With 87% of all votes counted, we can already tell with some certainty which parties won’t be making the cut into the next Knesset.
In total, 40 lists ran in Tuesday’s elections, and according to a partial count, only 10 of them have secured the required minimum of 3.25% of the vote.
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Meretz head Zehava Galon and Balad leader Sami Abu Shehadeh
(Photo: Nachum Segal, Ryan Frois)
One party political whose survival is hanging in the balance is Meretz. The left-wing party currently stands at 134,402 votes and is teetering right under the voter threshold. Established in 1992, Meretz has seen ups and downs, but always managed to send its candidates to the Knesset.
Balad — a secular, anti-Zionist Arab party that wishes to turn Israel into a multi-national, civic state — is also underwater with just 127,627 votes. The party could miss out on representation in the Knesset for the first time since 1996.
Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked’s Jewish Home received just 49,037 votes and is a long haul from securing any Knesset seats. Shaked refused to withdraw from the race despite opinion polls consistently showing her party slate failing to come anywhere near the voter threshold.
Ometz (Courage) is comprised of scientists, doctors and social activists that oppose vaccine mandates and demand a state inquiry into the Israeli government’s COVID-19 pandemic response. The party garnered 13,475 votes.
Economic Freedom, The New Economic Party, and Fiery Youth — three parties with an economic bent that have vowed to tackle the country’s perennial cost of living problem — have failed to gain more than 12,000 votes each.
Green Leaf — a movement that promotes the legalization and regulation of cannabis since the mid-90s — won 1,350 votes.