CIC Guide to the Israeli Elections

The Israeli Political System

Part 1: Institutions of Government

Israel is a secular, democratic republic with a parliamentary system of government. During the British Mandate (1922-1948), the Jewish community in Palestine [the Yishuv] elected a National Council and a National Administration to establish self-government institutions and prepare the ground for Jewish statehood.

On May 14, 1948, with the executing and reading of the Declaration of Independence, the provisional State Council was established. Five days later, a Provisional Government of Israel came into being. On January 25, 1949, even as the War of Independence was being waged, elections by universal suffrage to the First Knesset of Israel were conducted.

The Knesset is Israel's sole legislative body, a 120-seat unicameral institution elected by universal suffrage. Elected every four years, the Knesset may, by consensus, dissolve itself and call for new elections before the end of its mandate. Executive authority resides in a Cabinet, which is responsible to the Knesset. Historically, the leader of the party holding the largest number of seats in the Knesset formed the government and served as Prime Minister (Rosh Hamemshala). However, this process was changed in the mid-1990s, when Israelis chose their Prime Minister through a direct election. In March 2001, the Knesset voted to restore the traditional one-ballot electoral process.

While the office wields no actual political power, the President (Nasi) has several important responsibilities. The President accepts the resignation of the government and sets in motion the process for forming a new Cabinet by consulting with leaders of the parliamentary parties. Moreover, the office of the President is a powerful moral pulpit. Historically, the President was elected by a majority of the Knesset for a five-year term that could be renewed once. The President now serves one seven-year term.

Israel's judicial system, following the Western legal tradition, is entirely independent of the executive and legislative branches of government. The High Court of Justice (Supreme Court) has countrywide jurisdiction and is the senior Court of Appeal for rulings of lower tribunals. It has in recent years become increasingly assertive in offering judicial interpretation of legislation and commenting on broader issues affecting all aspects of life in Israel.

Part 2: The Electoral System

The Right to Vote and be Elected
As prescribed in the Basic Law: Every Israeli citizen is eligible to vote from the age of 18 and to be elected to the Knesset from the age of 21. There is a "cooling-off" period of 100 days from resigning their positions to seeking electoral office for the President, State Comptroller, judges and other senior public officials, as well as high-ranking military officers.

Voting is restricted to the voter's permanent place of residence. Soldiers on active duty vote in special polling stations in their units, and arrangements are made for prison inmates and hospital patients. There is no absentee ballot; Israelis dwelling abroad cannot exercise their mandate. By Western standards, a high proportion of Israelis normally participate in elections. Some sixty-three percent (3.2 million) out of the 5 million eligible voted in the March 2006 election to the 17th Knesset.

The Central Elections Commission (CEC), headed by a Supreme Court justice and comprised of representatives of all parties in the out-going Knesset is responsible for the conduct of elections. It sets the budget for elections and allocates public funds for parties based on their proportionate size (see below). In addition, the CEC hears petitions to have parties or individual candidates decertified. A list or candidate may be disqualified if its objectives or actions, expressly or by implication, include one of the following:

In 1988 the Commission disqualified Rabbi Meir Kahane's Kach Party on the grounds that its platform was "racist" and "anti-democratic", a ruling upheld on appeal to the High Court of Justice.

The Process of Getting Elected

Operating under the proportional representation system, all of Israel constitutes one single electoral constituency. Each contending party publishes a list of candidates elected by an internal party primary and votes are cast for the respective party lists. Parties gain representation in the Knesset in accordance with the proportional share of the popular vote their list wins in the election.

Proportional representation works against a party receiving the exact number of votes for the division of seats in the Knesset. According to a complex mathematical formula, a party's "surplus" votes or "remainders" which are insufficient for winning a seat are redistributed among the parties according to their proportional size. Alternatively, two or more parties may agree to share their "surplus" votes by officially informing the Central Elections Commission of the intention prior to the election.

Historically, the "threshold" for a party to win seats in the Knesset was kept low in order to maximize representation from all sectors of Israeli society. In the 2006 election, the threshold was raised to 2 percent, meaning that, with approximately 5 million Israeli citizens eligible to vote, for each seat in the 17th Knesset, a party needed about 80,000 votes.

Each party in the outgoing Knesset is automatically eligible to stand for re­election and receive campaign funds allocated by the Central Elections Commission based on the number of seats it holds. Other groups may present lists of candidates if they have the written support of 1,500 eligible voters and deposit a nominal cash bond with the CEC, refunded if the party wins at least one seat. New parties also receive public campaign funding.

Forming the Government

After an election, the President approaches a Knesset member, normally the leader of the party holding the largest number of seats, and invites them to form a government. The Prime Minister-designate is assigned a specific period to build a government that will win the confidence of a majority (i.e., 60 + 1) of the 120-member Knesset. (While it is conceivable that one party could win a majority on its own, all Israeli governments have involved coalitions of at least two parties.) When a government has been formed, the Prime Minister-designate must announce its composition and basic policy guidelines to the Knesset. The new government must then receive the confidence of a majority of Knesset members. Even then, however, the challenge confronting the Prime Minister is not only to maintain support in the Knesset but also within his or her own governing coalition.