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All 120 seats in theKnesset 61 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 67.81% ( 10.89pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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Legislative elections were held inIsrael on 28 January 2003. The result was a resounding victory forAriel Sharon'sLikud.
The previous separate election forPrime Minister was scrapped, and the post was returned to the leader of the party successfully forming the working coalition government.
Similarly to the2001 elections for the position of prime minister, these elections were also affected by theSecond Intifada, which was a period of intense fighting and Palestinian militancy campaigns. Despite the fact that since the last elections there was a significant deterioration in the security situation in Israel, afterOperation Defensive Shield in May 2002 andOperation Determined Path in June 2002, there was an improvement in the security situation.
The fact thatBinyamin Ben-Eliezer was the defense minister in most of this period (until the unity government was dismantled) did not allow the Labor party to establish an alternative to government policies, mainly because it was difficult to present a position contrary to that which was supported by the party up until then. Contributing this was the militaristic tendency of large sections from the Israeli public that supported more severe measures than those which were actually implemented against the Palestinians for militant and terrorist attacks against Israelis. This tendency led to a situation in which the significant differences regarding the way Israel should react to the Intifada were not split between the Labor party and the Likud party, but rather between thedovish faction in the Labor party (which supported the positions of the left-wingMeretz party) and thehawkish faction in the Labor party (whose position was very close to that of theLikud party).
Although Prime MinisterEhud Barak did not run in these elections (and in practice was almost two years out of the political system), at the time Ehud Barak and the Labor Party were widely considered by many in the Israeli public as those directly responsible for the outbreak of the second intifada.
In general, similar to previous elections, the Intifada created a significant gap in the public opinions, as the public which once identified itself as "moderate left" drifted significantly away from the left, leaving a vacuum between it and the far left group. This situation significantly affected the potential voters of the Labor Party, which since 1977 relied primarily on the moderate left.
In addition, the situation in which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that early elections would be held, just several days after the Labor party left the unity government, caught the Labor party in a situation in which it did not yet receive a chance to elect the head of the party. When it eventually electedAmram Mitzna, he had little more than one month to gather the attention of the Israeli public and convince the Israeli public of his positions—the most prominent among them being his claim that Israel had no interest in continuing to have control in theGaza Strip and in theWest Bank.
After Barak took a break from politics in late February 2001, the Labor party established a unity government with the Likud party, in whichShimon Peres represented the Labor party as the most senior figure of its ministers. At the same time,Benyamin Ben-Eliezer competed againstMatan Vilnai for the position of defense minister in the unity government (Shimon Peres was appointed to the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs). The Labor party primaries were set for September 4, 2001. These primaries were supposedly won byAvraham Burg (who was theSpeaker of the Knesset at the time), although in practice there was a very small number of votes (only 1,000 votes in favor of Burg), which led to many claims of fraud, especially of fraud within ballots of the Israeli Druze community. After a long series of discussions and accusations regarding ethnic discrimination of the Druze public, it was decided that the primaries would be held again in 51 polling stations (mostly within the Druze community) on 26 December. Those elections had a relatively low voter turnout and at the end of those elections, Ben-Eliezer won with a small gap of just 1,900 votes.
Although winning the Labor party's leader position allegedly promised Ben Eliezer his candidacy for prime minister for the Labor party, in practice the problematic election process led to many issues which were also affected by the lack of enthusiasm from the dovish faction of the Labor party to Ben Eliezer's policy as defense minister. After making serious allegations of racial discrimination against him due to beingSephardi, Ben Eliezer was forced to agree to another round of primaries. During the period of time between the decision to hold another primary and the primaries themselves, which were set for 19 November 2002, the Labor party withdrew from the unity government, which led to rumors that the main reason they withdrew was due to the considerations regarding the primaries. The primaries were eventually won by Amram Mitzna, who at that point in time was the mayor ofHaifa. He won 53% of the votes while Ben-Eliezer won 38% of the votes andHaim Ramon won only 7% of the votes.
