Explainer: Israel’s political parties leading up to 2022 elections

On November 1, 2022, Israel will have its fifth election since 2019 after a series of coalition failures.

For an Explainer on how Israel’s parliament (Knesset) works: Click here

Israel’s political landscape has shifted since 2019. Here are the major players you need to know leading up to the fifth round of elections.

Likud 

Arguably Israel’s most prominent political party is the center-right to right-wing Likud party. 

Likud - meaning “The Consolidation” in Hebrew - is led by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The party was founded in 1973 as an alliance with several right-wing parties. Netanyahu has led the party for over a decade - from 1993 to 1999 and then from 2005 to the present. 

Likud has consistently emphasized the right of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. In the past, the party formally rejected the idea of a Palestinian state, but now, it does not explicitly rule out the concept. The party is more moderate on religion and state compared to its fellow right-wing parties, supporting the status quo. 

Netanyahu and his Likud party lead the “national camp” - a bloc of right-wing parties that has, since 1977, cooperated to form coalitions. 

Yesh Atid 

The centrist Yesh Atid - meaning “There is a future” - is led by former journalist Yair Lapid, formed in 2012 to represent the secular middle-class. 

Yesh Atid focuses primarily on civic, socio-economic, and governance issues. This includes government reform and ending military draft exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox.

Maintaining both free market and socially liberally tendencies, Yesh Atid has been called both "center-right" and "center-left." In 2013, the first election it participated in, the party joined a coalition with the right-wing Likud party.

Lapid listed eight political goals when submitting the application to the party registrar. These goals range from changing the country's national priorities, emphasizing civil life - areas such as education, housing, and health - to pursuits such as striving for peace with "two states for two peoples" while maintaining - but halting construction of - Israeli settlement blocs.

National Unity Party (Blue and White – New Hope)

In July 2022, two political parties merged: Benny Gantz’s center Blue and White and Gideon Sa’ar’s right-wing New Hope, forming National Unity. 

During the March 2019 campaign, the Blue and White platform focused on governmental corruption, including imposing term limits on the prime minister and several other pledges such as protecting Israel's Jewish identity and investing in education.

Previous pledges laid out by Lapid - when he was one of the party’s leaders along with Gantz - were abandoned by Gantz when he joined Netanyahu to form a coalition in 2020. Some of these ideas included a peace plan with the Palestinians. 

Sa'ar, a former Likud member, formed New Hope in 2020. New Hope also supports term limits, like Blue and White, and sees Israel as the nation-state for the Jewish people.

Listed among New Hope’s seven principles is the idea that Israel is a “Jewish and democratic state” and “rehabilitating the economy.” 

Religious Zionism / Otzma Yehudit 

The furthest right-wing mainstream party, Religious Zionism, is currently led by Bezalel Smotrich. 

Religious Zionism is opposed to territorial concessions, with some members supporting annexing the entire West Bank. The party is also opposed to recognizing same-sex marriage on a religious basis and advocates for increased funding for religious studies and education. 

Smotrich’s party and Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit faction overlap significantly ideologically, the two merging once again to run in the November elections. 

Ben-Gvir’s faction calls for a one-state solution, which includes annexing the West Bank. Otzma Yehudit aims to "deepen Jewish identity in students" and is against "freezing construction of Jewish settlements, releasing terrorists, or negotiating with the Palestinian Authority."

Religious Zionism - including Otzma Yehudit and several other far-right factions - is part of the right-wing national camp. 

Shas

Shas is an ultra-Orthodox religious political party in Israel, currently led by Aryeh Deri.

The party primarily represents Sephardic and Mizrahi ultra-Orthodox Jews and aims to work to end prejudice and discrimination against these communities. Unlike other ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas enjoys support from moderately religious Mizrahi Jews. 

Originally, Shas was more moderate on the Israel-Palestinian conflict but has moved further right-wing. The party now opposes any freeze on constructing Israeli settlements in the West Bank. 

Shas demands compensation packages for Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews who were forced to flee their home countries. The party is also anti-LGBT, especially against Pride parades in Jerusalem. However, it condemns violence against the LGBT community. 

Shas is currently part of the national camp. 

United Torah Judaism 

United Torah Judaism is an ultra-Orthodox religious political alliance consisting of Ahudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah, led by Yaakov Litzman and Moshe Gafni, respectively. 

Unlike similar religious parties, such as Shas, UTJ is non-Zionist and has no formal opinion on increasing settlements in the West Bank.

Agudat Yisrael - "Union of Israel" in Hebrew - maintains a Hasidic demographic, whereas Degel HaTorah - "Banner of the Torah" - has a non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodox demographic. 

