The 24th Knesset voted to disperse on Thursday morning and to hold the next election on the first of November.
The 24th Knesset voted to disperse on Thursday morning on a 92-0 vote and to hold the next election on November 1. Party lists need to be handed in by September 15 at 10 p.m.
These next elections will not include Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, as he announced on Wednesday that he will not run. Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked is expected to head the Yamina party after Bennett’s departure.
The Knesset plenum rejected the proposal submitted by the opposition factions, according to which the elections would have been on October 25. 47 MKs initially supported the change date, whereas 57 opposed it. Because the Metro Law did not pass, both Labor and Yisrael Beytenu withdrew from the vote to disperse the Knesset.
MK statements
Blue and White MK Eitan Ginzburg said that his party “did not want to dissolve the Knesset. I believe we gave up too soon. Elections for the fifth time in four years are not a healthy thing for the country. We in the Knesset have created something special that had not seemed possible in the past.”
Labor head Merav Michaeli said that “the Knesset’s dissolution today shouldn’t have happened. The Knesset and the government are good for the State of Israel and should have continued to work, but there are those who could not withstand the pressure.
“This dispersal was born in sin and continued in the sin of not passing the Metro Act because of personal and petty politics,” she continued.
At noon, there will be a ceremony to replace Naftali Bennett with Yair Lapid as Prime Minister. Lapid will be prime minister until the next elections and a new government is formed.
Netanyahu’s statements
Minutes after Ginzburg’s statements, Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu stated that “this is what happens when you mix together a fake right-wing party and extreme leftist parties, mix with the Joint List – that’s what you get.
“That’s exactly what the upcoming election is about. Will there again be a failed Lapid government here, dependent on the Muslim Brotherhood in common with supporters of terrorism, or a broad and strong national government headed by us that will return pride, power and hope to Israel?”
Other comments the former prime minister made that raised shouts of criticism from other MKs include a claim that “Lapid can only form a government with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Joint List.”
Calling the coalition “a failed experiment,” Netanyahu stated that “we are the only alternative. When we win the next elections, our first mission will be to lower prices and restore economic stability and growth for all Israeli citizens – Jews, Arabs, Bedouins, religious, secular and haredim.”
Slamming Lapid, Netanyahu called him the “most failed finance minister in the country’s history,” and said that “in contrast, we know how to lower inflation.”
“I believe we gave up too soon. Elections for the fifth time in four years are not a healthy thing for the country. We in the Knesset have created something special that had not seemed possible in the past.”
Blue and White MK Eitan Ginzburg
These next elections will be the fifth that Israel has had in the past 3 and a half years.
Gil Hoffman and Eliav Breuer contributed to this report.