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Elections for the 17th Knesset were held in Israel on 28 March 2006. The voting resulted in a plurality of seats for the then-new Kadima party, followed by the Labor Party, and a major loss for the Likud party.
Elections in Israel are based on nationwide proportional representation. The electoral threshold is currently set at 3.25%, with the number of seats a party receives in the Knesset being proportional to the number of votes it receives. The Knesset is elected for a four-year term, although most governments have not served a full term and early elections are a frequent occurrence. Israel has a multi-party system based on coalition governments as no party has ever won a majority of seats in a national election, although the Alignment briefly held a majority following its formation by an alliance of several different parties prior to the 1969 elections. The legal voting age for Israeli citizens is 18. Elections are overseen by the Central Elections Committee and are held according to the Knesset Elections Law.
The Knesset is the unicameral national legislature of Israel. As the legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister, approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government. In addition, the Knesset elects the State Comptroller. It also has the power to waive the immunity of its members, remove the President and the State Comptroller from office, dissolve the government in a constructive vote of no confidence, and to dissolve itself and call new elections. The Prime Minister may also dissolve the Knesset. However, until an election is completed, the Knesset maintains authority in its current composition. The Knesset is located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in Western Asia, located on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. It has land borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan on the east, the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the east and west, respectively, and Egypt to the southwest. The country contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel's economic and technological center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, although the state's sovereignty over Jerusalem has only partial recognition.
After the election, the government was formed by the Kadima, Labor, Shas, and Gil parties, with the Yisrael Beiteinu party joining the government later. The Prime Minister was Ehud Olmert, leader of Kadima, who had been the acting prime minister going into the election.
Shas is an ultra-Orthodox religious political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 under the leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until his death in October 2013, it primarily represents the interests of Haredi Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. The party works to end prejudice and discrimination against the Sephardic community, and highlights economic issues and social justice.
Yisrael Beiteinu is a secularist and right-wing nationalist political party in Israel. The party's base was originally secular, Russian-speaking Israelis although support from this demographic is in decline. The party describes itself as "a national movement with the clear vision to follow in the bold path of Zev Jabotinsky", the founder of Revisionist Zionism. It has primarily represented immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Although it has attempted to expand its appeal to more established Israelis, it has not been successful. It takes a strong line towards the peace process and the integration of Israeli Arabs, characterized by its 2009 election slogan "No loyalty, no citizenship". Its main platform includes a recognition of the two-state solution, the creation of a Palestinian state that would include an exchange of some largely Arab-inhabited parts of Israel for largely Jewish-inhabited parts of the West Bank. The party maintains an anti-clerical mantle and encourages socio-economic opportunities for new immigrants, in conjunction with efforts to increase Jewish immigration. In the 2009 election the party won 15 seats, its most to date, making it the third largest party in the previous Knesset. In the 2015 election, the party won six seats.
Ehud Olmert is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as the 12th Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009 and before that as a cabinet minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006. Between his first and second stints as a cabinet member, he served as mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003. After serving as PM he was sentenced to serve a prison term over convictions for accepting bribes and for obstruction of justice during his terms as mayor of Jerusalem and as trade minister.
According to the Congressional Research Service:
The March 28, 2006, Knesset election results were surprising in many respects. The voter turnout of 63.2% was the lowest ever. The contest was widely viewed as a referendum on Kadima’s plans to disengage from the West Bank, but it also proved to be a vote on economic policies that many believed had harmed the disadvantaged. Kadima came in first, but by a smaller margin than polls had predicted. Labor, emphasizing socioeconomic issues, came in a respectable second. Likud lost 75% of its votes from 2003 because Kadima drained off supporters. Its decline also was due to Netanyahu, whose policies as Finance Minister were blamed for social distress and whose opposition to unilateral disengagement was unpopular with an increasingly pragmatic, non-ideological electorate. [1]
In the 2003 elections, Likud, under the leadership of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, had a convincing win by Israeli standards, winning 38 seats in the 120-member Knesset (parliament), with Sharon perceived as tough anti-terrorist leader on the wings of his 2002 Operation Defensive Shield. Labor, led by Amram Mitzna under slogans for "disengagement" from Gaza, won only 19 seats and did not initially join the new government.
