1965 Israeli legislative election
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All 120 seats in the Knesset 61 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 85.86% ( 4.29pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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Elections for the sixth Knesset were held in Israel on 2 November 1965.[1][2] Voter turnout was 85.9%.[3]
Background
Prior to the elections, two major alliances were formed;
Liberal Party had formed the Gahal alliance towards the end of the previous Knesset session. However, both Mapai and the Liberal Party had been hit by breakaway factions, the Ben-Gurion led Rafi and the Independent Liberals (largely composed of former Progressive Party
members) respectively.
The communist
Rakah
.
A new
Central Elections Committee due to its links with the banned al-Ard organisation. Peace activist Abie Nathan
entered a party list, Nes.
Parliament factions
The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the
6th Knesset
.
| Name | Ideology | Symbol | Leader | 1961 result | Seats at 1964 dissolution | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes (%) | Seats | ||||||
| Mapai | Social Democracy
Labor Zionism |
א | Levi Eshkol | 34.7% | 42 / 120
|
34 / 120
| |
| Herut | Revisionist Zionism | ח | Menachem Begin | 13.8% | 17 / 120
|
17 / 120
| |
Libralit
|
Liberalism | ל | Peretz Bernstein Yosef Serlin |
13.6% | 17 / 120
|
10 / 120
| |
| Mafdal | Religious Zionism | ב | Haim-Moshe Shapira | 9.8% | 12 / 120
|
12 / 120
| |
| Mapam | Labor Zionism Socialism |
מ | Meir Ya'ari | 7.8% | 9 / 120
|
9 / 120
| |
| Ahdut HaAvoda | Labor Zionism | תו | Yisrael Galili | 6.6% | 8 / 120
|
8 / 120
| |
| Rafi | Social democracy | כא | David Ben-Gurion | - | 0 / 120
|
8 / 120
| |
| Independent Liberals | Liberalism | לע | Pinchas Rosen | - | 0 / 120
|
7 / 120
| |
| Maki | Communism | ק | Shmuel Mikunis | 4.2% | 5 / 120
|
5 / 120
| |
| Agudat Yisrael | Religious conservatism
|
ג | Yitzhak-Meir Levin | 3.7% | 4 / 120
|
4 / 120
| |
| Poalei Agudat Yisrael | Religious conservatism
|
ד | Kalman Kahana | 1.9% | 2 / 120
|
2 / 120
| |
| Cooperation and Brotherhood | Arab satellite list
|
יא | Diyab Obeid | 1.9% | 2 / 120
|
2 / 120
| |
| Progress and Development | Arab satellite list
|
רא | Ahmed A-Dahar | 1.6% | 2 / 120
|
2 / 120
| |
Results
 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Labour Alignment | 443,379 | 36.74 | 45 | −5 | |
| Gahal | 256,957 | 21.29 | 26 | −8 | |
| National Religious Party | 107,966 | 8.95 | 11 | −1 | |
| Rafi | 95,328 | 7.90 | 10 | New | |
| Mapam | 79,985 | 6.63 | 8 | −1 | |
| Independent Liberals | 45,299 | 3.75 | 5 | New | |
| Agudat Yisrael | 39,795 | 3.30 | 4 | 0 | |
| Rakah | 27,413 | 2.27 | 3 | New | |
| Progress and Development | 23,430 | 1.94 | 2 | 0 | |
| Poalei Agudat Yisrael | 22,066 | 1.83 | 2 | 0 | |
| Cooperation and Brotherhood | 16,464 | 1.36 | 2 | 0 | |
| HaOlam HaZeh – Koah Hadash | 14,124 | 1.17 | 1 | New | |
| Maki | 13,617 | 1.13 | 1 | −4 | |
| Movement for Brotherhood | 11,244 | 0.93 | 0 | New | |
| Peace List | 5,536 | 0.46 | 0 | New | |
| Nes | 2,135 | 0.18 | 0 | New | |
| Young Israel | 1,990 | 0.16 | 0 | New | |
| Total | 1,206,728 | 100.00 | 120 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 1,206,728 | 96.95 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 37,978 | 3.05 | |||
| Total votes | 1,244,706 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 1,449,709 | 85.86 | |||
| Source: IDI, Nohlen et al. | |||||
Aftermath
The sixth Knesset started with
Knesset Speaker. At the end of August, 1966 the new Knesset at Givat Ram in Jerusalem was opened. When the Six-Day War broke out on 5 June 1967, Gahal and Rafi joined the coalition to form a national unity government
with 21 ministers. The government was ended by Eshkol's death on 26 February 1969.
Golda Meir of the Alignment formed the fourteenth government, also a national unity government, on 17 March 1969. The coalition partners were Gahal, the National Religious Party, the Independent Liberals, Progress and Development and Cooperation and Brotherhood.
In 1968 Rafi, Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda merged into the
Jewish-Arab Brotherhood
, each with a single seat).
References
- ^ Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson, ed. A History of the Jewish People (Harvard University Press, 1976) p1092
- ^ "Labor Leads Israeli Election", Montreal Gazette, 3 November 1965, p1
- ISBN 0-19-924958-X
