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1 November 1988 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All 120 seats in the Knesset 61 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 79.66% ( 0.88pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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Legislative elections were held in Israel on 1 November 1988. Voter turnout was 80%. [1]
The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the 11th Knesset.
During the campaign, left-wing parties were in a state of conflict. Mapam and Ratz rejected the possibility of running on a joint list. [2] . When Ratz signed a surplus vote agreement with the Alignment, Mapam accused Ratz of wanting to "remove Mapam from the political scene", to which Ratz leader Shulamit Aloni responded by saying that "Mapam's panic is understandable. It is a spoiled party, rich in assets and jobs, which fears any young, fresh organization without vested economic interests that comes to fight with clean hands." She also highlighted the inevitability of the two parties becoming allies, comparing Mapam to the biblical character Saul throwing his spear at David. [3]
Further to the left, there was outright hostility between the Progressive List for Peace and Hadash, resulting in physical altercations between their activists. [4]
| Party or alliance | Original slogan [5] | English translation | Refs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Likud | "͏͏͏͏͏͏͏͏͏͏͏͏רק הליכוד יכול" | "Only the Likud can" | [6] | |
| Alignment | "המערך, הדרך לפריצת דרך" | "The Alignment, the path to progress" | [6] | |
| Mafdal | "צריך אמונה במדינה" | "One must believe in the country" | ||
| Mapam | "הפעם מפם" | "This time, Mapam" | [6] | |
| Hadash | "שתי מדינות לשני העמים" | "Two states for two peoples" | [6] | |
| Ratz | "העובדות מצביעות רצ" | "The facts point to Ratz" | [7] | |
| Shinui | "יש פתרון שפוי- המרכז: שינוי!" | "There is a sensible solution, the centre - Shinui!" | ||
| Tehiya | "זה הזמן להתעורר לתחייה" | "It's time to wake up to Tehiya [a revival]" | ||
| Tzomet | "כל הדרכים מובילות לצומת" | "All roads lead to Tzomet [crossroad]" | ||
| Moledet | "מולדת יש רק אחת" | "There is only one homeland" | ||
| Degel HaTorah | "הפעם יש ברירה- דגל התורה" | "This time there is a choice - Degel HaTorah" | ||
| Date | Organizer | Moderator | P Present I Invitee N Non-invitee | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Likud | Alignment | Refs | ||||||||||||||
| P Yitzhak Shamir | P Shimon Peres | [8] | ||||||||||||||
Two parties could make an agreement so that they were considered to be running on a joint list when leftover seats were distributed. The Bader–Ofer method favors larger lists, meaning that a joint list is more likely to receive leftover seats than each list would individually. If such a joint list were to receive a leftover seat, the Bader–Ofer method would be applied a second time to determine which of the parties that make up the joint list would receive it. [9] The following agreements were signed by parties prior to the election: [10]
 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Likud | 709,305 | 31.07 | 40 | −1 | |
| Alignment | 685,363 | 30.02 | 39 | −5 | |
| Shas | 107,709 | 4.72 | 6 | +2 | |
| Agudat Yisrael | 102,714 | 4.50 | 5 | +3 | |
| Ratz | 97,513 | 4.27 | 5 | +2 | |
| National Religious Party | 89,720 | 3.93 | 5 | +1 | |
| Hadash | 84,032 | 3.68 | 4 | 0 | |
| Tehiya | 70,730 | 3.10 | 3 | −2 | |
| Mapam | 56,345 | 2.47 | 3 | New | |
| Tzomet | 45,489 | 1.99 | 2 | New | |
| Moledet | 44,174 | 1.93 | 2 | New | |
| Shinui | 39,538 | 1.73 | 2 | −1 | |
| Degel HaTorah | 34,279 | 1.50 | 2 | New | |
| Progressive List for Peace | 33,695 | 1.48 | 1 | −1 | |
| Arab Democratic Party | 27,012 | 1.18 | 1 | New | |
| Pensioners | 16,674 | 0.73 | 0 | New | |
| Meimad | 15,783 | 0.69 | 0 | New | |
| Derekh Aretz | 4,253 | 0.19 | 0 | New | |
| Or Movement | 4,182 | 0.18 | 0 | New | |
| Movement for Social Justice | 3,222 | 0.14 | 0 | New | |
| Yishai – Tribal Israel Together | 2,947 | 0.13 | 0 | New | |
| Movement for Moshavim | 2,838 | 0.12 | 0 | New | |
| Tarshish | 1,654 | 0.07 | 0 | New | |
| Silent Power | 1,579 | 0.07 | 0 | New | |
| Movement for Demobilised Soldiers | 1,018 | 0.04 | 0 | New | |
| Yemenite Association | 909 | 0.04 | 0 | New | |
| Unity | 446 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 2,283,123 | 100.00 | 120 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 2,283,123 | 99.03 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 22,444 | 0.97 | |||
| Total votes | 2,305,567 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 2,894,267 | 79.66 | |||
| Source: IDI, Nohlen et al. | |||||
Likud's Yitzhak Shamir formed the twenty-third government on 22 December 1988, including the Alignment, the National Religious Party, Shas, Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah in his coalition, with 25 ministers.
In 1990 Shimon Peres tried to form an Alignment-led coalition in a move that became known as "the dirty trick", but failed to win sufficient support. Eventually Shamir formed the twenty-fourth government on 11 June 1990, with a coalition encompassing Likud, the National Religious Party, Shas, Agudat Yisrael, Degel HaTorah, the New Liberal Party, Tehiya, Tzomet, Moledet, Unity for Peace and Immigration and Geulat Yisrael. Tehiya, Tzomet and Moledet all left the coalition in late 1991/early 1992 in protest at Shamir's participation in the Madrid Conference.
Several defections occurred during the Knesset term; five members of Likud left to form the Party for the Advancement of the Zionist Idea. After two of them returned, the party was renamed the New Liberal Party. Yitzhak Peretz left Shas and established Moria. Eliezer Mizrahi left Agudat Yisrael and established Geulat Yisrael. Efraim Gur left the Alignment to establish Unity for Peace and Immigration, which later merged into Likud.
The Twelfth Knesset saw the rise of the ultra-orthodox religious parties as a significant force in Israeli politics, and as a crucial "swing" element which could determine which of the large two secular parties (Likud, Alignment) would get to form the coalition government. Ratz, Mapam, and Shinui merged into Meretz, while Black Panthers broke away from Hadash.