Operation Defensive Shield andOperation Determined Path, which ended the Israeli policy of restraint in response to Palestinian terrorist attacks, succeeded in considerably reducing the numbers of terrorist attacks carried out against Israel; nevertheless, they led to the disintegration of the unity government. In addition, the economic situation also deteriorated significantly, and after Operation Defensive Shield, an emergency economic plan was brought forth on April 25, 2002, which was calledEconomic Defensive Shield (חומת מגן כלכלית).
A temporary lull in terrorist attacks against Israelis was among the reasons that theShas party ministers opposed the emergency economic plan and voted against it in the Knesset. This situation caused Prime MinisterAriel Sharon to fire the Shas ministers on May 20. Nevertheless, Shas rejoined the government on June 3, but this step was the beginning of the end of the unity government. On July 28David Levy and his breakaway Gesher faction left the government due to their opposition to the budget. Although their departure was not significant at the time, further ahead this caused difficulties for the continued existence of the unity government.
When the Labor party withdrew from the unity government in September due to their opposition to the economic policy, the state budget, and the new defense policy, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government had to re-appoint several new ministers to his government. As a result,Benjamin Netanyahu was appointed as the Foreign Minister on November 1, andShaul Mofaz was appointed as the defense minister the next day (a move which aroused much criticism due to its timing - Mofaz was appointed to this position only four months after he finished serving in the military as the Chief of Staff of theIsraeli Defense Forces). Eventually Sharon announced the dissolution of the Knesset and early elections.
On 23 July 2002, the Knesset approved theTal Law as an attempt to reach a compromise to the public demand that the Israeliultra-Orthodox citizens would share an equal extent of obligations which other Israeli citizens are required to fulfill, specifically requiring them to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. The coalition upheavals delayed the initial adoption of the Tal law.
The adoption of the law, which in practice legitimized the existing massivedraft dodging within theultra-Orthodox community (while giving them the option to work for a whole year after they get to the age of 18, and afterwards giving them the option to choose whether to join the military or civilian service, or return to the yeshiva), caused a significant strengthening of contempt among the Israeli public towards the ultra-Orthodox community, as most non-Muslim non-ultra-Orthodox Israelis are obligated to serve in the military for several years when they reach age 18. The main effect the Tal Law had in this elections was a significant strengthening to theShinui party.
In late 1999, during Ariel Sharon's election campaign for theLikud leadership, Sharon collected donations totaling six millionNIS in ways that were prohibited under the law regulating the funding of political parties. The Comptroller's Report published in early September 2001[1] stated that these contributions were breaking the law (a previous similar complaint against Netanyahu led to the issuing of a warning, and a similar complaint against Ehud Barak even led to an investigation regarding the organizations that helped him get elected). As a result, Sharon returned 1.5 million NIS to the donors on October 4, but had difficulties in raising the more funds. On October 22, Sharon's son Gilad was able to get a loan at a relatively high interest fromBank Leumi, and then made contact with the South African businessman Cyril Kern, who gave him a loan for the rest of the balance on November 30 (even though the money was actually transferred only on 17 January 2002). Cyril Kern's money was transferred to theIsrael Discount Bank on 30 April 2002 and was returned to Cyril Kern on 17 December.
These facts, coupled with the lack of clarity regarding the extent of Cyril Kern's businesses in Israel, became "political dynamite", and were investigated during the election campaign by the State Attorney's Office. On 6 January 2003, the details of the affair were revealed byHaaretz. (It turned out later on that the attorneyLiora Glatt-Berkowitz, who was in charge of the investigation, leaked the information.)
The exposure of the affair caused a political storm and led to calls for the resignation ofAriel Sharon from the opposition. On the other hand, Likud members alleged that the leak of the affair's details was politically motivated and intended to harm Sharon's popularity.
The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the15th Knesset.
