Elections for the 3rd Knesset
Israel
26 July 1955
Turnout82.8%
PartyLeader % Seats +/–
Mapai David Ben-Gurion 32.2 40 −5
Herut Menachem Begin 12.6 15 +7
General Zionists Israel Rokach 10.2 13 −7
National Religious Front Haim-Moshe Shapira 9.1 11 +1
Ahdut HaAvoda Yitzhak Tabenkin 8.2 10 New
Mapam Meir Ya'ari 7.3 9 −6
Religious Torah Front Yitzhak-Meir Levin 4.7 6 +1
Maki Shmuel Mikunis 4.5 6 +1
Progressive Party Pinchas Rosen 4.4 5 +1
Democratic List for Israeli Arabs Seif el-Din el-Zoubi 1.8 2 −1
Progress and Work Salah-Hassan Hanifes 1.5 2 +1
Agriculture and Development Faras Hamdan 1.1 1 0
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Prime Minister before Prime Minister after
Moshe Sharett
Mapai		 David Ben-Gurion
Mapai
Prime minister Moshe Sharett votes

Elections for the third Knesset were held in Israel on 26 July 1955. Voter turnout was 82.8%.[1]

Parliament factions

The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the 2nd Knesset.

Name Ideology Symbol Leader 1951 result Seats at 1954
dissolution
Votes (%) Seats
Mapai Social democracy
Labor Zionism		 א‎ David Ben-Gurion 37.3%
45 / 120
47 / 120
General Zionists Liberalism צ‎ Israel Rokach 16.2%
20 / 120
22 / 120
Mapam Labor Zionism
Socialism		 מ‎ Meir Ya'ari 12.5%
15 / 120
7 / 120
Hapoel HaMizrachi Religious Zionism ו‎ Haim-Moshe Shapira 6.8%
8 / 120
8 / 120
Herut Revisionist Zionism ח‎ Menachem Begin 6.6%
8 / 120
8 / 120
Maki Communism ק‎ Shmuel Mikunis 4.0%
5 / 120
7 / 120
Ahdut HaAvoda Labor Zionism תו‎ Yitzhak-Meir Levin -
0 / 120
4 / 120
Progressive Party Liberalism
Progressivism		 פ‎ Pinchas Rosen 3.2%
4 / 120
4 / 120
Democratic List for Israeli Arabs Arab satellite list יד‎ Seif el-Din el-Zoubi 2.0%
3 / 120
3 / 120
Agudat Yisrael Religious conservatism ג‎ Yitzhak-Meir Levin 2.0%
3 / 120
3 / 120
Sephardim and Oriental Communities Sephardic and Mizrahi interests סצ‎ Eliyahu Elyashar 1.8%
2 / 120
0 / 120
Poalei Agudat Yisrael Religious conservatism ד‎ Binyamin Mintz 1.6%
2 / 120
2 / 120
Mizrachi Religious Zionism ב‎ David-Zvi Pinkas 1.5%
2 / 120
2 / 120
Progress and Work Arab satellite list נ‎ Salah-Hassan Hanifes 1.2%
1 / 120
1 / 120
Yemenite Association Yemenite Jewish interest ל‎ Shimon Garidi 1.2%
1 / 120
1 / 120
Agriculture and Development Arab satellite list ע‎ Faras Hamdan 1.1%
1 / 120
1 / 120

Results

Mapai retained its plurality in the Knesset, although its share of the vote dropped by 5.1 and its share of seats dropped from 47 (at the end of the Second Knesset) to 40. Meanwhile, Herut overtook the General Zionists, Mapam, and Hapoel HaMizrachi to become the second-largest party, with its share of seats nearly doubling (from 8 in the Second Knesset to 15 in the Third).

The Third Knesset is notable for being the only Knesset thus far in which none of the represented parties merged or split (although two parties did change their names) and no MKs switched parties, making it the most stable Knesset in Israel's history.

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Mapai274,73532.2040−5
Herut107,19012.5615+7
General Zionists87,09910.2113−7
National Religious Front77,9369.1311+1
Ahdut HaAvoda69,4758.1410New
Mapam62,4017.319−6
Religious Torah Front39,8364.676+1
Maki38,4924.516+1
Progressive Party37,6614.415+1
Democratic List for Israeli Arabs15,4751.812−1
Progress and Work12,5111.472+1
Agriculture and Development9,7911.1510
Sephardim and Oriental Communities6,9940.820−2
Arab List – The Centre4,4840.530New
Likud – Popular Economic Movement3,0440.360New
Yemenite Association2,4590.290−1
Original Religious List2,4480.290New
New Immigrants' List1,1880.140New
Total853,219100.001200
Valid votes853,21997.38
Invalid/blank votes22,9692.62
Total votes876,188100.00
Registered voters/turnout1,057,79582.83
Source: CEC, Nohlen et al.

Aftermath

Golda Meir at first session of the Third Knesset (1951)

Unlike the second Knesset, the third Knesset was one of the most stable in Israel's history. There were only two governments, and it was the only Knesset to date during which none of the parties split or merged. As with the first and second Knesset, the speaker was Yosef Sprinzak until his death on 28 January 1959. He was replaced by Ahdut HaAvoda's Nahum Nir.

Seventh government

The third Knesset started with David Ben-Gurion forming the seventh government of Israel (the previous two Knessets had six governments; two in the first and four in the second) on 3 November 1955. His Mapai party formed a coalition with the National Religious Front (which later changed its name to the National Religious Party), Mapam, the Progressive Party, Ahdut HaAvoda, and the three Israeli Arab parties, the Democratic List for Israeli Arabs, Progress and Work, Agriculture and Development. The government had 16 ministers. It collapsed when Ben-Gurion resigned on 31 December 1957 over the leaking of information from ministerial meetings.

Eighth government

Ben-Gurion formed the eighth government a week later on 7 January 1958 with the same coalition partners. The number of ministers remained the same. The eighth government collapsed when Ben-Gurion resigned again on 5 July 1959 after Labour Unity and Mapam had voted against the government on the issue of selling arms to West Germany and refused to leave the coalition. Elections for the fourth Knesset were called for 3 November 1959.

References

  1. ↑ Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p124 ISBN 0-19-924958-X
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