Israel Weekly News Roundup March 26, 2021
This week’s Roundup will be dedicated to the results of the general elections that were held on Tuesday, March 23.
After the Fourth Round of Elections in Two Years, There is Still a Political Deadlock.
The voter turnout was 67%, 6% lower than the 73% of the third round of elections that took place a year ago. Among the Arab communities the percentage dropped even more from 63% a year ago to 51% this round.
The deadlock between the two blocs was not broken, and so far, no bloc can establish a ruling majority coalition of at least 61 seats (out of 120 in the Knesset).
Oddly enough, if Netanyahu wants to form a coalition, he will need the support of the Islamic party, which until recently he preached and incited against. If Netanyahu wants to continue to be Prime Minister, he will also need the votes of the Haredi parties (the Sephardi and the Ashkenazi), and an extreme-right-wing party that has a strong anti-LGBT agenda, an anti-Arab sentiment, and a strong Jewish-national ideology. Some of the members of the Religious Zionist Party even support the forcible transfer of Arab citizens in order to maintain a solid Jewish majority.
On the other side of the aisle the situation is not much better. It is now called the bloc of change, united mainly by the common goal of replacing the current Prime Minister, Netanyahu. But to do that, 7 out of 13 parties have to reach an agreement to form a coalition. Among the 7 parties there are the Islamists and the Joint Arab List on one hand, and two very right-wing parties on the other hand. To form a coalition of change they all have to practically put aside all their ideologies and differences and decide that the only issue that holds them together is the imperative to have a new PM and heal the country and the society from the endless rounds of political campaigns that were mainly built on incitement, hate and separatism.
According to the Israeli political system, after officially finalizing the election results, the President will call the representatives of all the parties to consult with them as to their recommended candidate for PM. If 61 members of Knesset recommend someone, this person will receive a mandate from the president to form a coalition. They will have a maximum of a 42 days in which they will have to come to agreement among the different parties to establish a stable coalition. If they fail, the President nominates another candidate, who will try to form a coalition. If none of them succeeds, then Israel goes to the 5th round of elections. In order to form a governing majority coalition, the parties will need to agree on the allocation of ministerial responsibilities, and red lines for legislation and policy implementation among other contentious topics.
Screenshots of Israeli and international news outlets' headlines following the March 23rd elections
Snapshot - the 24th Knesset by the numbers:
13 Parties
120 Members
29 Women, 3 parties have no women at all - both Jewish Haredi parties (Ashkenazi and Sephardi, which exclude women from running for office, and the Islamic Party)
14 Arab MKs - 10 of them are in Arab Parties and the rest are in other parties
2 Members of Ethiopian descent
16 Haredi (all male)
14 National religious
4 Religious Muslim (of the 14 Arab MKs)
1 Reform Rabbi (for the first time). There is a growing tension between the Jewish orthodox and the Reform, mainly around the question who has the authority to approve conversion.
1 Woman Chair of Party (Labor), with a policy of 50% women representation in the party.
It is already a well-known fact that the next Knesset will be more conservative, as the numbers above indicate. 34 members of Knesset; Haredi, national-religious and observant Muslims, hold conservative views, primarily on LGBTQI rights. Most of the Jewish orthodox - Haredi and national-orthodox plus right-wing members who are not religious – endorse a pro-annexation stance and oppose the two-state solution. Most of them are also quite conservative on issues of gender equality.
Further reading: Here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here
And before we say goodbye, we want to wish all of our readers who observe Passover, a happy and meaningful holiday!
This weekly Israel news roundup is brought to you by Anat Saragusti, journalist and documentary filmmaker, and Hamutal Gouri, consultant and storyteller for social change, edited by Ian Joseph. Due to the limits of regular email and our growing list of subscribers, we have decided to move our newsletter to SubStack.com.
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Anat Saragusti Hamutal Gouri Ian Joseph