How Israeli Elections Work

Hello everyone, and welcome to the new episode of the podcast "Yalla: Learning Hebrew with Steph", a podcast for intermediate Hebrew learners. I'm Steph, and today we're going to talk about the upcoming elections in Israel. You've probably heard that on 27 October there are elections for the Knesset. So today we're going to learn how elections for the Knesset work, and all the Hebrew words you'll hear this month. One thing before we start: in this episode we're only talking about how the elections work. I won't share opinions or tell you who to vote for or who should win. And one more small thing: there are a lot of new words in this episode, so it might be a bit more challenging than usual. But don't worry! On my website you can find the full transcript in Hebrew and in English, and all the new words with translations and examples. So if something isn't clear, you can always go back there. So without further ado, let's get started! The first thing I want to talk about is the word "bechirot" (elections). It comes from the verb "livchor" (to choose), so the literal meaning is "choices" in English. Another important word for this episode is "lehatzbia", which is "to vote" in English. This word comes from the root tz.b.a, which also gives us the word "etzba" (finger). So "lehatzbia" means more or less "to point at something". In these elections, Israelis vote for the Knesset, which is Israel's parliament. There are 120 members of the Knesset, and they usually use the word "mandatim" to describe the members of the Knesset. Another important word is "miflaga", which is "party" in English, but only in the political sense (political party). If you want to invite friends to a party with music and cake, that's a "mesiba", not a miflaga! The word "miflaga" comes from the root p.l.g, which is connected to division, because each party represents a different part of the public. Every member of the Knesset belongs to a particular party. And I saved the best word for last. In Hebrew, "kol" is both a vote and a voice. In other words, when you vote, you're really giving your voice. I really love that idea. Now, there are a few things about elections in Israel that are different from the elections I know in England. The first thing: you don't vote for a person, but for a party. Each party chooses its candidates before the election and puts them on a list in order. If the party wins 10 mandatim (seats), the first ten people on the list go into the Knesset. You can't choose a specific person from the list. The second thing: in elections for the Knesset in Israel, there are no local constituencies. The whole country counts as one constituency. So it doesn't matter if you're in Haifa, in Eilat or in Jerusalem, all the votes are counted together, and the seats are decided by the percentage of the votes. For example, if a party got 10% of the votes, it gets 10% of the seats. All of this is different from Britain, where the country is divided into 650 constituencies, and we vote for a Member of Parliament who will represent our constituency. Every Member of Parliament is a member of a party and holds one seat, and together they make up the parliament. To be the majority party in Britain, you need 326 seats, in other words 326 Members of Parliament. So how does it work in your country? Tell me in the comments! OK, let's go back to the elections in Israel. One phrase you'll hear a lot, if you're watching the news this month, is "achuz ha-chasima". Achuz ha-chasima is "the electoral threshold", and the literal meaning is "the blocking percentage". Notice: the word "chasima" comes from the verb "lachsom" (to block), because this percentage blocks small parties from getting into the Knesset. So what does that mean? For a party to get into the Knesset, it needs to win at least 3.25% of all the votes. In reality, that means it needs about 4 seats (mandatim). If a party gets less than that, it gets nothing, and it has no seats in the Knesset. And that's why small parties sometimes join together. Now, there are 120 seats in the Knesset, so to get a majority, a party needs 61 seats. An interesting thing is that in the whole history of Israel, no party has ever won 61 seats on its own. Never! So what does that mean? It means that after every election, parties have to join together to reach 61 seats. This group is called a coalition, and the parties outside the coalition are called the opposition. Finally, some easy words! So when Israelis vote, they don't directly choose the prime minister, but a party, and afterwards the parties negotiate. I'll explain how that works later on. OK, which parties can you vote for? This year there are 38 different parties, so I won't read them all out. But there are 3 words you'll hear again and again: yamin (right), smol (left) and merkaz (centre). On the right, the biggest party is the Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu. In the centre, one of the big parties is "Beyachad" (Together), led by Naftali Bennett, who joined forces with Yair Lapid. On the left there's "The Democrats", led by Yair Golan. On top of that, there are also parties that don't fit into these groups, for example the Haredi parties and the Arab parties, and there are many more like them. OK, let's go back to what happens on election day itself. Election day in Israel is a day off. By law, most people don't work, and anyone who does have to work usually gets paid more. So during the day you go to the kalpi, or "polling station" in English. The polling stations are usually in schools or community centres close to your home. They open at 7:00 in the morning and close at 22:00 at night. In total, there are 12,500 polling stations around the country. When you get to the polling station, you have to show your ID card, and then they give you an envelope. From there you go to the voting booth to vote. In the booth there's a tray with slips of paper. These slips are called petakim. On each slip there's a Hebrew letter or letters that represent one party. You take one of the slips and put it in the envelope. After that, you put the envelope in a box, and that's it. This box is also called a kalpi. And then at 22:00 at night, when the polling stations close, the votes are counted by hand. OK, sababa, so who can vote? All Israeli citizens aged 18 and over. This year that's about 7.3 million people. But there's another interesting thing, and it affects me directly. To vote, you have to be in Israel on election day. You can't vote by post, online, or at an embassy in another country. Only people who work abroad for the State of Israel, for example diplomats, can vote at an embassy. So what does that mean? If you're Israelis living abroad and you want to vote, you only have one option: fly to Israel. When I learned this, I thought it was interesting, because it's not like that in England, and there you can vote from abroad. OK, let's talk about what happens after the polling stations close. Of course, the first thing is to count the votes. But even after all the votes have been counted, we still don't know who the new prime minister will be. Like I said at the beginning, to this day no party has won 61 seats on its own. This is where things get interesting. The President chooses one candidate to form a new government. What's interesting is that the President can choose any member of the Knesset, and it doesn't have to be the head of the biggest party, but usually that's who they choose. The candidate has to negotiate with the heads of the other parties to build a coalition. The candidate has 28 days to form a coalition, and if they don't succeed, the President can give them another 14 days. If even after all that time they still haven't succeeded, the President will choose someone else for another 28 days. And if they don't succeed either, the Knesset can choose a candidate. And if after all of that there's still no coalition, the whole country goes back to vote again. This really happened between 2019 and 2022. Israelis voted in April 2019, but no coalition was formed, so they voted again in September, and once more a few months later. In total there were five elections between 2019 and 2022. But if the candidate does manage to form a coalition, they present the new government to the Knesset, and if the Knesset approves it, Israel has a new government. As you can probably tell, the whole process takes a long time, usually between 20 and 100 days. In the last decade, no government has been formed in less than 50 days. And so, the elections this year are on 27 October, but we might not know who the new prime minister is until a few weeks after that. That's all for today's episode. I hope you enjoyed it and learned something new about elections in Israel. How does it work in your country? Tell me! And as always, if you have ideas for topics for future episodes, you're welcome to write to me. You can send me a message through the website or comment here on the podcast. As always, you can find the words from the podcast, with examples, and also the transcript in English and in Hebrew, on my website. I'll put a link in the podcast description. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the podcast "Yalla: Learning Hebrew with Steph", and until next time, take care and keep learning.