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Likud | 925,279 | 29.39 | 38 | +19 | |
| Labor–Meimad | 455,183 | 14.46 | 19 | −6 | |
| Shinui | 386,535 | 12.28 | 15 | +9 | |
| Shas | 258,879 | 8.22 | 11 | −6 | |
| National Union | 173,973 | 5.53 | 7 | −1 | |
| Meretz-Yachad and the Democratic Choice | 164,122 | 5.21 | 6 | −4 | |
| National Religious Party | 132,370 | 4.20 | 6 | +1 | |
| United Torah Judaism | 135,087 | 4.29 | 5 | 0 | |
| Hadash–Ta'al | 93,819 | 2.98 | 3 | 0 | |
| One Nation | 86,808 | 2.76 | 3 | +1 | |
| Balad | 71,299 | 2.26 | 3 | +1 | |
| Yisrael BaAliyah | 67,719 | 2.15 | 2 | −4 | |
| United Arab List | 65,551 | 2.08 | 2 | −3 | |
| Ale Yarok | 37,855 | 1.20 | 0 | 0 | |
| Herut – The National Movement | 36,202 | 1.15 | 0 | New | |
| Progressive National Alliance | 20,571 | 0.65 | 0 | New | |
| The Greens | 12,833 | 0.41 | 0 | 0 | |
| Yisrael Aheret | 7,144 | 0.23 | 0 | New | |
| Ahavat Yisrael | 5,468 | 0.17 | 0 | New | |
| Tzomet | 2,023 | 0.06 | 0 | 0 | |
| Centre Party | 1,961 | 0.06 | 0 | −6 | |
| Da'am Workers Party | 1,925 | 0.06 | 0 | 0 | |
| Citizen and State | 1,566 | 0.05 | 0 | New | |
| Man's Rights in the Family Party | 1,284 | 0.04 | 0 | 0 | |
| Lahava | 1,181 | 0.04 | 0 | New | |
| Za'am | 894 | 0.03 | 0 | New | |
| Leader | 833 | 0.03 | 0 | New | |
| Total | 3,148,364 | 100.00 | 120 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 3,148,364 | 98.36 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 52,409 | 1.64 | |||
| Total votes | 3,200,773 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 4,720,079 | 67.81 | |||
| Source:Israel Democracy Institute | |||||
Apart from Likud's clear victory, the election was also a success for the secularistShinui.[2][3] Despite gains by the right in the election, multiple polls showed strong public support for policies advocated by the left (such as dismantling settlements, unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza, and creating a Palestinian state).[2]
Ariel Sharon formedthe 30th government on 28 February 2003. His coalition initially included just Shinui and the National Union, althoughYisrael BaAliyah had merged into Likud soon after the election. On 3 March the National Religious Party joined the government.
Sharon's decision to implement theGaza disengagement plan led to the National Union and the National Religious Party leaving the coalition during June and November 2004 respectively. Shinui left the government in December 2004 following disagreements over the budget. The party later disintegrated following a disputed leadership election, with eleven MKs leaving to form theSecular Faction and one left to establishHaOlim, which merged into the National Union. Two MKs later left the Secular Faction to establishNational Home.
Labor–Meimad joined the coalition in January 2005, with Agudat Yisrael added to the government in March 2005. Labor–Meimad later pulled out in November that year, the same month in which Sharon led a breakaway of fourteen MKs from Likud to form Kadima. Likud left the coalition in January 2006. Following Sharon's stroke,Ehud Olmert took over asActing Prime Minister.
The Knesset term also saw one of One Nation's MKs leave to formNoy, before joining Likud. One Nation then merged into Labor.Yisrael Beiteinu broke away from the National Union, whilst two MKs left the National Religious Party to establish theRenewed Religious National Zionist Party.
Prior to the 2006 elections, United Torah Judaism split intoAgudat Yisrael (three seats) andDegel HaTorah (two seats), whilst Ta'al (one seat) broke away from Hadash.
