Israeli legislative election, 1969

Last updated
Elections for the 7th Knesset
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  1965 28 October 1969 1973  
PartyLeader%Seats±
Alignment Golda Meir 46.2%56-7
Gahal Menachem Begin 21.7%260
Mafdal Haim-Moshe Shapira 9.7%12+1
Agudat Yisrael Yitzhak-Meir Levin 3.2%40
Independent Liberals Moshe Kol 3.2%4-1
National List David Ben-Gurion 3.1%4New
Maki Meir Vilner 2.8%30
Progress and Development Seif el-Din el-Zoubi 2.1%20
Poalei Agudat Yisrael Kalman Kahana 1.9%20
Cooperation and Brotherhood Diyab Obeid 1.4%20
Meri Uri Avnery 1.2%2+1
Free Centre Shmuel Tamir 1.2%2New
Maki Moshe Sneh 1.1%10
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Prime Minister beforePrime Minister after
Golda Meir
Alignment
Golda Meir
Alignment

Elections for the seventh Knesset were held in Israel on 28 October 1969. Voter turnout was 81.7%. [1]

Elections in Israel

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 country in the Middle East

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.

Contents

Background

Six-Day War

Election campaign

Results

PartyVotes%Seats+/−
Alignment ¹632,13546.256−7
Gahal 296,29421.7260
National Religious Party ²133,2389.712+1
Agudat Yisrael 44,0023.240
Independent Liberals 43,9333.24−1
National List ¹42,6543.14New
Rakah 38,8272.830
Progress and Development 28,0462.120
Poalei Agudat Yisrael 24,9681.920
Cooperation and Brotherhood 19.9431.420
HaOlam HaZeh – Koah Hadash ³16,8531.22+1
Free Centre 16,3931.22New
Maki 15,7121.110
List for the Land of Israel 7,5910.60New
Peace List 5,1380.400
Young Israel2,1160.100
Invalid/blank votes60,238
Total1,427,9811001200
Source: Nohlen et al.

(*New political party)

¹ Meir Avizohar defected from the National List to the Alignment

Dr Meir Avizohar was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset between 1969 and 1974.

² Avner Shaki left the National Religious Party and remained a single MK

Avner Shaki Israeli politician

Avner-Hai Shaki was an Israeli politician who served as a government minister in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

³ Shalom Cohen left HaOlam HaZeh – Koah Hadash, which was renamed Meri

Shalom Cohen (politician) Israeli politician

Shalom Cohen was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset between 1969 and 1974.

The election

The 1969 election is notable for the fact that the Alignment coalition was returned to power with the largest number of seats ever won in an Israeli election (56 out of 120). It is also the only time a party or electoral alliance has even approached winning a majority in an election. This can be attributed to the government's popularity following the country's victory in the Six-Day War, and that the Alignment had been formed by an alliance of the four most popular left-wing parties who between them had taken 51.2% of the vote in the previous election.

Six-Day War 1967 war between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria

The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War, or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between 5 and 10 June 1967 by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.

It was also the last election with such a decisive majority for the left-wing in Israel, as the disastrous Yom Kippur War shortly before the next elections seriously damaged the Alignment's credibility, with its margin over Likud (the largest right-wing grouping) reduced to only 12 seats.

Yom Kippur War October 1973 war between Israel and the Arab states Egypt and Syria

The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War, or October War, also known as the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, was a war fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel. The war took place mostly in Sinai and the Golan—occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War—with some fighting in African Egypt and northern Israel. Egypt's initial war objective was to use its military to seize a foothold on the east bank of the Suez Canal and use this to negotiate the return of the rest of Sinai.

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.

The Seventh Knesset

Golda Meir of the Alignment formed the fifteenth government, a national unity government including Gahal, the National Religious Party, the Independent Liberals, Progress and Development and Cooperation and Brotherhood. There were 24 ministers.

Gahal resigned from the coalition on 6 August 1970 after the government had decided to adopt the Rogers Plan.

The seventh Knesset was one of the most stable, with only one new party created (and that itself was virtually a rename of an existing party) and four MKs changing parties.

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References

  1. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p125 ISBN   0-19-924958-X