PHOTO: EPA. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) is hoping to become Israel’s longest-serving PM.
On April 10, 2019, Israeli citizens went to the polls to vote in the 21st general elections.
With 97% of the votes counted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to carry on to a fifth term in office despite winning the same number of seats as his rival Benny Gantz, Israeli media reported.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan (Blue and White Party) appear to have tied, with both parties on track to get 35 seats each in the 120-seat Knesset. This number is well short of a majority in government, but the right-wing and religions parties appear to have won more seats than the Arab, centre, and left parties, meaning Netanyahu may have a clearer path to forming a right-wing government.
At this stage, it appears that Arab parties have lost three seats in the Knesset in this election after the Arab community called for a boycott of the election. Arab Israelis consist of more than 20% of the country’s population, of whom many have been angered by marginalizing policies such as the 2018 Jewish Nation-State Bill which declares Israel the “national nation-state of the Jewish people only”.
After the final three percent of votes are counted, including those from diplomats and soldiers, the Israeli President will ask one of the party leaders to form a government. The party leader does not have to be from the party with the most votes, but usually one most likely to be able to win support of other parties to form a government is chosen by the president.
If Netanyahu is able to successfully form a coalition, this summer he will become Israel’s longest-ever serving leader. Re-election would also give Netanyahu an important political boost as he braces for a possibility of criminal charges in a series of corruption scandals and further dim hopes of a negotiated solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Under Prime Minister Netanyahu, US President Trump has implemented the key demands of Israel’s hardline rightwing lobby, cutting humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and shutting down Palestinian diplomatic offices in Washington. President Trump also recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967, breaking from global consensus that forbids territorial conquest during war.
Ahead of the polls, Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to envelop Israeli sovereignty over Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank as part of his campaign.
BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr)
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