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of government and chief executive of Israel.
Ariel Sharon was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006.
Operation "Defensive Shield" was a large-scale military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces in 2002 during the course of the Second Intifada. It was the largest military operation in the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. The stated goal of the operation was to stop terrorist attacks. The spark that gave rise to the action was the March 27 suicide bombing during Passover Seder at the Park Hotel in the Israeli resort city of Netanya; a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 30 mostly elderly vacationers.
Following the 2003 elections Likud suffered severe divisions over several positions taken by Sharon, most notably his adoption of a plan to withdraw Israeli settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip. [2] This was exactly the position taken by Labor and denounced as being defeatist by Sharon prior to the 2003 elections, so it caused tension within the Likud party and in January 2005 Shimon Peres led Labor into a coalition with Sharon to allow the Gaza withdrawal to proceed despite opposition from a majority of Likud members.
The Israeli disengagement from Gaza, also known as "Gaza expulsion" and "Hitnatkut", was the withdrawal of the Israeli army from inside the Gaza Strip, and the dismantling of all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005.
The Gaza Strip, or simply Gaza, is a self-governing Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, that borders Egypt on the southwest for 11 kilometers (6.8 mi) and Israel on the east and north along a 51 km (32 mi) border. Gaza and the West Bank are claimed by the State of Palestine.
Shimon Peres was an Israeli politician who served as the ninth President of Israel (2007–2014), the Prime Minister of Israel (twice), and the Interim Prime Minister, in the 1970s to the 1990s. He was a member of twelve cabinets and represented five political parties in a political career spanning 70 years. Peres was elected to the Knesset in November 1959 and except for a three-month-long hiatus in early 2006, was in office continuously until he was elected President in 2007. At the time of his retirement in 2014, he was the world's oldest head of state and was considered the last link to Israel's founding generation.
As of the fall of 2005, Peres's Labor Party was providing the votes necessary for the Likud-led 30th Government to maintain its majority support in the Knesset. In Labor's internal leadership election scheduled for early November, Amir Peretz campaigned for the party leadership on a platform that included withdrawing Labor from the Sharon-led coalition. Peretz narrowly defeated Peres in the leadership election on November 9, 2005, and two days later all Labor ministers resigned from the Cabinet and Labor withdrew its support for the Government, leaving it without majority support in the Knesset.
Amir Peretz is an Israeli politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party. He previously served as Minister of Defence, leader of the Labor Party and Minister of Environmental Protection.
Negotiations between Sharon and Peretz set the election date for 28 March 2006. "I'm letting him [Sharon] choose a date in that period between the end of February and the end of March and whatever date he chooses is acceptable to me, the earlier the better," Peretz said at the time. Sharon said: "As soon as it became clear that the existing political framework was falling apart, I came to the conclusion that the best thing for the country is to hold new elections as soon as possible."
The impending elections raised the prospect of a leadership election within Likud, with former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expected to challenge Sharon for the party leadership. In late November, Sharon and a number of other Likud ministers and Knesset members announced that they were leaving Likud to form a new, more centrist party, which was eventually named Kadima. The formation of Kadima turned the election into a three-way race among the new party, Labor and Likud, marking a shift from Israel's tradition of elections dominated by two major parties.
A two-party system is a party system where two major political parties dominate the government. One of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referred to as the majority or governing party while the other is the minority or opposition party. Around the world, the term has different senses. For example, in the United States, Jamaica, and Malta, the sense of two-party system describes an arrangement in which all or nearly all elected officials belong to one of the only two major parties, and third parties rarely win any seats in the legislature. In such arrangements, two-party systems are thought to result from various factors like winner-takes-all election rules. In such systems, while chances for third-party candidates winning election to major national office are remote, it is possible for groups within the larger parties, or in opposition to one or both of them, to exert influence on the two major parties. In contrast, in the United Kingdom and Australia and in other parliamentary systems and elsewhere, the term two-party system is sometimes used to indicate an arrangement in which two major parties dominate elections but in which there are viable third parties which do win seats in the legislature, and in which the two major parties exert proportionately greater influence than their percentage of votes would suggest.
