2020 Israeli legislative election

2020 Israeli legislative election

2 March 2020
All 120 seats in the Knesset 61 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Current seats Blue and White Benny Gantz 33 Likud Benjamin Netanyahu 32 Joint List Ayman Odeh 13 Shas Aryeh Deri 9 Yisrael Beiteinu Avigdor Lieberman 8 UTJ Yaakov Litzman 7 Labor-Gesher Amir Peretz 6 Democratic Union Nitzan Horowitz 5 Jewish Home-Nat. Union Rafi Peretz 4 New Right Naftali Bennett 3
Incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (caretaker government)

Legislative elections for the 23rd Knesset will be held in Israel on 2 March 2020. According to the relevant Basic Law, the elections were required to be held no later than the third Tuesday of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan four years after the previous election on 17 September 2019, making the latest possible date 31 October 2023.

However, on 11 December 2019, due to the continued failure by all parties to form the country's next government, early elections were called, the third within a year after the September and April 2019 elections. Israeli commentators have expressed fear that the political paralysis is severely weakening public trust in an already highly-polarized political system.

Background

The extended period of political deadlock that led up to the election was the result of close races in April and September 2019 that left both incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz unable to muster a 61-seat governing majority, in coalition with their respective blocs of smaller, ideologically-allied parties.

As a result, Netanyahu and Gantz agreed in principle that the only solution was a national unity government between Netanyahu's Likud and Gantz's Blue and White parties. However, substantial disagreements over the terms of such a government prevented one from being formed, as Netanyahu demanded the inclusion of his allied right-wing, religious parties, and Gantz refused to cooperate with a Netanyahu-led Likud as long as he was under indictment for alleged bribery and fraud.

Orly Adas, director of the Central Elections Committee, cautioned that she lacked the necessary funding and staff to conduct a third election, and President Reuven Rivlin stressed his desire to avoid calling one, repeatedly expressing his dismay at the failure to form a unity government. Nevertheless, as required by the Basic Law, he initiated on 21 November 2019 on a 21-day period in which any member of the Knesset (MK) who received the support of 60 of their fellow lawmakers was allowed to try to form a government. After no MKs succeeded at this task by 11 December, Rivlin was forced to call the new election.

Election date

With the deadline to form a government ending at 11 December at midnight, elections called 90 days later would be held on 10 March. However, as that would conflict with the Jewish holiday of Purim, the elections would likely be held either one week earlier on 3 March, or one week later on 17 March. A Knesset bill would have to be passed to allow the election date to be moved up. The date of 3 March conflicts with an Israeli memorial day, so Likud pushed for an election date of 16 March, while Blue and White wanted an election held on 2 March. The two parties agreed to hold elections on 2 March 2020 and the required Knesset votes took place on 11 and 12 December.

Parties

Parliamentary factions

The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the 22nd Knesset.

Name		Ideology	Symbol	Primary demographic	Leader	September 2019 result
						Votes (%)	Seats
	Blue and White	Big tent Liberalism	פה	–	Benny Gantz	25.94%	33 / 120
	Likud	National conservatism National liberalism	מחל	–	Benjamin Netanyahu	25.15%	32 / 120
	Joint List	Big tent Minority interests	ודעם	Israeli Arabs	Ayman Odeh	10.45%	13 / 120
	Shas	Religious conservatism Populism	שס	Sephardi and Mizrahi Haredim	Aryeh Deri	7.47%	9 / 120
	Yisrael Beiteinu	Nationalism Secularism	ל	Russian-speakers	Avigdor Lieberman	6.98%	8 / 120
	United Torah Judaism	Religious conservatism	ג	Ashkenazi Haredim	Yaakov Litzman	6.09%	7 / 120
	Jewish Home-National Union	Religious Zionism Religious conservatism	טב	Modern Orthodox and Chardal Jews	Rafi Peretz	5.90%	4 / 120
	New Right	National conservatism Economic liberalism		–	Naftali Bennett		3 / 120
	Labor-Gesher	Social democracy	אמת	–	Amir Peretz	4.80%	6 / 120
	Democratic Union	Social democracy Progressivism	מרצ	–	Nitzan Horowitz	4.34%	5 / 120

