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314 seats in the Assembly of Representatives | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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The first elections to the Assembly of Representatives in Mandatory Palestine were held amongst members of the Jewish community on 19 April 1920, except in Jerusalem where voting took place on 3 May. Ahdut HaAvoda led by David Ben-Gurion emerged as the largest party, winning 70 of the 314 seats.
Following the British conquest of Ottoman Palestine in 1917, Jewish leaders met in Petah Tikva on 17 November to discuss the formation of a representative convention. [1] After Jerusalem fell to the British, another convention was held, this time in Jaffa, to discuss the establishment of an organisation for the Jews of Palestine. [2] A committee was formed with the mandate to hold elections to a Constituent Assembly. [2]
With northern Palestine still held by the Ottomans, a second convention was held in Jaffa in July 1918 and elections were scheduled to be held by the end of 1918. [2] However, after the armistice was signed in November, delegates were required to represent Palestinian Jews at the peace conference. [2] A third convention was held in Jaffa on 18 December, to which every settlement, community and political party were invited. [2] Chaim Weizmann and Nahum Sokolow were chosen to represent the community at the peace conference. [2]
The elections were then postponed several times, [3] before they were fixed for 26 October 1919. [4] However, they were postponed again as Weizmann was worried that internal divisions would weaken the Jewish negotiating position. [4] The date was finally set for 19 April 1920 after it was confirmed that the British would have the Mandate for Palestine. [4]
At the first meeting in Jaffa, it was decided that the election would be held using secret balloting, and would be direct. [2] However, no agreement was made on women's suffrage. [2] The second meeting confirmed that men and women over the age of 21 would be entitled to vote, although the issue of women candidates remained unresolved. [2] The issue was raised at the third Jaffa convention, and despite opposition from Orthodox Jews, it was decided that women would be allowed to stand as candidates. [2] However, ultimately the Orthodox held separate elections in Jerusalem on 3 May, from which women were banned from participating. [4]
Voters elected one member for every 80 voters, except for the Orthodox, who elected one for every 40 voters on the basis that women were banned from their vote. [4] A total of 263 delegates were elected in the general voting, and another 51 by Orthodox voters. [4]
Around 22,000 of the 26,000 registered voters participated in the election. [4]
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|---|---|---|
| Party | Seats | |
| Ahdut HaAvoda | 70 | |
| Histadrut HaSephardim | 54 | |
| Haredi Party | 53 | |
| Hapoel Hatzair | 41 | |
| Histadrut HaIkarim | 16 | |
| Advanced Party | 13 | |
| Yemenite Association | 12 | |
| Mizrachi | 9 | |
| Unnamed Group | 7 | |
| Craftsmen's Centre | 6 | |
| Women's Union | 5 | |
| Bukharan Jews | 5 | |
| Clerk's Union | 5 | |
| Youth of Israel Union | 4 | |
| Citizen's Union | 3 | |
| Mizrahi Youth Union | 2 | |
| Georgian Jews | 1 | |
| Maccabi Union | 1 | |
| Independents | 7 | |
| Total | 314 | |
The Assembly met for the first time on 7 October 1920, and voted to admit the 51 Orthodox representatives. [4] It also elected the Jewish National Council to serve as an executive committee. [4]
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Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel, was a British Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931 to 1935.
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The First Zionist Congress was the inaugural congress of the Zionist Organization (ZO) held in the Stadtcasino Basel in the city of Basel on August 29–31, 1897. Two hundred and eight delegates and 26 press correspondents attended the event. It was convened and chaired by Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionism movement. The Congress formulated a Zionist platform, known as the Basel program, and founded the Zionist Organization.
Zionist Commission for Palestine was a commission chaired by Chaim Weizmann, president of the British Zionist Federation following British promulgation of the pro-Zionist, Balfour Declaration. The Commission was formed in March 1918 and went to Palestine to study conditions and submit recommendations to the British authorities.
As an organized nationalist movement, Zionism is generally considered to have been founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897. However, the history of Zionism began earlier and is intertwined with Jewish history and Judaism. The organizations of Hovevei Zion, held as the forerunners of modern Zionist ideals, were responsible for the creation of 20 Jewish towns in Palestine between 1870 and 1897.
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Socialist Workers Party was a political party in the British Mandate of Palestine from 1919–1922. Its followers were known as Mopsim.
The Assembly of Representatives was the elected parliamentary assembly of the Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine. It was established on 19 April 1920, and functioned until 13 February 1949, the day before the first Knesset, elected on 25 January, was sworn in. The Assembly met once a year to elect the executive body, the Jewish National Council, which was responsible for education, local government, welfare, security and defense. It also voted on the budgets proposed by the Jewish National Council and the Rabbinical Council.
Events in the year 1920 in British-administered Palestine.
Elections to the Assembly of Representatives in Mandatory Palestine were held on 6 December 1925, electing the legislature of the Yishuv. Around half the votes went to parties associated with trade unions. Ahdut HaAvoda remained the largest party in the Assembly.
The Palestine Arab Congress was a series of congresses held by the Palestinian Arab population, organized by a nationwide network of local Muslim-Christian Associations, in the British Mandate of Palestine. Between 1919 and 1928, seven congresses were held in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa and Nablus. Despite broad public support their executive committees were never officially recognised by the British, who claimed they were unrepresentative. After the British defeat of Ottoman forces in 1918, the British established military rule and (later) civil administration of Palestine. The Palestine Arab Congress and its organizers in the Muslim-Christian Associations were formed when the country's Arab population began coordinated opposition to British policies.
The London Conference of 1939, or St James's Palace Conference, which took place between 7 February – 17 March 1939, was called by the British Government to plan the future governance of Palestine and an end of the Mandate. It opened on 7 February 1939 in St James's Palace after which the Colonial Secretary, Malcolm MacDonald held a series of separate meetings with the Arab Higher Committee and Zionist delegation, because the Arab Higher Committee delegation refused to sit in the same room as the Zionist delegation. When MacDonald first announced the proposed conference he made clear that if no agreement was reached the government would impose a solution. The process came to an end after five and a half weeks with the British announcing proposals which were later published as the 1939 White Paper.
Mandatory Palestine was a geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the region of Palestine under the terms of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.
This is a timeline of intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine.
