Israel Elections 2021

The 2021 legislative elections in Israel were held on March 23, 2021, in order to elect the members of the 24th Knesset. The elections were the fourth in two years and were triggered by the dissolution of the Likud-Blue and White coalition which lasted for less than a year.

A total of 39 parties registered to run in the elections, although several dropped out shortly ahead of election day itself.

The election results saw the Likud party receive 30 seats, seven less than they had held in the 23rd Knesset, followed by Yesh Atid with 17, and then Shas with nine. Meretz, Haavodah, and Ra'am, received six, seven, and four seats respectively, despite uncertainty about whether or not any of them would pass the minimum threshold.

As leader of the largest majority, Benjamin Netanyahu was charged with forming a government by then-president Reuven Rivlin. Upon his failure to do so by the deadline, the mandate was passed onto Yair Lapid as leader of the second-largest party.

Together with Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid set out to form a wide coalition encompassing parties from the left such as Meretz and Haavodah, and the right, Yamina and New Hope. Mansour Abbas' Ra'am signed a coalition agreement with Lapid on June 2, just several hours before the deadline, making Ra'am the first Arab party to sit in government.

On June 13, 2021, the thirty-sixth government of Israel was sworn in with Naftali Bennett as Prime Minister and Yair Lapid set to take over as head of government in 2023.

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A voting box in the last Israeli election in 2015

Head of the left wing Meretz party Zehava Gal-On leaving after a meeting with Labor leader and Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid at Lapid's home in Tel Aviv on September 10, 2022.

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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett attends a cabinet meeting, March 20, 2022.

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Dozens of Evangelical Christians are seen attending the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast, on June 10, 2021.

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A campaigner from a political pressure group wears a mask of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in London in November 2018.

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Israelis protest against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, near the Prime Minister's official residence in Jerusalem on March 20, 2021, a few days befire the Israeli general elections.

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A SOLDIER casts an early vote at an army base near Kafr Kara last week.

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Movers and shakers in Israeli society.

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Denise L. Eger

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Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and alternate Prime Minister, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid

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Illustration of voting notes in the Israeli general elections on March 02, 2020.

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LABOR PARTY leader Merav Michaeli speaks at a party conference in Hod Hasharon on Sunday.

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PALPHOT PRINTING HOUSE prepares sheets of ballots last week for Israel’s upcoming election on March 23.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the annual Jerusalem Conference of the 'Besheva' group in Jerusalem, March 14, 2021

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Israeli Public Security Minister Amir Ohana and Agriculture Minister Alon Schuster (not seen) at the Rafcor Plant, in Rosh Pina, Northern Israel, which has recently suffered from a number of acts of agricultural terrorism, harassment and arson. November 10, 2020.