Israeli legislative election, 1955

Last updated April 10, 2019

Elections for the third Knesset were held in Israel on 26 July 1955. Voter turnout was 82.8%.^[1]

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.

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.

Results

Mapai retained its plurality in the Knesset, although its share of the vote dropped by 5.1 and its share of seats dropped from 47 (at the end of the Second Knesset) to 40. Meanwhile, Herut overtook the General Zionists, Mapam, and Hapoel HaMizrachi to become the second-largest party, with its share of seats nearly doubling (from 8 in the Second Knesset to 15 in the Third).

Mapai was a centre-left political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the modern-day Israeli Labor Party in 1968. During Mapai's time in office, a wide range of progressive reforms were carried out, as characterised by the establishment of a welfare state, providing minimum income, security, and free access to housing subsidies and health and social services.

Herut was the major right-wing nationalist political party in Israel from 1948 until its formal merger into Likud in 1988. It was an adherent of Revisionist Zionism, and was initially known in part for its militia actions; it became more moderate from 1951.

The General Zionists were a centre-right Zionist movement and a political party in Israel. The General Zionists supported the leadership of Chaim Weizmann and their views were largely colored by central European culture. Their political arm is an ancestor of the modern-day Likud.

The Third Knesset is notable for being the only Knesset thus far in which none of the represented parties merged or split (although two parties did change their names) and no MKs switched parties, making it the most stable Knesset in Israel's history.

Party-switching is any change in political party affiliation of a partisan public figure, usually one currently holding elected office.

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Mapai	274,735	32.2	40	−5
Herut	107,190	12.6	15	+7
General Zionists	87,099	10.2	13	−7
National Religious Front ¹	77,936	9.1	11	+1
Ahdut HaAvoda	69,475	8.2	10	New
Mapam	62,401	7.3	9	−6
Religious Torah Front ²	39,836	4.7	6	+1
Maki	38,492	4.5	6	+1
Progressive Party	37,661	4.4	5	+1
Democratic List for Israeli Arabs	15,475	1.8	2	−1
Progress and Work	12,511	1.5	2	+1
Agriculture and Development	9,791	1.1	1	0

Sephardim and Oriental Communities	6,994	0.8	0	−2
Arab List – The Centre	4,484	0.5	0	New
Likud – Popular Economic Movement	3,044	0.4	0	New
Yemenite Association	2,459	0.3	0	−1
Sons of Yemen and Religious Nonpartisan Movement – Original Religious List	2,448	0.3	0	New
New Immigrants' List	1,188	0.1	0	New
Invalid/blank votes	22,969	–	–	–
Total	876,188	100	120	0
Source: Nohlen et al.

¹ Originally a coalition of Mizrachi and Hapoel HaMizrachi that ran for the election under the name National Religious Front before changing its name to Hapoel HaMizrachi-Mizrahi and then the National Religious Party during the term of the Knesset.

Mizrachi was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Jewish Home Party.

Hapoel HaMizrachi was a political party and settlement movement in Israel and is one of the predecessors of the National Religious Party, which later became the modern-day Jewish Home Party.

² The Religious Torah Front changed its name to Agudat Yisrael – Poalei Agudat Yisrael, then reverted to the original title before the next elections.

The Third Knesset

Unlike the second Knesset, the third Knesset was one of the most stable in Israel's history. There were only two governments, and it was the only Knesset to date during which none of the parties split or merged. As with the first and second Knesset, the speaker was Yosef Sprinzak until his death on 28 January 1959. He was replaced by Ahdut HaAvoda's Nahum Nir.

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.

Seventh government

The third Knesset started with David Ben-Gurion forming the seventh government of Israel (the previous two Knessets had six governments; two in the first and four in the second) on 3 November 1955. His Mapai party formed a coalition with the National Religious Front (which later changed its name to the National Religious Party), Mapam, the Progressive Party, Ahdut HaAvoda, and the three Israeli Arab parties, the Democratic List for Israeli Arabs, Progress and Work, Agriculture and Development. The government had 16 ministers. It collapsed when Ben-Gurion resigned on 31 December 1957 over the leaking of information from ministerial meetings.

Eighth government

Ben-Gurion formed the eighth government a week later on 7 January 1958 with the same coalition partners. The number of ministers remained the same. The eighth government collapsed when Ben-Gurion resigned again on 5 July 1959 after Labour Unity and Mapam had voted against the government on the issue of selling arms to West Germany and refused to leave the coalition. Elections for the fourth Knesset were called for 3 November 1959.

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Mapam was a left-wing political party in Israel. The party is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party.

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References

↑ Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p124 ISBN 0-19-924958-X

External links

Historical overview of the Third Knesset Knesset website
Election results Knesset website

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[1] Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p124 ISBN 0-19-924958-X

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