Although Kadima was formed primarily of former Likud members, Peres (having lost the Labor leadership election to Peretz) also announced his support for the new party, and later officially left Labor. Peres cited Sharon's leadership skills as a reason for his party switch.
Polls taken through the end of 2005 showed Sharon's Kadima Party enjoying a commanding lead over both Labor and Likud.
Sharon, as founder of Kadima and incumbent Prime Minister, was universally expected to lead the new party into the March 2006 election. However, on 4 January 2006, Sharon suffered a haemorrhagic stroke, leaving him in a coma. On 31 January 2006, Kadima submitted its list of candidates, with Sharon excluded from the list due to his inability to sign the necessary documents to be a candidate. Ehud Olmert who had become Acting Prime Minister and acting chairman of Kadima when Sharon became incapacitated, now officially became the new party's candidate for Prime Minister. Peres was placed second on Labor's list of candidates. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was placed third on the Kadima list, with the understanding that she would be the senior Vice Premier if Kadima formed the next government.
In the Shinui primaries, Tel Aviv council member Ron Levintal defeated Avraham Poraz for the number 2 spot. Poraz, a close ally of party leader Yosef Lapid, subsequently resigned from Shinui, as did most Shinui Knesset members, forming a breakaway party called Hetz (ha-Miflaga ha-Hilonit Tzionit or 'the Secular Zionist Party'). Lapid resigned as party leader on 25 January 2006, and Leventhal was subsequently elected the new party leader. Neither Shinui nor Hetz received sufficient votes to win any seats in the 17th Knesset. Shinui had won 15 seats in the 2003 election and was the third largest party in the 16th Knesset.
On 30 January 2006 the right-wing National Union (Halchud HaLeumi), a coalition of three small parties (Moledet, Tkuma, Tzionut Datit Leumit Mitchadeshet), submitted a joint list with the National Religious Party. The merged list is headed by Binyamin Elon. The largely Russian immigrant Israel Beytenu (Israel Our Home) party has separated from National Union and is running a separate list.
This separation occurred following polls that predicted that, when running separately, these two major rightist blocs would receive between 20 to 25 seats (in the previous elections, they had received only 7), and it turned out to be true: the National Union bloc received 9 seats and Israel Beytenu received 11.
Likud selected Netanyahu as its leader, over then-Defense Minister Silvan Shalom. At Netanyahu's insistence, Shalom and the other remaining Likud ministers resigned from the Olmert-led government in January 2006.
Polls conducted from January through March showed Kadima still enjoying a substantial lead, though somewhat reduced from polls taken under Sharon's leadership.
During the al-Aqsa Intifada, more than a thousand Israelis were killed in Palestinian militant attacks. Israel's security policy during that time was focused on arresting or killing members of the militant organizations, through frequent military excursions into the Palestinian territories and (somewhat controversially) targeted killings, and to curb the movement of suspected militants – especially would-be suicide bombers – through the use of checkpoints. This policy won the support of the Jewish mainstream, but elements in the Jewish left, as well as the vast majority of the Arab population, vehemently opposed what they saw as excessive response to the security threat. Some claimed that Israel's policy was in fact encouraging more violence from the Palestinian side. Despite the decrease in violence during 2005 and 2006, or perhaps because of it, popular support for the security policy remained high among the Israeli public, which continued to fear suicide bombings and Qassam rocket attacks.
During the 2006 electoral campaign, the center and right parties vowed to continue the relentless fight against the Palestinian militants. Even Labor, which was traditionally known for its dovish views, put "combating terrorism" at the top of its agenda on the Conflict. Opposition to the current[ timeframe? ] security policy, especially the use of targeted killings and the existence of checkpoints on Palestinian soil, comes mainly from Jewish left parties such as Meretz and from the Arab parties.
In the wake of the disengagement plan, the political field in Israel split into two roughly distinct groups: those who are in favour of withdrawing from most or all of the West Bank (unofficially nicknamed "Blues"), and those who wish for that area to remain under Israeli control (so-called "Orange"). In particular, Ariel Sharon and his faction left Likud to form Kadima because of their support of ending Israeli control over the West Bank. However, the two groups are also divided internally as to what practical steps need to be taken during the next few years.
