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1961 Israeli legislative election

Elections for the fifth Knesset

Field	Value
previous_election	[1959](1959-israeli-legislative-election)
next_election	[1965](1965-israeli-legislative-election)
election_date	15 August 1961
turnout	81.57% ( 0.03 pp)
country	Israel
party1	Mapai
leader1	David Ben-Gurion
seats1	42
last_election1	47
percentage1	34.69
party2	Herut
leader2	Menachem Begin
seats2	17
last_election2	17
percentage2	13.76
party3	Israeli Liberal Party
leader3	Pinchas Rosen
seats3	17
last_election3	14
percentage3	13.63
party4	National Religious Party
leader4	Haim-Moshe Shapira
seats4	12
last_election4	12
percentage4	9.81
party5	Mapam
leader5	Meir Ya'ari
seats5	9
last_election5	9
percentage5	7.51
party6	Ahdut HaAvoda
leader6	Yisrael Galili
seats6	8
last_election6	7
percentage6	6.57
party7	Maki (historical political party)
leader7	Shmuel Mikunis
seats7	5
last_election7	3
percentage7	4.18
party8	Agudat Yisrael
leader8	Yitzhak-Meir Levin
seats8	4
last_election8	3
percentage8	3.69
party9	Poalei Agudat Yisrael
leader9	Kalman Kahana
seats9	2
last_election9	3
percentage9	1.93
party10	Cooperation and Brotherhood
leader10	Diyab Obeid
seats10	2
last_election10	2
percentage10	1.92
party11	Progress and Development
leader11	Ahmed A-Dahar
seats11	2
last_election11	2
percentage11	1.59
before_election	David Ben-Gurion
before_party	Mapai
after_election	David Ben-Gurion
after_party	Mapai
title	Prime Minister

Elections for the fifth Knesset were held in Israel on 15 August 1961. Voter turnout was 81.6%.

Parliament factions

Main article: List of political parties in Israel

The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the 4th Knesset.

Name	Ideology	Symbol	Leader	1959 result	Seats at 1964
dissolution	Votes (%)	Seats
Mapai}};"		Mapai	Social democracy
Labor Zionism		David Ben-Gurion	38.2%
Herut}};"		Herut	Revisionist Zionism		Menachem Begin	13.5%
Israeli Liberal Party}};"		Liberal Party	Liberalism		Pinchas Rosen
Peretz Bernstein	-
National Religious Party}};"		National Religious Party	Religious Zionism		Haim-Moshe Shapira	9.9%
Mapam}};"		Mapam	Labor Zionism
Marxism		Meir Ya'ari	7.2%
General Zionists}};"		General Zionists	Liberalism		Yosef Sapir	6.2%
Ahdut HaAvoda}};"		Ahdut HaAvoda	Labor Zionism		Yisrael Galili	6.0%
Agudat Yisrael}};"		Agudat Yisrael	Religious conservatism		Yitzhak-Meir Levin	4.7%
Poalei Agudat Yisrael}};"		Poalei Agudat Yisrael	Religious conservatism		Kalman Kahana
Progressive Party (Israel)}};"		Progressive Party	Liberalism
Progressivism		Pinchas Rosen	4.6%
Maki (historical political party)}};"		Maki	Communism		Shmuel Mikunis	2.8%
	Progress and Development	Arab satellite list		Ahmed A-Dahar	1.3%
	Cooperation and Brotherhood	Arab satellite list		Labib Hussein Abu Rokan	1.1%
	Agriculture and Development	Arab satellite list		Mahmud Al-Nashaf	1.1%

Results

Aftermath

During the Knesset term, eight MKs broke away from Mapai to establish Rafi and two MKs left Maki to establish Rakah. Herut and the Liberal Party merged to form Gahal. Seven Liberal Party members unhappy with the decision (largely former Progressive Party members) broke away to form the Independent Liberals.

Tenth government

Main article: Tenth government of Israel

The fifth Knesset started with David Ben-Gurion's Mapai party forming the tenth government on 2 November 1961. His coalition included the National Religious Party, Ahdut HaAvoda, Agudat Israel Workers, Cooperation and Brotherhood and Progress and Development, and had 13 ministers. Kadish Luz of Mapai was appointed Knesset Speaker. The government collapsed when Ben-Gurion resigned on 16 June 1963 citing personal reasons, but in reality was annoyed at a perceived lack of support from his colleagues. He later broke away from Mapai with several colleagues to form Rafi.

Eleventh government

Main article: Eleventh government of Israel

Levi Eshkol took over Mapai and formed the eleventh government on 26 June 1963 with the same coalition partners as previously, but one more minister. The government resigned on 10 December 1964 when Ben-Gurion demanded that members of the Supreme Court investigate the Lavon Affair.

Twelfth government

Main article: Twelfth government of Israel

Eshkol formed the twelfth government a week later on 22 December 1964 with the same coalition partners and ministers as previously.

The fifth Knesset was notable for the coalescing of the two major right-wing parties (Herut and the Liberal Party) to form an electoral block (Gahal) capable of threatening Mapai's hegemony in Israeli politics. Gahal, which by then had become Likud, finally overtook Mapai (which had merged into the Alignment) in the 1977 elections.

Notes

References

[[Dieter Nohlen]], Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I'', p124 {{ISBN. 0-19-924958-X
[https://en.idi.org.il/israeli-elections-and-parties/elections/1961/ IDI]

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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