Legislative elections were held in Israel on 17 September 2019 to elect the 120 members of the 22nd Knesset. Following the previous elections in April, incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition.Israel goes back to elections as Netanyahu fails to form coalition The Jerusalem Post, 30 May 2019 On 30 May, the Knesset voted to dissolve itself and trigger new elections, in order to prevent Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz from being appointed Prime Minister-designate. This election marked the first time the Knesset voted to dissolve itself before a government had been formed.
Background
Following the April 2019 elections, Likud leader and incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had until the end of 29 May to form a governing coalition, including a two-week extension granted by President Reuven Rivlin. Though the deadline passed without a coalition being formed and Rivlin would have been tasked with appointing a new Prime Minister-designate, presumed to be Blue and White party head Benny Gantz, Netanyahu successfully pushed to dissolve the Knesset to avoid this.
Negotiations between Netanyahu and a number of potential coalition partners stalled. One sticking point between Netanyahu and Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Lieberman was the passage of a draft law which is opposed by the Haredi parties in the coalition. The law would remove the current exemption of yeshiva students from conscription. Netanyahu needed both Yisrael Beitenu and the Haredi parties in his coalition in order to have enough seats to form a majority.
As an alternative, Netanyahu approached Labor about the possibility of their support, but they rejected the offer. Meanwhile, Netanyahu's legal troubles overshadowed further possible coalition negotiations, with Blue and White refusing to work with him in the circumstances. The new elections also mean Netanyahu's proposed immunity law cannot proceed for the time being.
On 28 May, the Knesset passed on first reading a bill which would dissolve the Knesset and force a snap election. This move was intended to place additional pressure on coalition partners to reach an agreement in time, as well as to prevent Gantz from being given the opportunity to put together a coalition should the deadline pass. Later that day, the committee approved the bill for second and third reading.
Late in the evening on 29 May, it was announced that talks had failed. That night, and into the morning of 30 May, the Knesset passed second and third readings of the bill to dissolve itself and force a snap election with a vote of 74 in favour to 45 against. The 45 votes against the resolution came from the entire membership of three parties: the Blue and White alliance (35 votes), Labor (6 votes), and Meretz (4 votes). All other Knesset members voted for the resolution, with the exception of Roy Folkman, who was absent.
The election was held on 17 September 2019.
Electoral system
The 120 seats in the Knesset are elected by closed list proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency. The electoral threshold for the election is 3.25%. In most cases, this implies a minimum party size of four seats, but it is mathematically possible for a party to pass the electoral threshold and have only three seats (since 3.25% of 120 members = 3.9 members).
Surplus-vote agreements
Two parties can sign an agreement that allows them to compete for leftover seats as though they are running together on the same list. The Bader–Ofer method disproportionately favors larger lists, meaning that such an alliance is more likely to receive leftover seats than both of its comprising lists would be individually. If the alliance receives leftover seats, the Bader–Ofer calculation is then applied privately, to determine how the seats are divided among the two allied lists.The Distribution of Knesset Seats Among the Lists—the Bader-Offer Method, Knesset website The following agreements were signed by parties prior to the election: Yamina and Likud Democratic Union and Labor–Gesher United Torah Judaism and Shas Blue and White and Yisrael Beiteinu
Parties
Factions before the election
The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the 21st Knesset. Name Ideology Symbol Primary demographic Leader April 2019 result Votes (%) Seats Likud National liberalism – Benjamin Netanyahu26.46% Blue and White Liberalism – Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid26.13% Shas Religious conservatism Sephardi andMizrahi Haredim Aryeh Deri 5.99% United Torah Judaism Religious conservatism Ashkenazi Haredim Yaakov Litzman 5.78% Hadash–Ta'al CommunismArab nationalism Israeli Arabs Ayman Odeh 4.49% Labor Social democracy – Avi Gabbay 4.43% Yisrael Beiteinu NationalismSecularism Russian-speakers Avigdor Lieberman 4.01% Union of Right-Wing Parties Religious conservatism Modern Orthodox andChardal Jews Rafi Peretz 3.70% Meretz Social democracySecularism – Tamar Zandberg 3.63% Kulanu Economic egalitarianism – Moshe Kahlon 3.54% Ra'am–Balad IslamismArab nationalism Israeli Arabs Mansour Abbas 3.33%
Retiring incumbents The table below lists all members of the Knesset (MK) who did not stand for re-election.
PartyNameYear first electedKulanuRoy Folkman2015Israeli Labor PartyAvi GabbayApril 2019Tal RussoApril 2019 Shelly Yachimovich2006
Contesting parties The Likud (election symbol: ) was tied with Blue and White for the largest political party in the 21st Knesset, with 35 of the 120 seats. It is the party of Israel's current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is seeking to gain more power to build a government after failing to do so following the April election. Prior to the September election, the Likud and Kulanu parties announced on 29 May their intention to run together in the new election. Kulanu officially dissolved itself and its remaining members joined the Likud on 31 July, bringing Likud's Knesset representation up to 38 seats.
