Oren Smadja, Israel's pioneering Olympic judo medalist, has stepped into politics, announcing he is joining Gilad Erdan's "Unity" party ahead of the October 27 Knesset election. "It wasn't easy to make such a decision," Smadja said, in a statement carried by ONE.
The 56-year-old former national judo coach framed the move as the end of a long personal struggle. "After two years since Omer's fall, years during which I was in a grave mentally and emotionally, I decided it was time to rise and act again for the state," he said.
Smadja's son, Omer, was killed in June 2024 by mortar fire in the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, where he was serving as a reservist in Battalion 9203 of the Alexandroni Brigade. He fell on his father's 54th birthday.
According to ONE, Smadja's decision crystallized after a conversation with another bereaved father, a conversation he described as pushing him past two years of what he called being "in a grave" emotionally and spiritually.
"I'm doing this with pain, with longing, but also with a deep sense of mission and a desire to give myself to the state I love so much," Smadja said of his decision to campaign.
Erdan travelled to Smadja's home to make the pitch in person, ONE reports, inviting him to join campaign visits with voters around the country. Smadja will run alongside fellow candidates Yuli Edelstein and Aliza Bloch on the Unity list.
Polling has so far suggested Unity may struggle to clear the electoral threshold, according to ONE, though the addition of a nationally recognizable figure like Smadja is widely seen as an attempt to broaden the party's appeal.
Smadja won bronze in the under-71kg category at the 1992 Barcelona Games, becoming Israel's second-ever Olympic medalist a day after Yael Arad's silver in the same sport. He went on to coach Israel's national judo team for 15 years before stepping down in May 2025.
At the Paris 2024 Olympics, weeks after Omer's death, judoka Peter Paltchik dropped to his knees before Smadja after winning bronze, telling his coach the medal was "for Omer." Smadja's wife, Liat, now works as a paramedic on a Magen David Adom ambulance dedicated to their son's memory.