Public expression of interest

• Former members of Zehut announced on 27 November that they will launch a new libertarian-leaning party called the New Liberal Party.
• Yair Lapid of the Blue and White alliance has indicated that he will abandon a previous agreement to rotate the premiership with Benny Gantz if another election takes place, meaning that only Gantz will be the Blue and White candidate for prime minister.
• The central committee of the Likud party, on 8 December 2019, voted to cancel the primary for its electoral list. However, an internal Likud court ruled on 19 December that it was unconstitutional, as the Likud constitution would have to be amended if primaries were cancelled. The central committee approved, on 12 December, the holding of a leadership primary for the party on 26 December. The Likud court, on 23 December 2019, overturned the decision to hold a primary for the Knesset slate.
• Ayelet Shaked announced on 19 December that she will run as part of the New Right, as number two on the parties list. Naftali Bennett of the New Right party has held various meetings with the New Liberal Party (made up of former Zehut activists) to consider an alliance in upcoming election. According to a source, only one New Liberal Party member would be placed in a realistic slot on the parties electoral list.
• The Labor-Gesher joint list announced on 15 December that it will stay together for the March election. The Israeli Labor Party joint list announced on 15 December that it will keep Amir Peretz as head of the party. Both of the decisions were ratified by the Labor Central Committee on 25 December, in addition to allowing Peretz to select two candidates for the first ten slots on the list, which would bump down other candidates. Activists have appealed the decision to cancel the Labor primaries. Peretz stated in a radio interview with Radio Tzafon on 29 December that Labor-Gesher will run independently.
• The Jewish Home annnounced on 16 December that it will not hold primaries.
• The Meretz party decided on 16 December against holding a leadership primary, though it may be held if the party decides to run as part of the Democratic Union again. The party held a vote on 22 December and decided against holding a primary for the Knesset list (instead keeping the same slate of candidates as the previous election) and also confirmed Nitzan Horowitz as leader of the party. It is unclear whether Meretz and Labor will merge or if Meretz will continue to be part of the Democratic Union. Former Meretz MK Mossi Raz does not expect non-Meretz members to rank as high on the party slate if the Democratic Union does continue. Another (non-Meretz) member of the Democratic Union indicated that the Israel Democratic Party could make an independent run for the Knesset. Lapid has pushed for Meretz and Labor-Gesher to merge and strengthen the left wing, which Peretz is open to if the polling near the submission date for electoral lists is favorable. Orly Levy, of the Gesher party, has come out in opposition to a potential Labor-Gesher and Meretz merger. Members of Meretz and the Israel Democratic Party have negotiated "basic understandings" as part of a continuation of their joint run; Yair Golan will likely keep his third slot on the united list.
• Stav Shaffir announced on 25 December that she will run independently as head of the Green Movement, though she is still working on creating an alliance of the Labor Party, Meretz, the Green Party and allies of former prime minister Ehud Barak, going as far as raising the possibility of giving her second slot on the Democratic Union list to Issawi Frej, an Arab member of Meretz.
• Itamar Ben-Gvir, of Otzma Yehudit, called for a joint list with Otzma, The Jewish Home and Tkuma, which would be the same parties as the list that ran in April of 2019. The Jewish Home and Otzma Yehudit announced on 20 December that they will run on a joint list (later named as the United Jewish Home) and have called on Tkuma to join them. However, Jewish Home leader Rafi Peretz faced backlash on 21 December from over 80 officials of the party (including Jewish Home's "number 2", Moti Yogev) indicating that Peretz reached the deal with Otzma Yehudit unilaterally, and further warning that if the deal was not annulled, they would "convene" the central committee and announce party primaries. (They claim Peretz was against open primaries as he supposedly was afrad of losing his leadership position). They also sought a vote on the merger by the parties' central committee, which Peretz agreed to hold on 13 January. Jewish Home has indicated that it wants Yachad to join their joint list with Otzma. The Noam party also wanted to join the list, but The Jewish Home has spurned them and is instead focusing on uniting with Tkuma. According to officials in the New Right, there could be a last-minute united list between itself, Tkuma, The Jewish Home and Otzma Yehudit, depending on what the polling indicates near the deadline for submission of lists.
• A party calling itself Mishpat Tzedek will be allowed to run in the election, provided that it does not endorse the murder of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. The party is set up by close relatives of his killer, Yigal Amir.
• Bezalel Smotrich, of Tkuma, has opposed joining the United Jewish Home list. He and Shaked have met in person to discuss a potential alliance between Tkuma and the New Right.

Not running

• Moshe Feiglin of Zehut announced on 13 December that his party will not run in the election.

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the 2020 Israeli legislative election

This graph shows the polling trends from the 17 September 2019 Israeli legislative election until election day using 4-poll moving average. Scenario polls are not included here.

For parties not crossing the electoral threshold (currently 3.25%) in any given poll, the number of seats is calculated as a percentage of the 120 total seats.