31 December 1973 1977 → 39.6% 51 Likud Menachem Begin Start date December 31, 1973 | Alignment Golda Meir 51 -5 30.2% 39 | |
The Elections for the eighth Knesset were held on 31 December 1973. Voter turnout was 78.6%. The election was postponed for two months because of the Yom Kippur War.
Contents
Results
1 Aryeh Eliav left the Alignment and merged with Ratz to form Ya'ad - Civil Rights Movement. The new party later broke up when Eliav and Marcia Freedman left to set up the Independent Socialist Faction, whilst Shulamit Aloni and Boaz Moav returned to Ratz.
2 Hillel Seidel defected from the Independent Liberals to Likud.
3 The Religious Torah Front broke up into Agudat Yisrael (three seats) and Poalei Agudat Yisrael (two seats).
4 Progress and Development and the Arab List for Bedouins and Villagers merged into the Alignment (with which they were already associated) before breaking away to form the United Arab List).
5 Mordechai Ben-Porat broke away from the Alignment and remained a single MK.
6 Mapam broke away from the Alignment but rejoined it soon after.
The Eighth Knesset
Golda Meir of the Alignment formed the sixteenth government on 10 March 1974, including the National Religious Party and the Independent Liberals in her coalition, with 22 ministers. Meir resigned on 11 April 1974 after the Agranat Commission had published its interim report on the Yom Kippur War.
The Alignment's Yitzhak Rabin formed the seventeenth government on 3 June 1974, including Ratz, the Independent Liberals, Progress and Development and the Arab List for Bedouins and Villagers. The new government had 19 ministers. The National Religious Party joined the coalition on 30 October and Ratz left on the 6 November, by which time there were 21 ministers.
The government resigned on 22 December 1976, after ministers of the National Religious Party were sacked because the party had abstained from voting on a motion of no confidence, which had been brought by Agudat Yisrael over a breach of the Sabbath on an Israeli Air Force base.