Since Israel's establishment, the political scene has been dominated by security and peace issues. The major parties were mainly divided by the different approaches with regard to the Israeli-Arab and Israeli–Palestinian conflicts.
The 2006 elections mark the first time a major party – the Labor Party – has placed economic and social issues on top of its agenda. This is mainly attributed to Amir Peretz's surprise victory over Shimon Peres in the November 2005 Labor leadership election; Peretz had left the party a few years earlier to form the socialist One Nation, which had only recently merged into Labor.
Labor's social democratic approach, which includes promises to raise the minimum wage and allocate a pension for every worker, now stands in sharp contrast to the neo-liberal agenda promoted by Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu. Serving as Finance Minister from 2003 to 2005, Netanyahu led a policy that encouraged economic growth and lower taxes at the expense of Israel's long-running welfare mechanism. This has alienated him from many Likud supporters, which traditionally hail from the lower and middle classes. In the campaign, Netanyahu claimed to have done this to "save the Israeli economy from collapse."
In addition to Labor, the orthodox religious Shas, which has always claimed to champion the poor in Israeli society, also attacked Netanyahu's policies during the campaign, as did a number of small (and often new) socialist parties.
From 1948 to 2003, religious parties played a part in every coalition formed in Israel. Zionist religious parties focused on maintaining the balance between observants and seculars in issues such as education, Kashrut, keeping the Sabbath and matrimonial law, while Haredi parties demanded funds for religious scholars and the continued exemption of their followers from military service (decided on by David Ben-Gurion in 1951.) All of this alienated many secular Israelis, who felt their personal freedoms were being infringed upon and that they were unfairly carrying most of the burden. This led to the rise of Shinui, which at the 2003 elections won 15 out of 120 seats and joined Ariel Sharon's coalition. Shinui failed in making significant changes to the status quo on religious issues, and quit the government in 2005 after Sharon decided to transfer funds to the orthodox United Torah Judaism party. An internal quarrel caused most Knesset members from Shinui to form a new party (Hetz); both parties ran in the 2006 elections, although neither of them received any mandates.
Shinui, Hetz, Meretz, and Ale Yarok wish to promote what they see as key secular and democratic principles:
The various religious parties, both Zionist (National Religious Party) and Haredi (Shas, United Torah Judaism) strictly oppose these changes. They wish to see Israel's Jewish character strengthened through further enforcement of the Sabbath and changes in the educational system.
Israeli Arabs constitute roughly 20% of the population in Israel. Many Israeli-Arab groups claim continued institutional and social discrimination against them in Israel.[ citation needed ] Because they are not Jews and many identify ethnically with Palestinians their identity often clashes with their citizenship in the Jewish state. There are large disparities in general living standard and education between Israeli Arabs and the non-Arab Israeli population; they also have a lower participation rate in the workforce. [ citation needed ] Discrimination and a lower proportion of females in the workforce are often cited as reasons for this. [ citation needed ]
The Arab parties, the largest of which are the United Arab List, Balad and Hadash (a Jewish-Arab communist party, with mostly Arab composition and electorate), advocate abolition of all forms of ethnic inequality, and the establishment of a democratic bi-national state.
Elections to the Knesset allocate 120 seats by party-list proportional representation, using the d'Hondt method. The election threshold for the 2006 election was set at 2% (up from 1.5% in previous elections), which is a little over two seats.
After official results are published, the President of Israel delegates the task of forming a government to the Member of Knesset with the best chance of assembling a majority coalition (usually the leader of the largest party.) That designee has up to 42 days to negotiate with the different parties, and then present his government to the Knesset for a vote of confidence. Once the government is approved (by a vote of at least 61 members), he/she becomes Prime Minister.
