, the Election Committee refused them "for fear of offending public sensibilities" and assigned it "ה". An appeal by the list to the Supreme Court was withdrawn at the hearing of September 30, on the judges' recommendation; its subject does not appear in the published decision. Announced platform: a "national jubilee" (cancellation of debts, including mortgages, a subsistence allowance, a digital shekel), a state partly based on religious law, a judicial reform and the closure of the Ministry of Social Affairs. None of the last five polls puts him at the 3.25% threshold, and he himself says he is mainly seeking media visibility. The sources consulted contain no statement of his saying "I am the Messiah"; the claim that he believes himself to be God comes from an anonymous witness quoted by a Christian opinion website, which itself notes that it needs verification. Further research (October 23): no source consulted shows any person, group or following that recognizes him as the Messiah. He himself presents the list as messianic, and his visibility comes mainly from foreign Christian commentators (YouTube and TikTok videos, Substack) who call him a "false messiah" or an "antichrist"; these videos claim he calls himself the Messiah without quoting any statement. The Israeli press treats him ironically, among the fringe candidacies. His own pages, checked the same day, do not change this finding. His YouTube channel, under the handle "@LordYeshua", has 594 subscribers, and his October videos get about a thousand views each, compared with several hundred thousand for the videos denouncing him. In his two Sukkot videos (50 comments), he speaks of kingship as service and of justice, without calling himself the Messiah. The comments are mostly biblical rebuttals or questions ("are you the Messiah?"); one or two isolated reactions call him "Lord" or say "amen", with no way of knowing whether they are sincere. On his profile page, he says he was born in 1988 in Lithuania, grew up in Galilee and studies the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran on his own. A direct testimony was found afterwards, passed on by the repository owner. In a YouTube video, a Christian video maker plays a clip of a pastor who says he welcomed this man to a Bible study two years ago and spoke with him at least three times. According to this pastor, he "believes he is the Christ incarnate" and told him "it's me". This is probably the "witness" quoted by The Daily Declaration. The same pastor also says that "they declared him Messiah" and that "he has followers", but immediately adds that he does not know where this information comes from; he gives no evidence for it. The video maker says his Facebook page bears the words "God manifested in the flesh", which could not be verified, as Facebook cannot be viewed without an account. He himself urges people not to call him an "antichrist". An anonymous website (apc.party, October 10) writes that he "is not widely regarded in Israel as the Messiah".