Legislative elections were held in Israel on 31 December 1973. Voter turnout was 79%.Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p125 The election was postponed for two months because of the Yom Kippur War.

Parliament factions

The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the 7th Knesset.

Name Ideology Symbol Leader 1969 result Seats at 1972dissolution Votes (%) Seats Alignment Social democracyLabor Zionism Golda Meir46.2% Gahal National liberalism Menachem Begin21.7% Mafdal Religious Zionism Yosef Burg9.7% Agudat Yisrael Religious conservatism Yehuda Meir Abramowicz3.2% Independent Liberals Liberalism Moshe Kol3.2% National List Social liberalism Yigal Hurvitz3.1% Rakah CommunismSocialism Meir Vilner2.8% Progress and Development Arab satellite list Seif el-Din el-Zoubi2.1% Poalei Agudat Yisrael Religious conservatism Kalman Kahana1.9% Arab List for Bedouin and Villagers Arab satellite list Hamad Abu Rabia1.4% Meri Progressivism Uri Avnery1.2% Free Centre Liberalism Shmuel Tamir1.2% Moked Socialism Moshe Sneh1.1% Independents - - - - -

Campaign In July 1973, retired general Ariel Sharon, a member of the Liberal Party, facilitated a wider alliance between Gahal (of which the Liberals were a member), the National List, and the Free Centre. The National List agreed as they had been declining since the retirement of their leader, David Ben-Gurion. The Free Centre had seceded from Gahal in 1967 due to a leadership dispute between Menachem Begin and Shmuel Tamir, but the party was enticed back with three high slots on the Likud list. The Movement for Greater Israel was also admitted, eventually winning one seat.

The election was initially scheduled for 30 October. Observers had predicted it to be an easy victory for the Alignment, who could not lose more than 6 seats. Golda Meir, the Alignment leader, had planned a campaign centred around taxation, inflation and strikes.

The breakout of the Yom Kippur War, which delayed the election, was a blow to the Alignment's prestige, and shifted the campaign to focus on war and peace. Meir stated that Israel had to retain its Jewish character, even if it meant territorial compromise. The Likud rejected compromise, and attacked the Alignment for their poor preparation, and for ceasing hostilities before 'complete victory' was attained.

Many changes happened on the left. Shalom Cohen left Meri to join the Black Panthers. However, they suffered a split when Eddie Malka formed the Blue-White Panthers, which had more financial resources. Neither of the two lists received enough votes for a seat, but would have won one if they had stayed together. After having been rejected from the Alignment list twice, Shulamit Aloni was convinced by her friends and family to submit her own list, for a new party, the Movement for Civil Rights (Ratz), which she submitted 30 minutes before the application deadline. Aloni was still a Labor member when she did this, and was expelled.

Opinion polls A poll conducted by the Institute for Social Research poll from the 17th to 18th of December indicated 50% of Jewish voters would vote for the Alignment, 29% for the Likud, 5% for Mafdal, 4% for Ratz, 3% for the Independent Liberals, 2% for the Religious Torah Front, 2% for Moked and 1% for the Black Panthers.

Results

Aftermath

Golda Meir of the Alignment formed the sixteenth government on 10 March 1974, including the National Religious Party and the Independent Liberals in her coalition, with 22 ministers. Meir resigned on 11 April 1974 after the Agranat Commission had published its interim report on the Yom Kippur War.

The Alignment's Yitzhak Rabin formed the seventeenth government on 3 June 1974, including Ratz, the Independent Liberals, Progress and Development and the Arab List for Bedouins and Villagers. The new government had 19 ministers. The National Religious Party joined the coalition on 30 October and Ratz left on 6 November, by which time there were 21 ministers.

The government resigned on 21 December 1976, after ministers of the National Religious Party were sacked because the party had abstained from voting on a motion of no confidence, which had been brought by Agudat Yisrael over a breach of the Sabbath on an Israeli Air Force base.

During the Knesset term there were several defections from parties; In 1975 Aryeh Eliav left the Alignment and merged with Ratz to form Ya'ad - Civil Rights Movement. The new party broke up the following year when Eliav and Marcia Freedman left to set up the Independent Socialist Faction, whilst Shulamit Aloni and Boaz Moav returned to Ratz. In 1975 Benjamin Halevi left Likud to sit as an independent, whilst Shmuel Tamir and Akiva Nof left Likud to form the Free Centre the following year. In 1977 Hillel Seidel defected from the Independent Liberals to Likud, whilst Mordechai Ben-Porat broke away from the Alignment and sat as an independent.Mergers and Splits Among Parliamentary Groups Knesset

In February 1974 Progress and Development and the Arab List for Bedouins and Villagers merged into the Alignment (with which they were already associated), but both later broke away and then formed the United Arab List in 1977. In the build-up to the 1977 elections the Religious Torah Front broke up into Agudat Yisrael (three seats) and Poalei Agudat Yisrael in March 1977. On 10 April Mapam broke away from the Alignment, but rejoined it two days later.

Notes

References

External links Historical overview of the Eighth Knesset Knesset Election results Knesset