The Blue and White (election symbol: ) alliance was created ahead of the April 2019 election and ended up being tied with Likud for the largest political party in the 21st Knesset, with 35 seats. Despite suggestions that the alliance should make changes due to their failure to achieve a majority in the April election, the alliance confirmed on 2June 2019 that it will keep the same rotating premiership of Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid as in the previous election. The party decided to run with the almost exact same list as they did in the April elections. Blue and White has ruled out sitting with Benjamin Netanyahu, due to the corruption investigations against him; however, it has not ruled out creating a National unity government with Likud if it replaced Netanyahu.
The Joint List (election symbol: ) alliance (which was dissolved ahead of the April 2019 elections) was reformed ahead of the September 2019 elections. It is made up of four ideologically diverse Arab Israeli parties, who together had 10 seats in the 21st Knesset. The Ra'am, Hadash, and Ta'al factions announced on 27 July that the alliance would be re-established, Balad decided to join the next day. The list is led by Hadash Chairman Ayman Odeh, who also led the alliance in the 2015 election. Odeh said he is open to cooperation with Blue and White, but he would not join their coalition.
Shas (election symbol: ) was the third largest political party in the 21st Knesset, with eight seats. Shas is led by Minister of Interior Aryeh Deri. Shas is a Mizrahi and Sephardi Haredi party, primarily concerned with rights and funding for those demographics. Shas declared early on that it was going to support Benjamin Netanyahu for prime minister, and ruled out sitting with Blue and White, due to disagreements with Blue and White leader Yair Lapid.
United Torah Judaism (UTJ) (election symbol: ) was the fourth largest political alliance in the 21st Knesset, with eight seats. UTJ is an alliance of two Ashkenazi Haredi parties (Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah), and is mainly concerned with preserving funding and rights for their sector of the population. UTJ is led by Deputy Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman. Much like its Mizrahi counterpart Shas, UTJ declared early on that it was going to support Benjamin Netanyahu for prime minister, and ruled out sitting with Blue and White, due to disagreements with Blue and White leader Yair Lapid.
The Labor–Gesher (election symbol: ) alliance includes the Labor party, which was the sixth largest party in the 21st Knesset with six seats, and Gesher, a party led by Orly Levy-Abekasis which did not pass the electoral threshold in the April election. Due to its collapse in the April election, Labor held its leadership primary on 2July, which was won by Amir Peretz. Following his victory, Peretz rejected merging into a greater leftist bloc and declared that he wanted to bring in new crowds to the party, and it was announced on 18 July 2019 that Labor and Gesher will run on a joint list, with seven seats on the list reserved for Labor and three for Gesher.
Yisrael Beiteinu (election symbol: ) was the seventh largest party in the 21st Knesset, with five seats. The party has been led since its founding by Avigdor Lieberman, and it is running with the same list it presented in the April election. Lieberman sparked the repeat election by refusing to join Netanyahu's coalition, citing differences with the Haredi parties over drafting Haredi into the military. Due to his opposition to Netanyahu's Haredi coalition partners, Lieberman has declared that he will support only a unity government between Likud and Blue & White.
Yamina (election symbol: ) is an alliance of several Religious Zionist parties headed by Ayelet Shaked. It is made up of the Union of Right-Wing Parties, which was the eighth largest party in the Knesset with five seats, and the New Right, which did not pass the electoral threshold. After long-winded negotiations between the two factions, URWP leader Rafi Peretz agreed on 28 July to give Ayelet Shaked the number one spot on the United Right list. The next day, an agreement between the Union of Right-Wing Parties and the New Right was announced. The two parties of the URWP, Tkuma and The Jewish Home, both voted on and approved the run with the New Right on 31 July. Part of the deal stipulated that the list would support Benjamin Netanyahu for the position of prime minister, despite resistance to this from the New Right.
The Democratic Union (election symbol: ) alliance includes several left-wing parties, who decided to run together in the September elections. The alliance was announced on 25 July 2019 and is led by Nitzan Horowitz. It will be made up of Meretz, the ninth largest party in the 21st Knesset with four seats, the new Israel Democratic Party formed by former prime minister Ehud Barak, Israeli Labor Party defector Stav Shaffir, and the extra-parliamentary Green Movement. The alliance declared that it would not sit with Netanyahu under any circumstances.
Otzma Yehudit (election symbol: ) was part of the Union of Right-Wing Parties in the April elections, but left after URWP members would not resign to allow Itamar Ben-Gvir to become a Knesset member; in addition, Otzma was unwilling to leave Baruch Marzel and Ben-Zion Gopstein off the electoral slate, as demanded by Rafi Peretz. Otzma is led by Ben-Gvir. The United Right (which later renamed itself Yamina) attempted to convince Otzma Yehudit to re-enter their alliance, but Otzma declined their offer, calling it "insulting". Otzma Yehudit initially signed a deal with Noam, but ran independently following a split between itself and Noam.
Withdrawn parties