Election Name: | Elections for the 7th Knesset |
Previous Election: | 1965 |
Next Election: | 1973 |
Election Date: | 28 October 1969 |
Seats For Election: | All 120 seats in the Knesset |
Majority Seats: | 61 |
Turnout: | 81.7% (4.2 pp) |
Country: | Israel |
Party1: | Alignment (political party) |
Leader1: | Golda Meir |
Seats1: | 56 |
Last Election1: | 63 |
Votes1: | 632,035 |
Percentage1: | 46.2 |
Party2: | Gahal |
Leader2: | Menachem Begin |
Seats2: | 26 |
Last Election2: | 26 |
Votes2: | 296,294 |
Percentage2: | 21.7 |
Party3: | National Religious Party |
Seats3: | 12 |
Last Election3: | 11 |
Votes3: | 133,238 |
Percentage3: | 9.7 |
Party4: | Agudat Yisrael |
Leader4: | Yitzhak-Meir Levin |
Seats4: | 4 |
Last Election4: | 4 |
Votes4: | 44,002 |
Percentage4: | 3.2 |
Party5: | Independent Liberals (Israel) |
Leader5: | Moshe Kol |
Seats5: | 4 |
Last Election5: | 5 |
Votes5: | 43,933 |
Percentage5: | 3.2 |
Party6: | National List |
Leader6: | David Ben-Gurion |
Seats6: | 4 |
Last Election6: | new |
Votes6: | 42,654 |
Percentage6: | 3.1 |
Party7: | Rakah |
Leader7: | Meir Vilner |
Seats7: | 3 |
Last Election7: | 3 |
Votes7: | 38,827 |
Percentage7: | 2.8 |
Party8: | Progress and Development |
Leader8: | Seif el-Din el-Zoubi |
Seats8: | 2 |
Last Election8: | 2 |
Votes8: | 28,046 |
Percentage8: | 2.1 |
Party9: | Poalei Agudat Yisrael |
Leader9: | Kalman Kahana |
Seats9: | 2 |
Last Election9: | 2 |
Votes9: | 24,968 |
Percentage9: | 1.9 |
Party10: | Cooperation and Brotherhood |
Leader10: | Diyab Obeid |
Seats10: | 2 |
Last Election10: | 2 |
Votes10: | 19,943 |
Percentage10: | 1.4 |
Party11: | Meri (political party) |
Leader11: | Uri Avnery |
Seats11: | 2 |
Last Election11: | 1 |
Votes11: | 16,853 |
Percentage11: | 1.2 |
Party12: | Free Centre |
Leader12: | Shmuel Tamir |
Seats12: | 2 |
Last Election12: | new |
Votes12: | 16,393 |
Percentage12: | 1.2 |
Party13: | Maki (historical political party) |
Leader13: | Moshe Sneh |
Seats13: | 1 |
Last Election13: | 1 |
Votes13: | 15,712 |
Percentage13: | 1.1 |
Before Election: | Golda Meir |
Before Party: | Alignment |
After Election: | Golda Meir |
After Party: | Alignment |
Prime Minister |
Legislative elections were held in Israel on 28 October 1969 to elect members of the seventh Knesset. The ruling Alignment coalition was returned to power with the largest number of seats ever won in an Israeli election (56 out of 120). This was attributed to the government's popularity following the country's victory in the Six-Day War, and that the Alignment had been formed by an alliance of the four most popular left-wing parties, who between them had received 51.2% of the vote in the previous elections in 1965. As a result, Golda Meir remained Prime Minister. Voter turnout was 81.7%.[1]
See main article: List of political parties in Israel. The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the 6th Knesset.
Name | Ideology | Symbol | Leader | 1965 result | Seats at 1968 dissolution | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes (%) | Seats | |||||||
Labor | Social democracy Labor Zionism | Golda Meir | 36.7% | |||||
Gahal | National liberalism | Menachem Begin | 21.3% | |||||
Mafdal | Religious Zionism | Haim-Moshe Shapira | 8.9% | |||||
Rafi | Social democracy | Moshe Dayan | 7.9% | |||||
Mapam | Labor Zionism Socialism | Meir Ya'ari | 6.6% | |||||
Liberalism | Shmuel Tamir | style="text-align:center;" | - | |||||
Liberalism | Moshe Kol | 3.8% | ||||||
Agudat Yisrael | Religious conservatism | Yitzhak-Meir Levin | 3.3% | |||||
Rakah | Communism Socialism | Meir Vilner | 2.3% | |||||
Poalei Agudat Yisrael | Religious conservatism | Kalman Kahana | 1.9% | |||||
Progress and Development | Arab satellite list | Seif el-Din el-Zoubi | 1.8% | |||||
Arab List for Bedouin and Villagers | Arab satellite list | Diyab Obeid | 1.3% | |||||
Meri | Socialism | Uri Avnery | 1.2% | |||||
Maki | Communism | Shmuel Mikunis | 1.1% | |||||
National List | Social liberalism | David Ben-Gurion | style="text-align:center;" | - | ||||
See also: List of members of the seventh Knesset. Golda Meir of the Alignment formed the fifteenth government, a national unity government including Gahal, the National Religious Party, the Independent Liberals, Progress and Development and Cooperation and Brotherhood. There were 24 ministers. Gahal resigned from the coalition on 6 August 1970 after the government had decided to adopt the Rogers Plan.
The seventh Knesset was one of the most stable, with only three MKs changing parties; Meir Avizohar left the National List in 1972 to sit as an independent, before joining the Alignment the following year; Avner Shaki left the National Religious Party in 1972 and sat as an independent; and Shalom Cohen left HaOlam HaZeh – Koah Hadash in 1972.[2]