Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) across the country and in the disputed city of Jerusalem and are due to close at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT). Then will fall exit polls, followed by the first official results which could keep the Jewish state in suspense until a final count Thursday as this election seems uncertain.
For this proportional ballot, the 6.8 million registered voters have the choice between some forty lists which are mainly divided into two camps: that favorable to a return to power of the right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu, tried for corruption in a series of business, and the one wanting to maintain in business a young heterogeneous coalition led by the centrist Yair Lapid.
At 73, Mr. Netanyahu, the longest-lasting head of government in Israel’s history, is trying to rally a majority of 61 deputies, out of the 120 in Parliament, with his allies from the ultra-Orthodox and extreme parties. right which has the wind in its sails.
Facing him, Yaïr Lapid, 58, Prime Minister since July, leader of the Yesh Atid (“There is a future”) party and leader of a coalition unique in the history of Israel because it brings together left-wing formations, of the center, of the right and an Arab party, tries to convince that the course given in recent months must be maintained.
This “coalition for change” led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid ousted Benjamin Netanyahu from power in June 2021 before losing his majority in the chamber a year later, precipitating Tuesday’s poll, the fifth since spring 2019 in a divided country. politically which struggles to give birth to coalitions or to maintain them.
Proof of the ambient suspense, the latest polls credited Netanyahu’s “right bloc” with 60 seats, just one from the majority threshold, against 56 for Yair Lapid and his allies.
– The 3.25% threshold –
Mr. Lapid’s coalition lost its majority in Parliament with the departure of right-wing elected officials, prompting the government to call new elections.
If the campaign started slowly, it has accelerated in recent days with the parties trying everything to convince the last undecided and especially their base to go to the polls, especially in Arab cities.
In 2020, Arab Israeli parties reaped a record 15 seats after a vigorous campaign under one banner. But this time, they are running in dispersed order under three lists: Raam (moderate Islamist), Hadash-Taal (secular) and Balad (nationalist).
In the Israeli proportional system, an electoral list must obtain at least 3.25% of the votes to enter Parliament, thus having a minimum of four seats. Below this threshold, the parties have no MPs.
Divided, the Arab parties are therefore more at risk of not reaching this threshold and thus favoring the victory of the Netanyahu camp and his allies. “Without us, the right will form a majority government. To stop them, we need you”, launched in recent days Ahmed Tibi, one of the tenors of the Arab list Hadash-Ta’al.
– West Bank closed –
This election comes in a climate of tension in the occupied West Bank with two attacks carried out in recent days by Palestinians, one of which killed an Israeli civilian on Saturday evening in Hebron (south), a city hotbed of tensions around which and in which Israeli settlers live.
In the wake of a series of anti-Israeli attacks in the spring, the army carried out more than 2,000 raids in the West Bank, a territory occupied since 1967, notably in Jenin or Nablus (north). These operations, often interspersed with clashes, left more than 120 dead on the Palestinian side, the heaviest toll in seven years.
“We know that these elections will not bring a partner for peace, and despite this, we say to the international community that it must demand that the next Israeli Prime Minister commit to ending the occupation and to the conflict,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said Monday.
The Israeli army closes access points to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, except for “humanitarian” emergencies.