The two split in 2004 before reuniting again in 2005. Although leading up to the November 2022 elections, there were rumors of the party splitting again over differences in beliefs regarding ultra-Orthodox education.

UTJ is a part of the Likud-led national camp. 

Joint List no more

The Joint List – an alliance of three out of Israel’s four Arab-majority political parties: Balad, Hadash, and Ta'al – announced in a surprise 11th-hour move that it would run in upcoming elections as two separate factions: Balad and Hadash-Ta'al.

Balad

Balad decided to walk back on its decision to re-enter the Joint List alliance, citing a dispute over rotating one of its spots on the slate with Ta'al and Hadash.

Sami Abu Shehadeh leads the left-wing and hardline Palestinian nationalist party, whose stated purpose is the "struggle to transform the state of Israel into a democracy for all its citizens, irrespective of national or ethnic identity."

It opposes the idea of Israel as a Jewish state and supports creating a new "binational" state.

Hadash-Ta'al

The far-left Hadash and center-left Ta'al parties stuck together amid the dismantling of the Joint List.

Ayman Odeh heads the Hadash faction (and led the Joint List overall) and Ahmad Tibi leads Ta'al.

Hadash leaders were among the first to support a two-state solution, with voters that are primarily middle-class and secular Arabs along with far-left Jewish voters. The party supports a socialist economy and the evacuation of all Israeli settlements.

The secular Ta'al party supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. It has not run independently since 1999, running with Ra'am three times over the past two decades.

Labor 

Israel’s Labor party, called HaAvoda in Hebrew, is a center-left party led by Merav Michaeli.

The party was established in 1968 by a merger of three center-left to left-wing parties. Until 1977, all Israeli Prime Ministers were affiliated with the Labor party.

Labor supports a mixed economy with strong social welfare programs, although it was initially founded as a democratic socialist party. 

On social issues, Labor supports same-sex marriage, the legalization of cannabis, advancing surrogacy rights for gay couples, and limited public transportation on Shabbat - the Jewish day of rest where transportation in Israel is limited, if not completely shut down.

Regarding the Palestinian issue, Labor supports a two-state solution and the creation of an independent, demilitarized Palestinian state - while supporting Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. 

Meretz

Meretz - meaning “vigor” - is Israel’s most prominent left-wing party, now led by Zehava Galon. It was formed prior to the 1992 Israeli legislative election by an alliance of three left-wing political parties.

The party identifies as social-democratic and secular. Meretz emphasizes peace between Israel and the Palestinians and freezing settlement construction in the West Bank. 

It also has LGBT rights and environmentalism as two of its stated principles, along with the separation of religion and state.

Leading up to the March 2020 elections, Meretz joined an alliance with Labor and the centrist Gesher party, which won seven seats, three of them held by Meretz.

Its time in the 2021-2022 coalition was the party’s first in a governing coalition in just under 20 years.

Ra’am 

Ra’am - also known as the United Arab List - is an Arab political party currently led by Mansour Abbas and the political wing of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel.

Once a part of the Joint List - leaving in the buildup to the 2021 elections - Ra'am was the first Arab party ever to join a governing coalition, the 36th government led by Naftali Bennet. While part of the coalition, the Ra’am was not part of the government, not maintaining any ministers in the Knesset. 

The party supports a two-state solution, creating a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza with east Jerusalem as its capital. It also aims to release Palestinian prisoners, and backs Palestinian refugees' right to return.

Ra’am also advocates for recognizing Israeli Arabs as a national minority, seeking to ensure their rights in a constitution.

Popular among the Bedouin in the Negev, 80 percent of its population voted for the party in the 2009 elections.

Yamina / Zionist Spirit / Jewish Home

Zionist Spirit, configured initially as the New Right and the Union of Right-Wing Parties, is an alliance of right-wing political parties led by Ayelet Shaked. 

Also known as Yamina - translating literally to “right” or “rightwards” - the party was led by former prime minister Naftali Bennett during his tenure as premier in the previous coalition. 

When Shaked led the party in 2019, she listed 11 principles that Yamina was determined to uphold. These principles include strengthening Israel's Jewish identity and the implementation of the Nation-State Law. 

According to the principles, Yamina believes in expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank and opposes any establishment of a Palestinian state.

In late July, Shaked announced a merger with Yoaz Hendel’s Derech Eretz party - which ran with New Hope in the previous election but was excluded when Sa’ar’s party merged with Blue and White - along with a brand new name: Zionist Spirit.

However, a mere 45 days laters, Hendel and Shaked announced their breakup, and that Zionist Spirit was no more. Shaked then agreed to lead the Jewish Home party, merging it with her Yamina party.