This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Israeli branch of the US Republican party has begun a campaign to get American voters living in Israel to cast absentee ballots in favour of Donald Trump.

According to the Israeli chapter of the Republican party, around 300,000 Americans are eligible to vote in the November presidential elections. They live in Israel or in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Marc Zell, the head of Republicans Overseas Israel branch, said the campaign aimed to rekindle interest in US politics among second- and third-generation citizens, many of whom have children who will be eligible to vote for the first time.

“We want to try to attract new voters who perhaps in the past had no special interest in voting in the US elections,” Zell told Reuters.

Tzvika Brot, who is heading the campaign, estimated that about three-quarters of American Israelis would support the Republican party.

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A Democratic party representative in Israel disputed that estimate, telling Israel Radio the majority of Israeli and US Jewish voters had always preferred the Democrats.

A poll of Jewish Israelis conducted in May found 40% of respondents backed the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, and 31% supported Trump. The poll didn’t specify whether those who responded were eligible to vote in the US election.

The pro-Trump drive opened at a shopping mall in the central Israeli town of Modiin and will focus on areas with high concentrations of American Israelis. Brot said he hoped the new votes being sought might help tip the balance in swing states.

Trump, who has accused the administration of Barack Obama of lacklustre support for Israel, won his party’s nomination for the presidency last month. He has rejected last year’s nuclear deal with Iran and called for more investment in missile defence in Europe.

His views, including a vow to build a wall along the US-Mexico border and a proposal to impose a temporary ban on Muslims seeking to enter the country, have polarized the Republican party and caused widespread consternation.

Trump has also been criticised for his lack of foreign policy knowledge. The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said last month he would put at risk US and world security with his “politics of fear and isolation”.