Party | Ballot letters | Seats before election | Leader | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Kadima | כן | 14 | Ehud Olmert | Centrist, new party (split from Likud) |
Labor-Meimad | אמת | 21 | Amir Peretz | Social democratic |
Likud | מחל | 29 | Binyamin Netanyahu | Conservative |
Hetz | חץ | 9 | Avraham Poraz | Anti-clerical, liberal, new party (split from Shinui) |
Shinui | יש | 2 | Ron Levintal | Secular |
Shas | שס | 11 | Eli Yishai | Ultra-Orthodox religious, Mizrahi |
United Torah Judaism | ג | 5 | Yaakov Litzman, Avraham Ravitz | Ultra-Orthodox religious, Ashkenazi |
National Union-National Religious Party | טב | 10 | Binyamin Elon | Nationalist, mostly Zionist religious Joint electoral list composed of the National Union and the National Religious Party |
Yisrael Beiteinu | ל | 3 | Avigdor Lieberman | Mostly Russian immigrants [ citation needed ] |
Meretz-Yachad | מרצ | 5 | Yossi Beilin | Social democratic |
United Arab List-Ta'al | עם | 3 | Ibrahim Sarsur | Arab, Islamist |
Balad | ד | 3 | Azmi Bishara | Arab, anti-Zionist |
Hadash | ו | 2 | Mohammad Barakeh | Jewish-Arab, Communist (based on Maki), anti-Zionist |
Tafnit | פ | Uzi Dayan | New party, anti-corruption | |
Ale Yarok | קנ | Boaz Wachtel | Advocates legalization of marijuana and ecological issues, legalizing same-sex marriage | |
Brit Olam | ה | Ofer Lifshits | ||
Gil | זך | Rafi Eitan | Retiree (pensioner) rights | |
Organization for Democratic Action | ק | Agbariyyah Asama' | Communist | |
Green Party | רק | Pe'er Visner | Environmentalist | |
HaLev | פץ | Eliezer Levinger | Consumer rights | |
Arab National Party | קפ | Muhammad Kanan | Arab, anti-Zionist | |
New Zionism | צה | Ya'akov Kfir | Advocates rights of Holocaust survivors | |
Jewish National Front | כ | Baruch Marzel | Jewish nationalist, Kahanist | |
Lev LaOlim | פז | Ovadia Fathov | ||
Herut – The National Movement | נץ | Michael Kleiner | Nationalist | |
Lekhem | ז | Yisrael Tvito | ||
Leader | ף | Aleksandr Radko | Russian immigrant, related to Liberal Democratic Party of Russia | |
Oz LaAniyim | פכ | Felix Angel | Socialist | |
Atid Ehad | זה | Avraham Negusah | Ethiopian and American immigrants | |
Justice for All | קז | Yaakov Shlosser | Men's rights | |
Tzomet | כץ | Moshe Grin | Nationalist |
Note: traditional left-right divisions in Israel are different from in most countries, being mostly based on the different positions with regard to security and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. For example, the left-wing Meretz-Yachad mainly advocates negotiations with the Palestinians along the lines of the Geneva Initiative, while the right-wing National Union is opposed to any territorial concessions, yet both parties have strong histories of tabling social/welfare laws.
Numbers in the table below are seats, out of a total of 120, as predicted by opinion polls prior to the election.
As the electoral threshold stood at 2%, it was impossible for a party to receive only one seat in the Knesset.
Note: Most Israeli pollsters lump the "Arab" parties together, so that the listed number is the total number of seats that the three main Arab lists (Raam, Balad, Hadash) are expected to obtain. In the event that one or more of the three lists does not pass the 2% threshold, the representation of these parties will be one to three fewer seats than listed by the polls.
Party | 22 March | 23 March | 26 March | 27 March | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Geocartographia | Jerusalem Post | Teleseker | Dahaf2 | Globes- Smith | Dialogue | Maagar Mohot | Dahaf2 | Teleseker | Jerusalem Post | Ma'ariv | |
Kadima 14 | 33.5 | 34 | 37 | 36 | 34 | 36 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 33.5 | 34 |
Likud 27 | 16.5 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 14 |
Labor 21 | 17.5 | 19.5 | 21 | 20 | 21 | 18 | 19 | 21 | 17 | 20.5 | 17 |
Shinui 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Shas 11 | 9.5 | 11 | 9 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 11 | 12 | 10 | 12 |
Arab parties 8 | 8.5 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 7 |
Meretz-Yachad 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
National Union & National Religious Party 7 & 6 1 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 9 | 9.5 | 12 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 9.5 | 11 |
Israel Beytenu 7 2 | 10.5 | 10.5 | 10 | 11 | 10.5 | 7 | 15 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 12 |
United Torah Judaism 5 | 7 | 5.5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
Ale Yarok 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Gil 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Tafnit 0 | 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Green Party 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
1 National Union and Yisrael Beiteinu together have 7 seats.
2 Dahaf – published in Yedioth Ahronoth (and/or its affiliate site Ynet) with the remark "The votes of the undecided were assigned to parties on the basis of additional questions."
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/- |
---|---|---|---|---|
Kadima | 690,901 | 22.02 | 29 | New |
Labor-Meimad | 472,366 | 15.06 | 19 | 0 |
Shas | 299,054 | 9.53 | 12 | +1 |
Likud | 281,996 | 8.99 | 12 | –26 |
Yisrael Beiteinu | 281,880 | 8.99 | 11 | +8 |
National Union-National Religious Party | 224,083 | 7.14 | 9 | –1 |
Gil | 185,759 | 5.92 | 7 | New |
United Torah Judaism | 147,091 | 4.69 | 6 | +1 |
Meretz-Yachad | 118,302 | 3.77 | 5 | –1 |
United Arab List-Ta'al | 94,786 | 3.02 | 4 | +1 |
Hadash | 86,092 | 2.74 | 3 | +1 |
Balad | 72,066 | 2.30 | 3 | 0 |
Green Party | 47,595 | 1.52 | 0 | 0 |
Ale Yarok | 40,353 | 1.29 | 0 | 0 |
Jewish National Front | 24,824 | 0.79 | 0 | New |
Tafnit | 18,753 | 0.60 | 0 | New |
Atid Ehad | 14,005 | 0.44 | 0 | New |
Hetz | 10,113 | 0.33 | 0 | New |
Shinui | 4,675 | 0.16 | 0 | –15 |
Justice for All | 3,819 | 0.12 | 0 | 0 |
Organization for Democratic Action | 3,692 | 0.12 | 0 | 0 |
Herut – The National Movement | 2,387 | 0.08 | 0 | 0 |
HaLev | 2,163 | 0.07 | 0 | 0 |
Brit Olam | 2,011 | 0.06 | 0 | New |
Lev | 1,765 | 0.06 | 0 | New |
Lekhem | 1,381 | 0.04 | 0 | New |
Tzomet | 1,342 | 0.04 | 0 | 0 |
The New Zionism | 1,278 | 0.04 | 0 | New |
Oz LaAniyim | 1,214 | 0.04 | 0 | New |
Arab National Party | 738 | 0.02 | 0 | New |
Leader | 580 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 |
Invalid votes | 49,675 | 1.56 | – | – |
Total | 3,186,739 | 100 | 120 | 0 |
Registered voters/turnout | 5,014,622 | 63.55 | – | – |
The turnout was the lowest in Israeli legislative election history, 63.6% of eligible voters, [3] compared to 68.9% in 2003 and 78.7% in 1999. The turnout of 62.5% in 2001 election for Prime Minister is the lowest in nationwide elections.
Party | Ariel | Ashdod | Ashkelon | Bat Yam | Bnei Brak | Beersheba | Eilat | Haifa | Herzliya | Holon | Jerusalem | Kiryat Shmona | Modi'in | Netanya | Ofakim | Petah Tikva | Rishon LeZion | Ramat Gan | Tel Aviv | Umm al-Fahm |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kadima | 12.4 | 19.5 | 19.7 | 25.1 | 3.1 | 21.5 | 31.4 | 28.9 | 35.1 | 28.9 | 12 | 17.6 | 32.3 | 23.8 | 9.1 | 23.4 | 32.4 | 30 | 27.8 | 1.4 |
Labor-Meimad | 3.9 | 10.3 | 11.2 | 11.8 | 1.9 | 16.7 | 21.2 | 16.9 | 17.5 | 14.5 | 10.3 | 17.8 | 20.4 | 10.9 | 16.3 | 12.2 | 15 | 16.8 | 19.8 | 3.7 |
Likud | 24.1 | 10.1 | 13 | 11.6 | 3 | 9.5 | 9.1 | 8.3 | 8.7 | 11.4 | 10.6 | 12.1 | 10.2 | 12.2 | 10 | 11 | 10.7 | 10.9 | 8.7 | – |
Yisrael Beiteinu | 34.6 | 19.9 | 22.3 | 16.9 | 1.8 | 20.1 | 7.3 | 12.1 | 5.4 | 8.7 | 6.5 | 16.7 | 5.1 | 13.5 | 16.3 | 11 | 10.9 | 5 | 4.2 | – |
Shas | 4.2 | 17.1 | 15.1 | 12.3 | 23.8 | 14 | 8.9 | 3.6 | 5.6 | 12.8 | 15.2 | 14.3 | 2.8 | 12.9 | 22.2 | 9.3 | 6.6 | 5.5 | 7.5 | 0.7 |
Gil | 5 | 3.2 | 3.8 | 9.5 | 1.6 | 4.2 | 7.7 | 7.1 | 9.5 | 11.6 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 8.1 | 6.3 | 0.7 | 9 | 10.7 | 13.1 | 9.2 | – |
National Union-NRP | 8.5 | 4.4 | 6.8 | 5.2 | 5.9 | 6.4 | 4.7 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 3.9 | 12.2 | 10.4 | 8 | 9.1 | 6.7 | 12 | 3.9 | 6.8 | 3.3 | – |
United Torah Judaism | 0.3 | 9.3 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 56.4 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 18.6 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 2.2 | 13.3 | 4 | 0.8 | 1 | 1.3 | – |
Meretz | 0.5 | 1 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 2.2 | 3.8 | 6 | 2.3 | 3.1 | 0.8 | 5.3 | 1.6 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 4.3 | 8.7 | 2.3 |
United Arab List-Ta'al | – | – | – | – | – | 0.1 | – | 0.2 | – | – | 0.1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0.7 | 10.6 |
Hadash | – | – | – | 0.1 | – | 0.1 | 0.1 | 2.8 | 0.1 | – | 0.3 | 0.1 | – | – | – | – | – | 0.2 | 0.9 | 56.1 |
Balad | – | – | – | – | – | 0.1 | – | 2.9 | – | – | 0.2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0.3 | 21.7 |
Source: Yedioth Ahronoth Walla.co.il |
For the second time in Israeli history (previously in 1999), no dominant party sat in the Knesset, only two medium (Kadima and Labor) and small-sized ones. Following the election Olmert stated that he prefers entering into a coalition with Labor, and that Peretz is a "suitable partner."
On 2 April both Gil and Meretz recommended to Katzav that Olmert become Prime Minister. The next day, at a joint appearance, Olmert and Peretz announced that Kadima and Labor would be coalition partners and that Peretz would advise the President to tap Olmert as Prime Minister. [4]
On 6 April President Katzav formally asked Olmert to form a government officially making him Prime Minister-designate. A coalition government was formed consisting of Kadima, Labor, Shas and Gil. Olmert refused to accede to Peretz's demands for the Finance ministry, who was forced to accept the Defense ministry instead.
In October 2006 with the coalition shaken after the 2006 Lebanon War, Olmert brought the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu into government as well. However, they left the coalition in January 2008 in protest at peace talks with the Palestinian National Authority.
Likud, officially the Likud-National Liberal Movement, is a centre-right to right-wing political party in Israel. A secular party, it was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon in an alliance with several right-wing parties. Likud's landslide victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had lost power. In addition, it was the first time in Israel that a right-wing party won the plurality of the votes. However, after ruling the country for most of the 1980s, the party lost the Knesset election in 1992. Nevertheless, Likud's candidate Benjamin Netanyahu did win the vote for Prime Minister in 1996 and was given the task of forming a government after the 1996 elections. Netanyahu's government fell apart after a vote of no confidence, which led to elections being called in 1999 and Likud losing power to the One Israel coalition led by Ehud Barak.
Shinui was a Zionist, secular, and anti-clerical free market liberal party and political movement in Israel. The party twice became the third-largest in the Knesset, but both occasions were followed by a split and collapse; in 1977, the party won 15 seats as part of the Democratic Movement for Change, but the alliance split in 1978, and Shinui was reduced to two seats at the next elections. In 2003, the party won 15 seats alone, but lost them all three years later after most of its MKs left to form new parties. The party was a member of Liberal International until 2009.
Liberalism has played a role in the political history of Israel since Israel's founding. Several liberal political parties have claimed substantial popular support, mainly proved by having representation in the Knesset. While liberalism is usually suspicious of nationalism, Jewish liberals in Israel generally support some form of Zionism.
Elections for the 16th Knesset were held in Israel on 28 January 2003. The result was a resounding victory for Ariel Sharon's Likud.
Early general elections for both the Prime Minister and the Knesset were held in Israel on 17 May 1999 following a vote of no confidence in the government; the incumbent Likud Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ran for re-election.
Kadima was a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely to support the issue of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, and was soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians.
General elections were held in Israel on 29 May 1996. For the first time the prime minister was elected on a separate ballot from the remaining members of the Knesset.
An election for the leadership of Kadima was held on 17 September 2008 as a concession to Kadima's coalition partner, Labour, which had threatened to bring down the government if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert didn't stand aside following police investigations into alleged corruption during his terms as minister and as mayor of Jerusalem.
Elections for the 18th Knesset were held in Israel on 10 February 2009. These elections became necessary due to the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as leader of the Kadima party, and the failure of his successor, Tzipi Livni, to form a coalition government. Had Olmert remained in office or had Livni formed a coalition government, the elections would have been scheduled for 2010 instead.
The thirty-first government of Israel was formed by Ehud Olmert on 4 May 2006, following Kadima's victory in the March elections. His coalition initially included the Labor Party, Shas and Gil, and held 67 of the 120 seats in the Knesset. The 11-seat Yisrael Beiteinu joined the coalition in November 2006, but left on 16 January 2008 in protest at peace talks with the Palestinian National Authority. With the inclusion of the Labor Party's Raleb Majadele as a Minister without Portfolio on 29 January 2007, it became the first Israeli cabinet to have a Muslim minister.
The thirtieth government of Israel was formed by Ariel Sharon on 28 February 2003, following Likud's comprehensive victory in the January elections. His coalition initially included Shinui and the National Union, holding 60 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, whilst the two-seat Yisrael BaAliyah merged into Likud shortly after. The National Religious Party also joined the coalition on 3 March 2003, taking the number of seats it held up to 66.
Early elections for the nineteenth Knesset were held in Israel on 22 January 2013. Public debate over the Tal Law had nearly led to early elections in 2012, but they were aborted at the last moment after Kadima briefly joined the government. The elections were later called in early October 2012 after failure to agree on the budget for the 2013 fiscal year.
Early elections for the twentieth Knesset were held in Israel on 17 March 2015. Disagreements within the governing coalition, particularly over the budget and a "Jewish state" proposal, led to the dissolution of the government in December 2014. The Labor Party and Hatnuah formed a coalition, called Zionist Union, with the hope of defeating the Likud party, which had led the previous governing coalition along with Yisrael Beiteinu, Yesh Atid, The Jewish Home and Hatnuah.
Hatnuah is a liberal political party in Israel formed by former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to present an alternative to voters frustrated by the stalemate in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.
Politics in Israel is dominated by Zionist parties. They traditionally fall into three camps, the first two being the largest: Labor Zionism, Revisionist Zionism (conservative) and Religious Zionism. There are also several non-Zionist Orthodox religious parties, non-Zionist left-wing groups as well as non-Zionist and anti-Zionist Israeli Arab parties.
Meretz is a left-wing social-democratic and green political party in Israel.
Early legislative elections were held in Israel on 9 April 2019 to elect the 120 members of the 21st Knesset. Elections had been due in November 2019, but were brought forward following a dispute between members of the current government over a bill on national service for the ultra-Orthodox population, as well as impending corruption charges against incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.